Jenny Thomas
-
Four Hundred Monitor, September 19
September 19, 2018 Jenny Thomas
One can never have too many champions, and the IBM i is no exception. IBM is once again looking for champions and there is no reason someone from our ecosystem isn’t deserving of the prize. If you know an “innovative thought leader in the technical community,” use the link below to nominate that person. One such person, who we cannot nominate because he is an IBM employee, is participating in a webinar today to discuss current state of the IBM i. You can find the link at the top of the calendar section below.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
… Read more -
Four Hundred Monitor, September 12
September 12, 2018 Jenny Thomas
Some acts are hard to follow. Sometimes you don’t even want to try. I find myself in that position today as I attempt to step in to the shoes of really one of the very best people, not just in our little ecosystem, but in the world. If I had it my way, Dan Burger would be writing Monitor, like he has from the day we launched it, and I would be looking forward to our weekly exchange when he passed it on to me for a light edit before we shared it with the IBM i world. We lost …
Read more -
Manta Continues To Take The IBM i To School
August 18, 2014 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreAfter 25-plus years, it might be surprising to some that there are still new things to be learn on the IBM i platform. But to Bill Hansen, president of Manta Technologies, continuing to learn about IBM i is just good business.
Hansen created his first computer-based training courses for IBM systems in 1985, eventually turning his focus to the AS/400 marketplace when he launched Manta in 1994. There are already an impressive 117 courses currently in Manta’s training catalog, but Hansen believes there’s always room for more.
“We always had a rule that first we were going to cover
-
Better Worldwide IT Spending Ahead, Predicts IDC
December 2, 2013 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreIn the United States, the day after Thanksgiving, dubbed Black Friday by retailers, marks the beginning of a spending frenzy as the year winds down and people begin to panic about getting ready for the holidays. It is the last chance for retailers to grab those consumer dollars and hopefully end the year with cash in the till.
The IT market has been in desperate need of a cash influx in 2013 as overall tech spending is on course to increase by 4 percent this year at constant currency, reaching $2.04 trillion, but down from last year’s growth of 5
-
October News Grim For IT Jobs Prospects
November 18, 2013 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreDepending on who you ask, the jobs report for October was good news or another in a long line of disappointments. With the federal shutdown and all the government shenanigans, last month was a crazy time and most economists didn’t have much hope for job growth. But in the end, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 204,000 new jobs across a wide spectrum of industries in October.
But when you talk to Victor Janulaitis, the CEO of Janco Associates who makes it his business to stay on top of trends in the IT ecosystem, the latest BLS data paints
-
Chaos Creates Living Hell For Workers
November 18, 2013 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreCrushing deadlines, never-ending overtime, agonizing interruptions and broken processes, and famine of recognition and purpose. No, we’re not talking about the seventh level of hell, we’re talking about your job.
Hopefully, this doesn’t sound like a familiar scenario to you, but according to an enterprise work management survey conducted by AtTask, a large percentage of workers do compare their job to a living hell.
It seems obvious that not every job would leave workers feeling fulfilled and rewarded, but it is a little surprising to learn how the daily grind of avoidable work issues and interruptions wear down employees,
-
Silver Surfers Shredding Up The Technology Market
November 11, 2013 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreIn surfer lingo, to shred a wave means to surf aggressively. And while “aggressive” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when many of us think of our silver-haired elders, according to researchers at Gartner, the older generations who are hanging ten all over the technology market. In fact, Gartner says these silver surfers represent a more important technology market than Generations X and Y.
That term, silver surfer, harkens back to the Marvel Comics superhero, of course, and the members of this elder group of Web users also have powers of their own. Gartner’s research reveals that overlooking
-
Big Data Means Big Growth For Microsoft And SAP
November 4, 2013 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreJust like companies using other platforms, big data is nothing new to IBM i shops, who are also struggling to keep up with their growing volume of data. This was demonstrated by the enhancements Big Blue promises to deliver this month with IBM i 7.1 Technology Refresh 7 (TR7), which we told you about last month in The Four Hundred.
So when IDC released the latest results from its Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker on enterprise software growth, we were not surprised to see that big data played a role in determining which companies saw growth in the first six
-
Nothing Funny About Latest IT Jobs Numbers
October 28, 2013 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreThe economy added 148,000 jobs last month. Of course, all those people were hired to fix the Obamacare website.
Funny, yes, but if only Jimmy Fallon’s recent Tweet on the latest job report were true, at least for our little sector of the world. The sad truth is the IT job market has been trending in the wrong direction and the September numbers marked the third month in a row of a slowdown in the creation of new IT jobs.
The folks at Janco Associates watch the IT jobs market very closely and release their analysis of the national numbers
-
Successful CIOs Have Machiavellian Tendencies, Says New E-Book
October 21, 2013 Jenny Thomas
… Read moreCunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics or advancing one’s career. These aren’t the skills you’d expect to see listed on the average resume, but if you’re looking to rise to the top, especially if you’re gunning for a CIO spot, maybe they should be.
A new e-book from Gartner vice president and fellow, Tina Nunno, takes a look at some new leadership styles for CIOs and IT leaders that can help ensure their own success and that of their teams.
The Wolf in CIO’s Clothing: A Machiavellian Strategy for Successful IT Leadership examines the role of CIOs, who are