This is the normal situation. Everybody has IT in place already.

You can use NateoOrb very well in parallel to your existing IT, even if these are big ERP systems or whatever else software you use in your domain. Where necessary, we will interface them, but other than that NateoOrb just covers what it is meant for.

And while it is normal, that IT departments are reluctant to add yet another system, the good thing about NateoOrb is that it is optimized for treating your IT department's bandwidth with utmost respect: No need for software installation / configuration / administration.

Still, we need to acknowledge that there is some effort to keep things running: Maintenance of basic data (adding / removing users, configuring info about machines, materials, etc.) as well as helping users with browsers, mobile devices, network access. No system can ever spare the tech guys completely. But again - NateoOrb is good at keeping it at bay and after all it is a system made to save time.

Shop floor staff will use mobile devices (tablets, phones - company owned or personal). Network coverage is mandatory.

Users with PC access can use desktop browsers with access to the internet.

In case of data exchange with your existing IT (e.g. about orders, materials, QA, etc.), access is needed.
Often this is much easier than expected: Excel import / export, text formats or even the clipboard can do the job, even if there is no official IT interface.

QR codes are marvelous. You can print them right out of NateoOrb if you have a printer (Laser, ink, etc.).

NateoOrb is a shop floor management system that can be simple and that can be complex - depending on your application scenario.

So, no definite answer here, but your application scenario is exactly what we will discuss in our consultation. Together we will quickly work out, how NateoOrb will serve you in the best way.

Please do not hesitate - your specific answer to this question is in reach:  Book consultation

The technical preparations are done in minutes: Just bookmark the NateoOrb link in browsers, install the app on smart devices and register users.

But as you can imagine, this is just the start, and depending on what you want to do, there is some ground work to do:

For example, assume you want to do material management with NateoOrb: You will need to put together material lists for us to upload into NateoOrb. You will need to stick tons of QR codes to as many material shelves and boxes as you have. You will define material management forms and monthly reports which we will implement for you. You might want to install a big screen to display a dash board in production.

All of this comes over time and should not scare you off. In our experience, it is a few hours to about two days of net work for clients to get their first NateoOrb functions up and running. And up from there it will be a downhill hike as you build up routine and things tend to repeat.

Absolutely!

Let's craft an example of utmost simplicity: A farmer wants nothing else than count the eggs he gets from his chicken: Once per day, he wants to click on his mobile, enter the number of eggs he gathered, and at the end of each month he wants to receive a statistics report in his email inbox. NateoOrb is perfect for him.

And if years later this farmer has 50 employees, everybody using NateoOrb to manage his entire farm - also fine, NateoOrb will help him thrive.

We encounter many data sources that do not have connectivity to the internet. Let us think of a typical example:

A machine in your production runs automatically 24/7, and if a problem occurs, it writes a local error log file. But there is no internet connectivity.

Here a powerful optional component of NateoOrb comes into play: The NateoOrb Agent. This is a service program we provide that can be installed in your local network and runs routines made specifically for your setup. This Agent helps gathering information from local data sources and forwards them into the cloud via regular HTTPS calls (like a browser).

This Agent would parse the error log files, and forward relevant error info to the cloud. From there a push notification would be sent to your phone, and you would be informed seconds after the problem occoured.

And of course it is up to you to define any kind of reaction on any kind of machine status: Push notifications, emails, data exports - whatever needed.

Yes, this is another smart feature of NateoOrb!

Assume you want an external contractor to test samples of your products and enter the results into a web form for quick information return.

Solution: Stick an encrypted NateoOrb QR code onto the sample before sending it to the contractor. He can scan this code and will be guided to a form that takes the test results - without prior installation of an app or anything.

It is up to you, whether anybody shall be able to fill in this report or whether people have to register beforehand to prevent misuse. In any case there is no need to install anything.

This is how your external contractor can contribute to your information flows without effort.

You do not need to learn much about creating and modifying features. Our application specialists will do this for you.

NateoOrb separates you from all the hassles of building and configuring forms, workflows, menus, statistics, dash boards and so on. Our specialists are efficient enough to do this for you even though our monthly fees are lower than that of most other comparable systems.

In our experience, people typically cause more problems when using overly complex configuration tools instead of simply defining their needs. And the complexity is undeniably there, so we better handle it on our end while you save your time to focus on your business.

NateoOrb is a hands-free system. But still there are things to maintain like users, machines, materials, orders, etc. - depending on your application scenario. And such information needs to be kept up to date.

Here you will get appropriate functionality to add, remove and modify information as needed.

In these terms, NateoOrb is just like any other system on the market, except that you get the administration features the way you define them instead of being urged to follow a system's regime.

NateoOrb is a system that does exactly what you need and that integrates well with your existing IT.

Other systems can do this, too. But either you will have to configure and parameterize them by yourself (which is a tough learning curve). Or you get a vast all-in-one solution, that will be set up for you per your definition. But that is expensive, modifications take long and cost even more.

With NateoOrb in contrast, your workflows are being programmed into your individual cloud in native programming languages by our experts.

This sounds complicated but in fact it is faster and more flexible because native languages are much more capable as any configuration language. Our experts are trained on this and can implement your procedures much quicker than you could ever do it by yourself.

Plus: In industries, data management always ends up in specific algorithms, as your machines and IT will generate a specific type of data. So, programming will be inevitable anyway at a certain point. For us, this all comes the same way, and we can always utilize the full power of software development.

Our customer's NateoOrb instances are all hosted on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft does a lot to keep Azure secure and avoid unwanted access.

And of course, the communication with the cloud is encrypted via TLS as any https web access.

But on top of that, we do a lot to keep your data secure, and one important aspect is to limit the use of data to the necessary minimum.
For example, instead of transferring material names in clear text, an ID that identifies the material is sufficient. No external party can make no use of that ID.

The actors within the NateoOrb space are rather endpoints (phones, sensors, entities of any kind) than persons. If you want to avoid putting peoples' real names to the database, then this is no problem.

QR-Codes and NFC tags are encrypted, too, to prevent misuse. And they contain a serial number, so we can deactivate every single QR-code in the system, if it is accidentally broadcasted to the public.

Yes.

NateoOrb is a typical cloud system. As long as you have either cell phone coverage or local network access / Wi-Fi, you are fine.

Beyond that, there are also means for offline usage in cases where there is no network available.

No, the typical browsers, PCs, and mobile devices are just fine, no matter the brand.

The NateoOrb app works on older devices as well.

A few access rights need to be granted to the app, like the use of the microphone for voice commands, the camera for scanning codes, the NFC reader if you want to work with NFC tags.