Want to get from RPG to .NET without a lot of muss and fuss? You might be able to, now that Speedware is reselling and servicing Sykora-ML‘s ML-iMPACT code converter in the North American market. Skykor-ML claims the tool can convert 100 percent of RPG functions into fully maintainable C# or Java. That’s quite unusual and special for a code converter, according to Speedware officials, who have decades of experience in the IBM midrange and mainframe migration business.

The ML-iMPACT tool is one of the most advanced code converters that Speedware director of marketing Chris Koppe has ever seen.

Regulatory compliance, increased accountability, and providing audit-ability have tightened the screws on some otherwise sloppy corporate practices. It’s also put pressure on IT departments to take care of a lot of the messes. And once again, we have issues relating to monitoring multiple platforms in an effective manner. Moving a step closer to cracking this nut, Tripwire has added support for IBM i (formerly i5/OS and OS/400) to its change control software called Tripwire Enterprise.

Many organizations that have been wrestling with compliance issues looked first to the quickest way to compliance, which often took platform-specific approaches. Every silo had

When Southland Sod Farms decided to automate its fleet routing operations, the company knew that two years worth of coding mathematical algorithms and integrating various geographic tools were not in the plans. The order data needed for planning delivery routes was already in place on the AS/400. The goal was adding an optimization tool that would streamline route planning and reduce the miles and hours needed for making deliveries.

Among the options was Appian Logistics‘ Direct Route system. It became the choice partly because of its track record: two decades in the transportation business and more than 800 locations

Hope springs anew in the IT business. For the last five to 10 years, there’s been plenty of hope in the areas of software as a service (SaaS), open source software, service oriented architecture (SOA), CRM, and mobile computing, but it mostly failed to live up to the hype. Now, as a result of a partnership between iEnterprises and IBM, System i shops may gain access to advanced CRM software that utilize these technologies, without incurring the costs of building it themselves.

iEnterprises is a Murray Hill, New Jersey-based CRM software developer that was founded by John Carini, who

iWay Software last week announced the Enterprise Information Management (EIM) suite, a new product that aims at solving the disparate IT integrations tasks that are required to support standard batch-oriented reporting needs, which tend to be well defined, as well as real-time reporting requirements, which has a wider scope that varies according to need.

As a subsidiary of business intelligence (BI) software vendor Information Builders, iWay Software is accustomed to using its assortment of data integration tools in support of data warehouses and data marts. However, as the requirements for BI have evolved from the batch-oriented extract, transform, load

A group of vendors last week unveiled the Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP), a new encryption key management standard that they hope will solve some the interoperability problems surrounding encryption–namely, making it easier to retrieve encrypted data–which ultimately will lead to greater adoption of encryption. The companies intend to submit KMIP to the standards body Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for approval.

KMIP is designed to provide a single, comprehensive protocol for communication between enterprise key management services and encryption systems. It was originally formulated by Hewlett-Packard, IBM, RSA Security, and Thales (formerly

Times are tough for companies across the world. But one business that’s having the time of its life is business intelligence software vendor QlikTech. The Swedish-born American company and its products were recently given the top ranking by Aberdeen, which went like champagne with its caviar announcement that business in the United States increased by about 50 percent in 2008.

When Aberdeen recently published its findings about how the major business intelligence and performance management vendors stacked up across various customer-driven metrics, there was one company all alone at the top of the heap: QlikTech.

QlikTech was the

Lawson Software recently rolled out two new packages of business intelligence and performance management for users of its M3 suite of ERP products, which are typically deployed on IBM System i servers. The new offerings, M3 Analytics and M3 Analytics for Manufacturing, carry the promises of quick implementations and improved decision making for manufacturers and distributors.

The new M3 Analytics product contains about 70 pre-built key performance indicators (KPIs) and 50 scorecards for basic business processes encountered in manufacturing and distribution businesses, including sales, finance, procurement, and warehousing and logistics. Customers that choose the M3 Analytics for Manufacturing get additional

Open source integration tool developer XAware yesterday announced the general availability of version 5.3 of its eponymous integration toolset. Better support for Salesforce.com‘s on-demand CRM software and enhanced support for Web Service Description Language (WSDL) files headline the new offering.

XAware is a Java-based data integration tool suite that allows users to create reusable logic to move data among disparate systems, including the System i. The product, which plugs into the Eclipse development framework, promotes a high-level configuration-based approach to data integration that relies heavily on the reuse of components and the avoidance of low-level programming. It went open

IBM and its printing partner, Ricoh, last week unveiled three new models in the InfoPrint 5000 family of full color, continuous web printers. The new models feature double the speed and greater print data stream compatibility compared to previous models, which should be welcomed by the printer’s demanding customers.

Driven by the POWER processor architecture, the InfoPrint 5000 has defined IBM’s high-end printing solutions since it was unveiled. The platform was specifically designed for companies that place very high demands on their printing environment, such as service bureaus, direct mailers, and book printers.

With the introduction of the InfoPrint