A Mobile-based Monitoring System for Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with Offline Data Synchronization

Objectives: The use of technology has become ubiquitous in different areas of businesses and plays a significant role in gathering huge amount of data. In Philippines, for example, a government agency, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is entrusted with a project to assist and monitor the status of Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), some of which are located in rural or remote places. There are number of approaches that are able to address registration and monitoring of clients or business establishments records through mobile-based application. However, there may be times that poor connectivity or no network connectivity is experienced with LTE or wi-fi network. Hence, one of the major challenges in dealing with mobile computing is on how to provide the clients with the same user experience even when there are some issues on connectivity. In this study, we developed a mobile-based application that may significantly improve the process whereby clients or users have the chance to access data that is stored in a stationary database or some other data repository at any time and any place. Methods: We introduce an innovative approach for efficient tracking and monitoring data leveraging the strength of data synchronization and replication. A mobile-based platform using a centralized database was designed and developed to facilitate quick registration of clients and easy portfolio monitoring of the business establishments. Application: The mobile-based system is an application that runs through android platform necessary for MSMEs’ efficient registration and monitoring purposes whereby users in remote areas are provided with the same user experience despite issues on connectivity (i.e. from “poor” to “no network” connectivity). We deployed the system in the Department of Industry (DTI) provincial office, which covers thousands of MSMEs. Findings: Experiments reveal that our approach provides effective results, which gains high acceptability of the users. Keywords: Agile Approach, Agile Software Development Method, Context Diagram, Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME), Mobile-based Application, Monitoring System, Offline Data Synchronization