• Slashdot Flamefest Pits the iSeries Against Windows

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you have some time and you want to see what the open source intelligentsia–and I use that latter word somewhat sarcastically– is thinking about the iSeries and how it stacks up against Windows, you might want to check out this posting on the Slashdot Web site. A Slashdot reader called Rabid Cougar explained that he is a system admin for a small manufacturing company that has an ERP system that runs on an IBM AS/400, but that this ERP system is out of gas and needs to be upgraded. Rabid Cougar asked the Slashdot community what they would do:

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• Vision Solutions Appoints New Executive VP of Sales and Marketing

  January 23, 2006 Dan Burger

  Vision Solutions, one of the familiar names in iSeries high availability software, has appointed Norm Williams to the position of executive vice president of sales and marketing. Williams is taking on these responsibilities after a five-month stint as a sales, marketing, and strategic directions consultant to Vision Solutions. Although Williams is new to the IBM world, where Vision Solutions is a premier business partner, Alan Arnold, the president and chief operating officer at the company, says he has known Williams through professional organizations for several years and is impressed with his abilities–particularly his skill at starting up, building, and

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• Agilysys Opens Innovation Center for IBM Wares in New York City

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you are a company using iSeries applications or a reseller that tries to peddle them in the New York City metropolitan area, be glad you don’t have to pay the rent on this one. Cleveland-based Agilysys last week has announced the grand opening of its Business Partner Innovation Center in the heart of New York–at Five Penn Plaza, to be specific. The center, which was opened in conjunction with IBM, is just north of Madison Square Garden, which means if you are trying out some new Big Blue technologies, you can catch a hockey game, a basketball game,

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• Arrow Electronics’ Support Net Launches Smart Shuffle iSeries Reseller Plan

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Arrow Electronics is one of the largest distributors of servers in the world, and is one of the three key master distributors of IBM‘s eServer product lines. The other two master distributors are also “A” companies, specifically Avnet and Agilysys. And all three companies are very competitive, and they want their downstream resellers to sell as much IBM iron as they can. That’s why Arrow’s Support Net division has launched the Smart Shuffle program, which is a business development effort that seeks to help Arrow resellers peddle more iSeries iron and expand the solutions that these resellers can

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• Kronos Expands Further into Gaming with TimeWorks, Compu-Cash Acquisitions

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Einstein didn’t prove that time is money, but if he had been working on Wall Street instead of a patent office in Berlin, he might have. Perhaps no software vendor understands that time is money better than Kronos, which practically owns the market for time-keeping and related employee management software. Last week, Kronos extended its control over the market by making two more acquisitions, this time relating to workforce management in the gaming industry. Kronos is a publicly traded company that is headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and has over 2,900 employees. It was founded in 1977 and has grown

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• Slashdot Flamefest Pits the iSeries Against Windows

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you have some time and you want to see what the open source intelligentsia–and I use that latter word somewhat sarcastically– is thinking about the iSeries and how it stacks up against Windows, you might want to check out this posting on the Slashdot Web site. A Slashdot reader called Rabid Cougar explained that he is a system admin for a small manufacturing company that has an ERP system that runs on an IBM AS/400, but that this ERP system is out of gas and needs to be upgraded. Rabid Cougar asked the Slashdot community what they would do:

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• Bang for the Buck Drives Server Acquisitions in the U.S., Says IDC

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  This one will knock you over with a feather. The analysts at IDC have released a report that says that “better value for money” is the main factor in choosing a server platform and a server vendor, almost regardless of industry vertical. IDC said “almost.” The exception to this rule is the public sector, where relationships and long contracts seem to matter more. IDC has just completed a survey of server buyers in the United States, and companies in the manufacturing, services, and healthcare sectors all agreed that better value for money–with value being more than just performance bang, of

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• A Little More Insight into IBM’s Server Sales in Q4 and 2005

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  While IBM provides a fair amount of detail concerning the growth and declines in its dozens of key product lines, it has very rarely only talked about the absolute revenue figures for any key product line–and certainly not since the Securities and Exchange Commission instituted regulations in the last decade that do not allow selective disclosure. Which means IBM never talks specifically about how any of its groups, divisions, and units are doing in terms of dollars and cents. Like other public companies, IBM cannot tell any customer, investor, analyst, or journalist any piece of information relevant to the performance

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• The Job Market in 2006, Part 1: Are iSeries Shops Hiring?

  January 23, 2006 Mary Lou Roberts

  Last week, for a brief moment that most of us (except the short-sellers) hope will return soon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 11,000. In and of itself, the Dow is not necessarily an indicator of employment. To be sure, stocks frequently rise when companies announce major layoffs and restructuring plans. But a steadily increasing stock market can certainly show confidence in the economy, and generally speaking, when the economy does well, hiring goes up. That seems to be the case now. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the January 2005 report (data for December 2005)

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• IBM Reshuffles Systems and Technology Executives

  January 23, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It’s a new year, and one with its own challenges. And big companies like IBM like to cross-train their top executives to sit in various regions and management, development, and sales jobs throughout their careers so they can have seasoned, well-rounded executives running their groups and divisions. And that is why IBM last week rejiggered its organizational chart and moved around some of its key executives within the Systems and Technology Group, which makes processors and servers and develops operating systems. Bill Zeitler, senior vice president and group executive in charge of the Systems and Technology Group, announced the executive

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