A SoftLanding For AUTOMON. . . . InterSigning From InterForm. . . . Where Oh Where Did My BABY Go (Windows). . . .

In this issue’s roundup of IBM i news, we cover the latest AUTOMON offerings from SoftLanding, a new digital signature capture solution from InterForm (which is sold as ArtForm/400 here in the U.S.), and the 2015 edition of Infinite’s BABY36.

A SoftLanding for AUTOMON

UNICOM Global subsidiary SoftLanding Systems recently issued new releases of its AUTOMON suite of systems management tools for the IBM i.

The New Hampshire company bolstered several AUTOMON components, including the job scheduler, called iSchedule; the iConsole message monitoring tool; and iMessage, which allows users to respond to messages remotely.

The new release of iSchedule should improve security and give administrators better control. Users now have the option to copy their existing schedule definitions across multiple environments, which should make it easier to keep a group of IBM i servers running on the same schedule. Any changes to the schedule are logged through a “security matrix,” which has also been enhanced with this release.

iConsole also gets the copy treatment. In iConsole’s case, copying the message filtering criteria from one server to another will help ensure that messages are handled consistently from one system to the next.

“The new copy facility reduces manual effort and eliminates the risk of errors due to re-entering the same information on multiple systems,” says SoftLanding operations manager Jim Fisher. “It also offers a new level of responsiveness that allows system operators to see the wood from the trees in emergency situations, and conversely, allows rapid distribution of filter rules and their associated actions when deploying new applications or setting up new application environments.”

Lastly, the iMessage components gets support for Short Message Peer-to-Peer (SMPP), an open protocol designed to enable the communication of SMS messages over a GSM radio network or the Internet.

“SMPP offers a reliable alternative to TAP [Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol] and is well suited to the high-volume messaging needs of large-scale corporate infrastructures,” Fisher says. “This is an important enhancement that ensures AUTOMON for iMessage remains relevant in enterprise environments, and builds on some of the other great enhancements that have recently been introduced such as two-way e-mail and Twitter messaging.”

The AUTOMON suite also contains the iSpool offering, but it did not receive any enhancements this time around.

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InterSigning From Interform

InterForm, a provider of document and forms management software for the IBM i, recently added a new digital signature capture component to its suite of offerings.

Called InterSigning, the software enables customers to capture customers’ John Hancocks electronically using a signature capture pad, such as those from Topaz Systems or Stepover (which is the one that InterForm recommends).

Direct integration with the IBM i server makes the whole process of generating, viewing, signing, and submitting copies of official business documents quick and easy, InterForm says. What’s more, InterSigning also protects documents from those pesky coffee spills, the company says (although you’d best keep the joe away from electronic sig pads, too).

“Let’s suppose you’re a financial institution which grants loans,” InterForm theorizes. “You need to acquire the applicant’s signature. Via the Power I platform, InterForm generates the document and presents it to the applicant via the signature device. The customer verifies the content on the pad and signs. The signed document is then automatically archived and a customer copy is either emailed or printed. There’s no more printing a copy for each party. No more collecting physical signatures. No more scanning paper to create an electronic archive of the document.” InterSigning is simply the perfect fit for today’s business!

InterForm recommends the Stepover naturaSign signature pad, which features a 640x 480 pixel color screen and is available in the European Union for €209. There are undoubtedly other pads that InterSigning will work with here in the United States, where the InterForm/400 package is sold as ArtForm/400 due to copyright reasons.

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Where Oh Where Did My BABY Go (Windows)

For those customers who can no longer stand to run on the IBM i platform for another darn instant, there are migration tools available that can send you on your way. Infinite Software is one such provider of these tools, and the California software company recently updates one of its wares.

The BABY36 package is designed to migrate to Windows those RPGII-based applications that customers no longer want to run on their IBM i server (or whatever ancient machine they happen to have). According to Infinite, the product will migrate the RPG code to run in emulation mode under a 64-bit version of Windows Server in just a matter of days.

Customers will find a developer toolset and an application server in the BABY36 box. The tool brings limited GUI and Web-enablement capabilities, and users will be able to access migrated applications from any device with a Web browser. The maximum number of users that can be supported is 20.

Raquela Kaplan, marketing director for the Laguna Niguel company, says the new release builds on the foundation of previous releases. “The 2015 version of BABY36 encompasses the ability to easily and inexpensively migrate RPG applications to Windows without having to rewrite any of the code,” she states.

The company also offers BABY i, which is similar to BABY36 in that it’s designed for small businesses with a maximum of 20 users. But BABY i can also provide Windows-based emulation for RPG, COBOL, DDS, and CL code, not just RPG programs. The company’s higher-end offerings include Infinite i and Infinite36, which supports Linux and Unix platforms with migrated code, not just Windows, and which also provides facilities for database migration to Oracle and SQL Server.