Retail inventory management services through personal mobile devices

A system providing access to consolidated inventory management services through a personal mobile device, the system comprising:

• a plurality of data nodes, each data node hosting inventory-related data, each capable of providing a filtered set of its inventory-related data in response to an authenticated service request;
• an enterprise service bus comprising an external service bus component executing outside an internal firewall of a retailer-operated computing network, and an internal service bus component executing inside said internal firewall and comprising maps and registries;
• wherein the external service bus is configured to receive a service request from said personal mobile device, access a set of retailer defined authentication rules and apply the authentication rules in authenticating the service request, and enabling access to a private network based on the authentication;
• wherein the internal service bus is configured to access a set of retailer defined routing rules, and apply the routing rules in determining, based on the registries and addresses for the plurality of data nodes, a pre-determined one or more of the plurality of data nodes to which the service request is to be forwarded and providing the authenticated service request to the pre-determined one or more of said data nodes in accordance with the routing rules, the enterprise service bus further capable of acquiring said filtered set of inventory-related data and providing it to said personal mobile device;
• and
• a device application installed on the personal mobile device, wherein the device application is hosted on a native operating system of the personal mobile device, wherein product identification information is communicated to one or more data nodes in acquiring relevant information corresponding to the service request, and is executable by a user to provide a user interface for (a) sending said service request to the enterprise service bus and (b) presenting the filtered set of inventory-related data sent back through said enterprise service bus to said device in response to said service request.