SmartZone Premier Capitalizes on Technological Innovations with its Intelligent Web Client (IWC)

Advancements in technology, and pioneering uses of those advancements have always lead the way to new and better methods of using and benefiting from computer and computer software applications. SmartZone Premier and its Intelligent Web Client (IWC) is a prime example of how an innovative company can successfully use new technology to improve the manner in which companies and their employees can benefit from technological advancements. More particularly, in this case, how a company can more efficiently and easily administer their Foreign-Trade Zone project.

The FTZ Corporation’s use of IWC in its SZP Foreign-Trade Zone Software meets its goal of allowing greater flexibility resulting in greater compliance and savings.

SmartZone Premier’s IWC uses advanced intelligence and caching to limit the number of Round-Trips to the server. This significant benefit the IWC offers can best be explained by discussing how a traditional web client works. Try going to any web page that displays a reasonable amount of data such as your bank’s web site, brokerage firm site, or other web page that displays data. Once you have gone to a page that is filled with data you wish to view, try to sort the data, or limit the results through any filtering it allows. Notice that with every mouse click you make to sort data or change screens or web forms, there is a time delay before the traditional web client refreshes the screen and web form, as well as an even longer delay to refresh how the data is displayed, filtered or updated. This delay happens as a result of each “click” you make causing the traditional thin client to send a message to the application server. The server then sends the updated screen layout (web form) back to your computer, and then to your screen. Each mouse click you make to sort data or update the screen sends a message across the internet. That message then goes to the application server at the data warehouse to process the message. The application server then sends the message back to your computer to update your screen. This is called a “round trip”. Some traditional thin client actions require multiple “Round Trips” for an action. The more Round Trips required by thin client applications, the slower the performance.

• Many factors affect how much time a Round Trip takes, such as the data transfer rate (bandwidth) the equipment (switches, type of wiring) distance between the client computer and the application server, the number of nodes (telephony switches) that the message passes through, the type of LAN and WAN, and how many processes and requests is the application server handling at any given time. The end result is that the number of Round Trips necessary directly affects how quickly your screen updates and you view the data you want.

In the case of SmartZone Premier, the Intelligent Web Client (IWC) offers 100% server side processing with the ease of deployment and distribution of updates, as does the traditional web client. However, the IWC also provides a tremendous set of advantages and functionality that traditional web clients simply can’t offer.

IWC’s superior user experience, functionality, and ease-of-use is hard to put into words. However, anyone that has used SmartZone Premier and the IWC realizes how significant the IWC advantages are to the end user. These advantages are particularly prevalent when managing your Foreign-Trade Zone. While words hardly do the IWC advancements and advantages justice, until you have a chance to take a first hand look at SmartZone Premier’s IWC, we have described a few of the key benefits below:

• The Intelligent Web Client (IWC) intelligently adjusts to bandwidth challenges (slow or poor internet connections).  The IWC constantly monitors bandwidth, and detects bandwidth limitations and challenges and intelligently makes adjustments to how data is handled and processed, such as intelligent web caching and paging, to maintain performance so bandwidth limitations become transparent to the user.

• IWC allows for integration with LDAP such as “Active Directory”.  This functionality allows the SmartZone Premier (SZP) user to login with their Microsoft Windows company username and password.  In fact, if an individual is already logged in to Windows, the user does not even have to enter a username or password.
  • This feature automatically enforces Corporate authentication/password policies
  • It prevents the SZP user from having to remember yet another username and password
  • It eases administration for the SZP application administrator by not having to assign and update usernames and passwords

• SmartZone Premier allows detailed customized permission levels.  SmartZone Premier allows for the SZP administrator to customize each user’s permission level down to each function, report, and process. These advanced permissions allow total control over access, and allows safer delegation of tasks.  Click here to learn more about the SmartZone Premier’s advanced permissions.

• SmartZone Premier offers higher encryption and security than even the National Security Administration.  SmartZone Premier’s IWC not only offers superior security with its authentication features, SZP offers superior data encryption.  While traditional web clients are generally limited to providing HTTPS encryption, SmartZone Premier offers not only HTTPS, but, AES, or even triple DES encryption.

• SmartZone Premier using IWC technology offers its robust advanced grid view system.  SZP with its IWC technology allows the user to access or create virtually any view of data.  SZP offers its state-of-the-art grid views that even the “technically challenged” can customize to view, search, organize, and even sum any data it wishes.
  • This ability to create views, searches, and even save them and distribute them throughout the company, leads to maximized Foreign-Trade Zone savings and compliance.
  • Click here to learn more about SZP’s advanced grid view, and see it in action

• SmartZone Premier allows amazingly easily customizable reports.  The advanced reporting provided by the IWC allows tremendous flexibility and ease-of-use when creating customized reports.  The SZP user can simply grab practically any data element or elements they would like to see in a report and drag it to the IWC report designer. The user then decides how it would like the report grouped, totaled, etc.  Like all data views and reports, the finished report may be saved so it can be run in the future by the user, or distributed to everyone in the company, if permissions allow.
  • This ability to create views, searches, and even save them and distribute them throughout the company, leads to maximized Foreign-Trade Zone savings and compliance.
  • Click here learn more about SZP’s advanced reporting, and see it in action.

• The IWC user interface allows the user to customize the look and feel of the entire web client.  This customization allows the user to view, access, and display the data they use and need most, in the format they appreciate.  This custom view allows for significant improvements in productivity. 

• Centralized Deployment
  • SZP and its IWC is easily deployed and accessed by any user with a Microsoft Windows client with no elevated permissions required.

• Server Side Processing
  • SmartZone Premier offers 100 percent server side processing to maximize performance over the Web, LAN, or WAN.

• Access SmartZone Premier from any Windows based computer

• With Centralized Deployment and Server Side Processing, launching and updating SmartZone Premier is easily managed