Mashups use the ThingWorx Converge platform most effectively by using the Resource Manager to access data from other back-end systems. The Resource Manager allows different back-end systems to be installed or removed without affecting the mashup bindings using resource providers.

When using the Resource Manager, it is recommended that services used by the mashup be wrapped in a custom service. A custom service can declare a custom data shape to be returned, which is necessary for most UI widgets. This data shape name should also be passed into all of the Resource Manager service calls to limit the amount of data returned for each resource.

A custom service can also make multiple calls to the Resource Manager, or hide details regarding which resources to find and relationships to navigate. It is possible to use the Resource Manager directly by hard-coding the input bindings using the input parameter panel in the bottom-right corner of the mashup in the ThingWorx Composer. However, the resulting InfoTable will not include a data shape, and this limits where returned data can be used. An example of a custom service in ThingWorx Converge is the PTC.Resource.CRM.CustomerManagementUtils thing.