LANSA Managed Application Services
The cost effective way to reengineer, modernize & transform your IBM i applications allowing IT to help & grow your business.
The IBM i (AS/400, iSeries, Power systems) user base is now facing new challenges and threats based on the longevity of the platform and the age and maturity of many of the key applications which typically are the primary LOB (line of business) applications in use today. In summary – “it’s all getting very old, tired and dated”.
Many IBM i IT managers tell us that they are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the applications they have to maintain and that the problem is further compounded by an aging and diminishing developer base available with the skills required.
IT management is rightly being questioned on the future of the platform (specifically OS/400) and, more importantly, on their ability to reengineer and modify the business applications to meet modern day standards, as well as their ability to bring innovation and agility to support and improve business process evolution and improvement. Some of the key risks and concerns that exist today can be summarized as follows… Continue reading “LANSA Managed Application Services” »
Top Ten Reasons Application Modernization Projects Fail
Guest Blogger: Paul Conte, President PCES, is a leading Application Development Strategist.
Are we done yet? With “modernizing” our applications, that is?
It seems so long ago that someone came up with the clever concept of application “modernization” as a response to how outdated AS/400 applications looked by comparison with graphical Windows applications.
But now, even after years of screen-scraping, “refacing” and crash courses in Java, there still exists an unfathomable mountain of monolithic RPG applications that – dolled up or not – simply don’t serve modern business needs.
Why have so many attempts at “modernization” failed to deliver? Herewith are my own “top ten” reasons, listed somewhat in the order I’ve seen them occur in many IBM i organizations:
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Why Using an Application Framework like the VLF should be a No Brainer
Frameworks are everywhere. They are available for almost every part of software development and frameworks are not exclusive to the IT industry. Medicine, banking and insurance all have risk assessment frameworks. Education uses learning frameworks, companies are measured by quality frameworks and the USA Department of Defense has a framework for enterprise architecture.
Why are frameworks popular? Where do they apply in software development? How can frameworks help to reduce cost and boost productivity? Before addressing these questions, we need to understand what we mean by framework.
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Redchester is the new capital of Switzerland
I may get berned at the steak by Swiss federalists for spouting hearsay, but I've heard some stories that I must share.
Those clever Swiss folks learned long ago that being neutral can have considerable political and economic benefits. Why choose sides when you can carve out a profitable niche in the middle?
This lesson can be equally well learned and applied to making IT decisions. I often find organisations defining themselves as an AS/400 or a .NET shop as though these are mutually exclusive identities. It's true that Rochester and Redmond are at almost opposite sides of the country, but their technology stacks can come together to form a happy place that I have christened Redchester.
Redchester - a happy place
Redchester is a place where teamwork produces better results than solo endeavor. In plain English, it's where the power of IBM's midrange systems meets the personal productivity benefits of Microsoft's product suite. In Redchester data flows freely but securely between systems so that each citizen always has the information they need where and when they need it.
The best news of all is that Redchester is not a fictional place, although, I confess, it is not the new capital of Switzerland. Recently I came across a couple of real-life customer stories that brought the benefits of unifying the IBM and Microsoft stacks into sharp focus for me. Continue reading “Redchester is the new capital of Switzerland” »
The Business Challenge of Going Mobile
With the rampant explosion of wireless smart phone devices in the marketplace, it should be no surprise that more and more businesses are delving into the mobile world. Whether it's for productivity gains by arming staff with more ready access to data, or from marketing pressure to remain competitive and become more visible and viable with prospects, or to meet customer trends by appealing to the next generation audience – today's business applications are going mobile.
Beyond email and messaging services which are already widely used, mobile applications could range anywhere from event registration or other form-based applications, scanning for inventory updates, field worker schedule task lists to shopping cart applications and marketing schemes based on GPS locations and more.
Less than a decade ago, the choices were largely between Palm OS or Windows Mobile, and the primary challenge with wireless business applications involved available bandwidth and network coverage. Data throughput capabilities were, and can still be, more limited, with spotty reception in some remote geographical areas. Today, there are so many more devices that support varying platforms and operating systems (Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry, Google Android, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, Symbian, etc), and so much more diversity in application technologies along with faster networks and coverage. With such diverse and ever changing capabilities along with aggressive competition for market share, the business decision of going mobile is no simple matter and constantly evolving.
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