iPulse 2011 Survey Results
The second annual iPulse Survey, organized by LANSA, ran during October 2011 and was promoted to the global IBM i community via email, social media and publicized by leading industry media outlets like Intelligencer Magazine, IT Jungle and MC Press Online.
This year’s survey attracted just over 1,500 participants worldwide, which is around 10% down from last year’s numbers. Although views this year were represented from farther afield, with responses received from over 70 countries – a 30% greater reach than last year’s survey.
The participants represented a cross-section of the industry whose job roles were as follows:
- Business Management – 22%
- Developer / Analyst – 40%
- Project Management – 17%
- Operations – 13%
- Other (vendor, journalist, consultant, etc) – 8%
The Secret Thoughts of an IBM i IT Manager
Guest Blogger: Paul Conte, President PCES, is a leading Application Development Strategist.
The other day I was reflecting back on what has been a long, and generally fun and interesting IT career. One thing I remember vividly was discovering the IBM System/38, the first incarnation of what would evolve into the AS/400 and the current IBM i. I was responsible at the time for a major planning process for a large university’s (hint: “Go Ducks!”) administrative computing strategy. The S/38 technology promised application flexibility and reliability unimaginable on the other platforms available at the time. The IBM i technology still does.
But, as in the early days of the S/38, this platform’s technology and benefits are a well-kept secret. There were more than a few nights I lay awake wondering whether I’d made the right decision to embark on a consulting career focused on the IBM S/38, AS/400, i world. Would the then “jazzy” Wang system, with its fairly slick, but also fairly shallow, interface capture the imagination of departmental organizations wanting to break free of the central IBM mainframe? Would the just introduced DEC-system 20 dominate, with its far greater horsepower than the S/38 and a more modern operating system than the IBM mainframe (but still years behind the S/38 architecture)? In the end only one of those competitors survived, and has in fact thrived.
So, I empathize with today’s System i IT managers who may share similar worries. But I also can offer encouragement. Before doing that, however, let me spin a story and see if it sounds familiar. I call this “The Secret Thoughts of an IBM i IT Manager.”
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Sweeten your Customer Relationships with SugarCRM on IBM i
While technology improvements have lowered the cost of building and deploying business solutions, until recently, the software and implementation cost of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems was unaffordable for most small to medium businesses who rely on their IBM i for their line of business applications. CRM is a strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service and technical support (Source: Wikipedia).
A CRM system should provide at least basic information about the companies or organizations (accounts) and the people you work with at those companies (contacts). Accounts can be your customers (or leads), but they may also be your suppliers, your partners, or your subcontractors. While highly extensible and customizable, a CRM cannot be everything to any and all businesses. It also has its limitations, and not acknowledging them upfront often leads to frustration or poor user adoption rates. In turn, this usually translates to a business never fully realizing the benefits of a CRM system. Continue reading “Sweeten your Customer Relationships with SugarCRM on IBM i” »
iPulse 2010 Survey Results
The iPulse 2010 Survey, organized by LANSA, ran during September 2010 and was promoted to the global IBM i community via email, social media and publicized by all the leading industry media outlets like Intelligencer Magazine, IT Jungle, CIO Magazine and System iNetwork.
Over 1,700 participants worldwide completed the survey, representing the views from a broad range of industries across 50 different countries. The survey was taken by a cross-section of people whose job roles were as follows:
- Business Management - 36%
- Developer / Analyst - 36%
- Project Management - 12%
- Operations - 10%
- Other (vendor, journalist, consultant, etc) - 6%
Six Steps for Successful Application Modernization
Guest Blogger: Mike Otey, Senior Technical Editor for System iNEWS magazine
The IBM i is a highly successfully and ultra-reliable computing platform that’s in use in all kinds of businesses world-wide from order-entry, human resources, and education through inventory and distribution systems. I’ve worked with the IBM i system since the days it was originally called the System/38. Over time the IBM i’s secure, robust and high performance architecture has proven to be an excellent platform for enterprise level applications. However, the vast majority of today’s IBM i applications are green screen applications that are not readily accepted in this age of graphical applications.
Users and management expect today’s applications to be graphical. You can’t expect a green screen application to gain acceptance in the enterprise today – no matter how practical and useful it is. Today management won’t buy an application that’s not graphical and users will balk at using one. That said, many IBM organizations still have a number of 5250 green screen applications. These applications fulfill vital business functions and most are highly customized to meet the needs of the business. They may be run in a graphical application like the IBM i Access 5250 emulator or even the older RUMBA 5250 emulator, but that doesn’t make them graphical. Most IBM i based business are looking for ways to move these 5250 based applications to a more modern graphical interface.
If you’re familiar with my work with the System iNetwork you’ll know that I specialize in IBM i and Windows integration. I did my share of straight-up RPG programming. I programmed on the platform for more than a decade and I certainly know the ins and outs of the platform. My work led me into the areas of integrating the AS/400, now the IBM i, with Windows systems in variety of different ways.
I find it surprising that , even today, most businesses using the IBM i don’t realize or take advantage of the powerful integration features that the IBM i has.
Continue reading “Six Steps for Successful Application Modernization” »