Big Blue Working On Replacement For Global Solutions Directory For IBM i

July 8, 2024 Alex Woodie

IBM is developing a website to replace the Global Solutions Directory, which it recently killed off. The new site should allow customers to search through a comprehensive list of IBM i applications serving specific industries, just like they could with the Global Solutions Directory.

For years, IBM’s Global Solutions Directory served as the go-to mechanism for researching the wide breadth of IBM i software products available around the world. If you needed to know what kind of banking solutions existed on IBM i version 6.1 for midsized American credit unions, or what the market looked like for Indonesian construction equipment rental companies, the GSD was your go-to place.

Then one day, IBM abruptly canceled the GSD. The company didn’t make any announcement about it, but it seems likely the move was made in concert with the closing of the company’s primary business partner program, PartnerWorld, which was replaced with its new program, Partner Plus, in early 2023.

IBM i customers let the folks running the IBM i marketing machine know that they missed the GSD and the information it provided.

“Since the Global Solutions Directory was sunset, we get this question frequently: Where do I find solutions that run on IBM i?” Brandon Pederson, the IBM i and Power product marketing manager for IBM, said during IBM i “Guided Tour” webinar on the IBM i Ecosystem hosted June 26.

“[They say] ‘I’m a trucking transportation provider. I need a solution for IBM i’ or ‘I’m a distributor. I need a warehouse management solution that runs on IBM i. Where do I find a list of those?’” Pederson said.

A screenshot of the replacement for the Global Solutions Directory that IBM is developing.

Those questions got Pederson thinking: What can we do to address this issue and fill the information gap? “The big question is now what? The Solution Directory has been sunset for many reasons. What should we do?” he said.

Following the COMMON POWERUp 2024 conference in Fort Worth, Texas, Pederson started working on a new project to replace the GSD. He started gathering all the information he could find about the independent software vendors (ISVs) and the IBM i solutions they have developed. He entered the information into a spreadsheet, which he shared a screenshot of during the IBM i Guided Tour (you can see a replay of the IBM i Guided Tour here).

“I put together a spreadsheet of every solution, every company, ISV solution that I know of that runs on IBM i, that has a solution for IBM i, or at least had a solution for IBM i at one point,” he said. “Full disclosure, this is the best data we have . . . As you all know, the software industry is very dynamic and can change. A lot of acquisitions. A lot of mergers. But this is the best data that I had at my disposal to put this together.”

The IBM i solution data gathered by Pederson is currently being entered into a database, which will power a new website that will be accessible to the public. Pederson didn’t have a timeline as to when that might happen, but he did say it would likely be on the “Power ISV resource center.”

“Look for this in the near future online in a database on the ISV resource center,” he said.

The information gap created by the end of the GSD is indicative of the headwinds IBM is facing when it comes to maintaining relationships with application vendors, which have historically played an important role in the ecosystem for the IBM i server and its predecessors.

Since the Application System/400 (AS/400) was launched back in 1988, pre-packaged applications from ISVs have been a mainstay of the platform. Software like JD Edwards World, Manhattan Associates PKMS, and Jack Henry Silverlake were adopted by tens of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, and banks, respectively, and drove billions of dollars in hardware sales for Big Blue.

But in recent years, this one-time strength has eroded, as ISVs have become less active and less visible on the platform.

For starters, the ISV Advisory Council, one of the industry groups that has a close relationship with IBM and the power to make technical recommendations, is made up almost entirely of ISVs who develop tools and utilities, as opposed to applications. Similarly, the vendor expos at conferences like POWERUp are also attended almost exclusively by the tool and utility vendors.

“We need to do more to recruit different ISVs to the ISV Advisory Council,” IBM Vice President and Business Line Executive Steve Sibley told IT Jungle during a discussion at POWERUp in Texas. “It’s good, but it’s mainly kind of the tools guys. Not designed that way, but that’s kind of what it’s evolved to.”

Excitement for the IBM i platform itself appears to be waning among the application vendor crowd. Many of the platforms top ISVs, including Oracle (JD Edwards), SAP, and Infor, have announced the end of support for their popular IBM i applications.

Even Jack Henry, the Missouri-based banking stalwart of the platform, is currently executing on a long-term plan to eventually “modernize” its RPG-based IBM i applications as collections of microservices running in containerized cloud, none of which will be based on IBM i.

Gina King, IBM’s director of strategic alliances and software partnerships, pushed back on Jack Henry’s long-term IBM i plans during the discussion at POWERUp. “I think the Jack Henry partnership is stronger than it’s ever been,” she said.

King said that her office is “doubling down” on expanding outreach to ISVs. “Those workloads are what drives consumption on IBM i and it pulls the tool providers along,” she said. “That’s why we’ve doubled down.”

King and Sibley said they hope IBM’s messaging around cloud and AI will entice application vendors to invest more in their partnership with IBM.

This Issue Sponsored By

Table of Contents

Content archive

Recent Posts

Subscribe

Pages

Search