Making sense of i OS spooled file output can be an exercise in technical aptitude and patience. Lines wrap, words overlap, and obscure abbreviations can make trying to read a report a challenge. To address this situation, DRV Technologies, a developer of electronic forms and spool file distribution tools for i system, recently introduced a new product called ReportFlex that acts as a converter to make native spooled file output more readable to the average person.

You probably know DRV Technologies best for SpoolFlex, the spool file distribution tool used by hundreds of i, i5/OS, and OS/400 shops. SpoolFlex

In addition to putting itself up for sale last week, Agilysys introduced three new software applications aimed at driving more efficiency into hospitality operations. A new release of its i OS-based Lodging Management System (LMS) introduces a GUI, among other features, while the first beta site for Guest 360, a new product designed to augment LMS, was also announced. Lastly, Agilysys unveiled Hospitality Analytics, which introduces online analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities for use with procurement and POS offerings.

i OS-based business applications from Agilysys have been used to manage some of the largest resorts on the planet, including the new

It will be easier for software development teams that use the Subversion open source software configuration management (SCM) product to keep track of their projects with Subversion 1.5, which was released last week. CollabNet, the online community that backs development of Subversion, says new features like merge tracking, interactive conflict resolution, and improved read performance make Subversion 1.5 the most significant release in the last four years.

Subversion began in 2000 as a project to develop an open source version control and SCM tool to speed development and reduce cost and complexity for distributed groups of programmers. CollabNet, the

Simplicity is the number-one benefit of software as a service (SaaS) applications, like the popular NetSuite ERP offering. However, when users need to integrate their old applications with their new SaaS stuff, it can require complex coding, thereby hurting the SaaS value proposition. Cast Iron Systems today announced a new integration appliance that promises to alleviate the pain of connecting NetSuite installations with other SaaS apps or on-premise software, such as JD Edwards and Salesforce.

Organizations that don’t want to deal with the complexity of low-level API programming to combine two or more applications can turn to Cast Iron

A side effect of employing virtualization software to cram multiple virtual servers into a single physical server is a lack of visibility into what’s happening inside those virtual environments, which can lead to downtime. This is creating an opportunity for a new class of systems monitoring and management software vendors to make names for themselves. One of those vendors, uptime software, recently updated its software to provide more sophisticated SLA and transaction monitoring, as well as support for IBM‘s POWER 6 virtual environment.

From its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, uptime software (the company uses all lower case letters

Quadrant Software last week announced a new release of its FastFax software, version 4.7.4, which brings support for i 6.1 (formerly i5/OS V6R1), among other new features, such as improved support for IBM Domino and Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers, easier configuration, and faster recovery from network outages.

Quadrant’s FastFax suite of products enable users to distribute i5/OS spool file output as either a fax or an e-mail, and also allows users to receive faxes and manage them from their favorite e-mail environment. The offering includes a “black box” fax processor that hooks fax cards into the network (fax workloads are

The TrustedLink EDI offerings from Inovis have been re-certified to work with SAP ERP applications and its NetWeaver middleware framework, the Atlanta, Georgia, company announced last week.

Inovis has a long but winding claim to the IBM AS/400 (now Power Systems) marketplace for EDI software. About 20 years ago, a company by the name of Premenos started developing EDI translators for OS/400. Premenos was acquired by Harbinger in 1997 for $200 million; Harbinger was acquired by Peregrine Systems for the eye-popping sum of $2 billion in June 2000; and, following the accounting scandal at Peregrine and the resulting implosion, three

An implementation of Vertical Solutions‘ PowerHelp service management software has garnered an award for A. O. Smith Water Products Company. The capability to pull information from multiple data sources, including an i5/OS-based server, enabled the manufacturer to dramatically boost the efficiency of its call center.

Based in Ashland City, Tennessee, A. O. Smith Water Products Company manufactures several brands of gas and electric water heaters for commercial and residential use. The company, which is a division of the publicly traded A.O. Smith Corp. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, runs ERP software from Logility on its i5/OS server, as well as replenishment

The English insurance company BGL Group has deployed SolarWinds‘ systems management software, called Orion, to help the company keep on top of its global IT network.

BGL Group is a privately held company that was founded in 1992 and is made up of six subsidiaries spanning life and home insurance, competitive insurance pricing Web sites, and claims and loss-recovery operations. Today, the company insures more than two million people and employs more than 2,255 people, making it one of Britain’s largest insurance companies.

With plans to grow the company by more than 50 percent by 2009, BGL would have

Total shipments of LTO drives increased 15 percent last year compared to 2006 and accounted for more than $883 million in sales, according to recent data released by IDC. The solid year of sales boosted LTO’s lead over other competing tape technologies, although 2007 was a good year for all midrange technologies, according to the group.

The LTO Consortium was founded in 2000 when IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Seagate Technology‘s Certance division partnered on the first generation of LTO gear. IBM, HP, and Quantum (which acquired Certance in 2005), pushed the capacity and the speed of LTO