Retailers that use the i OS-based Merchandise Management System (MMS) from JDA Software Group will soon have a new graphical user interface (GUI) option. The software giant previewed the new MMS GUI at its annual user group meeting, FOCUS 2009, held two weeks ago in Maryland, and plans to deliver the update next month. The tier-one developer of supply chain solutions also announced new labor management capabilities in its software.

Like nearly every major ERP software vendor that supports the IBM Power Systems (AS/400) platform, JDA is facing pressure from current customers and prospects to provide a user interface that’s

ARCAD Software CEO and Chairman Philippe Magne has been talking for more than a year about the importance of open systems and open software. Although indisputably IBM i oriented, Magne’s business compass is pointing the change management and application lifecycle management software company toward open systems. While the company’s current products require the IBM i to be in the mix, that requirement won’t always be true. The latest round of product enhancements indicates more moves in the open systems direction.

ARCAD’s application lifecycle management software has always been built around a single, central repository that resides on the IBM i.

Vision Solutions unveiled new releases of its iTERA HA and MIMIX HA products last month at the COMMON conference in Reno, Nevada. With the version 6 releases, Vision has concentrated on improving the installation and on-going management of the software, including improvements to the product’s auditing capabilities and more autonomics that improve the products’ capabilities to self-correct when errors are encountered.

While high availability products have been in use for decades, the HA product category can’t seem to overcome the stigma that the software is difficult to maintain, often requiring a full-time attendant to monitor and manage it. To that

Key Information Systems announced the general availability of the Smart i business intelligence (BI) appliance last month at the COMMON conference in Reno, Nevada. The company also previewed a new mobile version of Smart i that delivers BI reports on Google Android-supported handheld devices.

First unveiled last year, Key’s Smart i solution bundles IBM‘s DB2 Web Query and Talend‘s extract, transfer, and load (ETL) software on an IBM Power Systems server, along with installation services from Key and Systech Solutions. The aim of the product is to renew interest in the System i server as a good

JD Edwards got a little love from Oracle last week at the COLLABORATE 2009 conference in Orlando, Florida. First the software (and, now, with the acquisition of Sun hardware) giant announced a new release of World that includes new functionality for companies in project-driven industries. It also announced a new set of tools and technology for EnterpriseOne that brings certification with Oracle BI Applications, among other functionality.

The new release of JD Edwards World, version A9.2, includes several new capabilities designed to maximize cash flow in project-based industries, including a new “pay when paid” processing capability that helps keep money

Surround Technologies introduced a new development tool at the recent COMMON conference in Reno, Nevada, that delivers Windows, Web, or mobile interfaces for applications that run on the IBM i platform. Called Accelerator for .NET, the software generates Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight code, giving i OS shops with Windows development skills another way to modernize their 5250 green-screen interfaces.

Surround Technologies is a software development and consulting firm that has worked largely within the LANSA community for its 16-year history. In addition to LANSA consulting work, the New Jersey-based company has built a collection of programmer productivity tools

During the past 11 years, Midrange Performance Group‘s Performance Navigator has provided users of the IBM AS/400, iSeries, System i, and Power i with a ton of performance and capacity data that has been used to plan server consolidations, manage systems, improve performance, and increase workload efficiency.

In Version 14, Performance Navigator has been upgraded to support the latest IBM i hardware including the Power 6+ processor models, blade processors, SAS RAID disk controllers, and support for Solid State Disk. For the details on the Power 6+ IBM boxes, see New Power6+ Iron: The Feeds and Speeds and for

Want to see your stock rise? Just design some real-time Web reports, queries, and executive dashboards. Delivering IBM i information to the people who want it–when they want it and in the format they want it–could be very profitable for your career. Business Computer Design, Int’l, better known as BCD, has made some IT department heroes since introducing its query and reporting tool, Clover, in 2005. The latest enhancements to Clover are now available.

With Clover 1.6, which was announced at the COMMON 2009 Annual Meeting and Expo two weeks ago, BCD has added the capability to import query

Electronic documents and the paperless office make a lot of sense as companies focus on ways to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. Certainly there have been advancements in the technology and there have been success stories touting excellent return on investments. One area of advancement is document distribution, and one vendor with something new to say in this area is inFORM Decisions, a company that just introduced iDocs SmartRouter to its electronic documents suite of products.

SmartRouter was designed to improve the processing and distribution of individual spool file pages. It’s a standalone software module that offers testing and

New software license sales may be down across the board. But that’s not hurting business on Rimini Street, the provider of third-party maintenance and support for JD Edwards and other ERP suites. Last week at the Collaborate 2009 conference in Orlando, Florida, the company announced a quadrupling of JD Edwards-related business, and unveiled a plan to pump millions of dollars more into its JD Edwards business in the hopes of attracting more customers dissatisfied with Oracle‘s support.

With Oracle charging annual maintenance fees in mid to high 20 percent range, many JD Edwards shops with old and stable