Dan Burger
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Profound Hires Guru Editor; Begins IBM i Internship Program
August 31, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreProfound Logic Software, one of the leading IBM i vendors in the application modernization field, has hired Ted Holt, editor of our Four Hundred Guru newsletter. Holt is well known in the IBM midrange community for his knowledge of the platform, advocacy for IBM i education, and his contributions as a writer and speaker. His position at Profound will be senior software developer. He will continue as editor of Four Hundred Guru.
In his new role at Profound, Holt will contribute to the development of new and existing products. The company’s graphical user interface suite, known as Profound
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BI On IBM i: A Fish Out Of Water
August 17, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreA fish discovers it needs water when it is no longer in it. A business discovers it needs data when it can’t get it. Or, in many cases, it can’t get the data it wants, when it’s wanted, and how it’s wanted. In the IBM midrange, the term “operational reporting” has been around forever. Because we have a habit of changing the names of old things to make them sound new, the term “business intelligence” is more favored. What matters is getting information in a timely manner and in a friendly format.
The underlying infrastructure doesn’t matter. Operational reporting is
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Mobile Apps And The IBM i Fear Factory
August 17, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read more“It can seem scary when you look at all the different mobile devices and wonder how to develop something that works for everything.” Those are the words of mobile application developer Nick Hampson. Fear of the unknown is a powerful preventative. It’s not a happy place, especially if your job is to create mobile business applications for an IBM i-centric organization. Rid yourself of this anxiety right away.
“I think the real stumbling block for IBM i people–if they are coming from SEU and PDM–is that there are completely new skills. It’s quite muddy for people to see. I talk
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Lack Of Awareness Plagues Free-Form RPG
August 10, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreHow could IBM be more successful with IBM i? How about this novel idea: product promotion. For all the money it spends on product development, IBM fails to expand the IBM i market because product awareness remains low. This discussion could go in a lot of different directions, but for today let’s make the focus free-form RPG. This is one of the top IBM i enhancements in recent memory. Why isn’t the IBM i community aware of it?
Beginning with IBM i 7.1, RPG IV coders gained the capability to do completely free-form programs. The benefit of free-form calcs had
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Compliance Leads Small Shops To Online Backup
August 10, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreSmall IBM i shops often wrestle with the same demons and dragons as enterprise-class businesses. The rules are the same and size does not matter when the opponent is regulatory compliance and privacy laws. There’s no leniency when it comes to data security. Because of this, many small shops are examining their tape backup policies, often devised with no thought toward security, and taking a look at online backup options.
Data protection comes down to getting the data encrypted and then stored at an off-site, secure location. Without a mandate to protect the personal information collected, data handling would not
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IBM i Strategist Sets Priorities, Balances Resources
July 27, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM is a company with a boatload of resources. How those resources are applied to its large and prosperous IBM i market segment is a topic that we like to discuss from the perspective of you can’t do enough for IBM i and, by the way, we think you are doing too little. Chief architect for IBM i, Steve Will, bristles at the accusation. IBM i strategy is his domain. Resource allocation is his tight rope to walk.
One of those resources is of the human variety. People and teams that take the ideas and turn them into innovations that
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Legacy ERP Conversion Under Way At Dietz & Watson
July 27, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreLegacy ERP Conversion Under Way At Dietz & Watson
When an ERP system becomes a drag on business efficiency, it’s time to make a change. Inefficiencies increase costs and get in the way of expanding production and customer bases. An ERP system, particularly those that are 20-something years old and of the home-grown variety, are seldom equipped for modern business demands. What’s the strategy for companies facing this dilemma? Keeping a lid on costs and disruption are priorities and understanding what works for your company cannot be sacrificed for a one-size-fits-all solution.
Dietz & Watson has taken that step. The
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IBM i 6.1 Upgrades: What’s In Your Box?
July 15, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreWith IBM’s official end of support for the IBM i 6.1 operating system coming up at the end of September, it’s natural to wonder what effect this will have on the IBM i community. It’s not exactly a long walk off a short pier for those organizations using 6.1 as their primary OS. The upgrade is uncomplicated. IBM has an extended support plan for the undecided. But what about the unsupported?
The winding down of 6.1 is certainly not going to stir up things like when this release was the freshest rose in the garden and support for V5R4 was
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LANSA Guides Mobile, Portal, Integration Project To Success
July 13, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe proving ground for significant IT projects is far less about speed than it is about endurance. And when you can hear about a project that was completed, it’s so much more interesting than listening to a sales pitch for technology that can take you someplace that no one has yet to travel and may be a place no sane person wants to go. Tried and tested beats new and full of promise for a lot of people despite the drumbeating that is designed to defeat anything that adheres to a slow-growth philosophy.
This story is about a six-year-old project.
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IBM i Access Turns Its Attention To Database
July 13, 2015 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt’s been just about two years since IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) was introduced. IBM didn’t make a lot of noise about it. Maybe that’s because IBM doesn’t market products. It markets ideas. On the other hand, it might be because ACS delivered system administration with navigation features that most people have been working with for 10 to 15 years–features such as the capabilities to drag and drop, scroll down a page, and use a mouse instead of F keys.
IBM i Access Client Solutions is a replacement for the severely haggard iAccess for Windows, a product with thousands