Oz - Methods of External Access

As a self-contained turnkey system running the eComStation (eCS) Operating System, Oz is immune to all Windows viruses and network failures. This is a good thing.

eCS has an excellent, highly efficient networking system built-in which can handle file and printer sharing, communication and tcp/ip access with other eCS computers you might be running.

You can connect eCS computers and set them up as Oz "Clients" which have direct access to Oz programs and data. We call this "Direct Concurrent Access" because Users can run any Oz module (with proper security designation), and several eCS clients can be logged on and running concurrently.

But not everyone in your company has convenient access to computers running eCS. Most of your associates run Windows, some run Macs and others use Linux. Such diversity is also a good thing.

Sometimes you will want to access Oz data from external, non-Oz computers.

Examples of such access are:

Methods of Access

Oz comes with a variety of built-in methods and software which make it very easy to connect to Oz from any computer on your network and obtain the Maintenance information you need.

We define these methods as:

Browser-Oz Interactions

It is NOT necessary to have all your computers running eCS. In fact, we believe that would be undesirable.

You can interact with Oz using an ordinary Java-enabled browser, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, etc.

For example, If you want to create a new Work Order in Oz, you would bring up the "Active Work Orders" module, enter the appropriate information, then click the Oz [Add] button.

But we also provide a website of Oz interactive modules which you can invoke from any computer on your network, not just Oz computers. Work Order submission of a Maintenance Request is such a module. Here is an example of its usage.



Please note that this request is running on an ordinary browser (Mozilla). The user just fills in the appropriate data in the fields and clicks [Submit].

If the input is valid and the Requestor valid, a Work Order will be generated in Oz, just as if the user ran the Oz Active Work Orders module.

Browser Queries

You may wish to view information stored in Oz from any computer in your plant. Here are some examples:

Outstanding Work Orders



The user types a Requestor, then [Search]. The browser transmits a request to Oz to search the database for all open WOs for the user. Of course, this information can be printed from the browser.

Work History



The user types a Requestor, then [Search]. The browser transmits a request to Oz to search the database for all completed WOs for the user. Of course, this information can be printed from the browser.

Downtime Analysis



The user is given a screen consisting of Work Order fields: WO Number, Completion Date, Equipment Description, etc. The user fills in information for these fields then clicks [Search].

The system searches Oz Work History for Jobs which match the input information and have indicated Downtime. It counts the number of jobs and totals the Downtime incurred.

Critical Parts Availability between Plants



If you have multiple plants in several locations, and if you have a need to keep a supply of critical, but expensive parts available for possible emergency repairs, this capability might be extremely valuable to your company.

You can "look into" another plant's Parts Inventory for the part you need to see if they have it available. If so, you can ask to have it transferred to your plant. You don't have to order a new part on an emergency basis.

The above example shows an inquiry for a "Split System" a very expensive part.

Oz has the capability to perform such "browser queries" over a local, or company-wide network.

e-Mail Interactions

If your Oz system has access to the Internet (ask your IT Department to provide such access), you can set up a FREE Yahoo e-Mail account. Oz can produce standard and ad-hoc reports in HTML format. You can also produce CSV formatted files which can be imported and opened directly into most spreadsheets and databases.

These HTML and CSV files may be e-Mailed to your associates, giving them the Oz data that you have just produced in the format they want.

Oz can interact with your POP3 e-Mail systems.

Suppose you have 2 e-Mail accounts, call them A and B.

Requestors can send e-Mails to account A, requesting work to be done.

Oz continuously monitors account B.

Maintenance managers can check account A, and if a valid request appears in the Inbox, the manager can forward it, as a plain text message, to account B.

When Oz sees a message in account B, which it has been monitoring, it takes information from the e-mail "raw" message, validates it, and prepares a Work Order with the message included in the "Instructions" field of the Work order. Oz can print this Work Order or save it in the Active Work Orders files.

After generating a Work Order, Oz sends an e-Mail message to the Requestor stating that "Your Work request has been received and is being processed."

This e-Mail <==> WO technology is ideal for Property Managers, who may have a number of tenants who are not on the same network as the Property Management company, but have access to e-Mail systems and want timely response to their requests.

You might wonder why two accounts are required. Good Question.

There's a lot of SPAM out there. You don't want to be generating hundreds of Work Orders for V1@gra, or methods to increase the size of your ...

So it is assumed that account B is not a well-known account. You should never use it for ordinary e-mail, only as the recipient of messages forwarded from account A.

Oz also provides a series of validation algorithms to assure that only legitimate requests are processed into Work Orders.

Direct non-concurrent access

Oz comes with a program called "VNC Server." This program makes it extremely easy to connect to Oz and run it from another computer. This other computer may be Windows-based, MAC or Linux. "VNC Viewers" are available for these platforms as well as eCS systems.

This makes it possible to connect and run Oz from any computer on your network.

Thus, if say, you are in a meeting in the boss's office and (s)he wants to know about recent Downtime data, you can connect to Oz right from the boss's computer and display the results right there and then.

Or, if you are out of town and want to generate a special Work Order to repair a piece of Equipment before you return, and if you have remote access capability to your network, you can connect remotely and do what you have to do.

One caveat exists however, you can only connect one user at a time. If a user is connected and is running Oz, and a second user connects, the second user will displace the first user. For this reason, we call this method of access "Direct non-concurrent access."

In the event that VNC Viewers are not available, you can still connect and run Oz with an ordinary Java-enabled browser. (We have noticed some color distortion when using ordinary browsers in this manner.)

Of course, remote access via VNC is password-protected and it runs behind your company's firewall to provide a secure environment for remote access.

Virtual concurrent access

Virtualization is possibly the newest and most interesting technological development in modern computing. Oz takes advantage of this technology.

"Underneath" a main Oz system can be loaded several "Virtual" systems, each containing independent Oz clients which can connect to Oz on the "Main" systems just as if they were installed on separate physical machines.

Each of these virtual systems contains a VNC Server. This means that any computer running a VNC client, such as WinVNC, can connect to the Oz virtual client. Thus, in all relevant aspects, you can actually connect to and run Oz clients from your Windows machines. You can also connect from Macs, Linux or other eCS computers.

Alternately, an entire eCS system can be installed as a "virtual" operating system underneath your Windows, Mac or Linux platform. For example, you can install Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 on Windows XP Professional SP3. Then you can install a complete eCS system as a "guest" running under the "Host" Windows environment.

This gives the best of all possible worlds - full Oz Clients running on your existing Windows hardware.

We have also experimented with Macs using VMWare Fusion.

Both Windows and Mac hosts perform very well if the parent machines have sufficient RAM and high-speed (multi-core) processors which are available inexpensively today.