3B Aims to Break Barriers with its 'unERP'
by Alex Woodie

3B Dataservices, an IBM business partner in Eastern Canada, is stirring up the ERP pot these days by claiming that its software for enterprise application for small and mid size businesses in the light manufacturing, distribution, and construction industries, called iNfinite Answers, is the world's first 'unERP' application. So what makes an unERP? According to the folks at 3B Dataservices, it's all about radically simplifying the database design. READ MORE >

Redesigned Reporting Infrastructure Pays Off in Inventory Reduction
by Robert Gast

Plodding through lengthy printed reports to find specific performance metrics is a leading cause of frustration in many of today's IBM System i-based business environments. Thumbing through a five-pound green-bar paper report to find bits and pieces of data based on day-old information is the equivalent of walking behind a mule to plow your field. A reporting system based on dashboards created for specific management-level users featuring information updated and displayed every five seconds is not only possible, it's affordable. READ MORE >

Bug Busters Fine-Tunes Budget-Minded HA Offering
by Alex Woodie

What can you expect to get with an i OS high availability software offering that costs between $10,000 and $15,000? With last week's release of Bug Busters Software Engineering's Remote Software Facility-HA, you can expect to find new features like a source-to-target compare feature, new archive and refresh functions, and a check-point reset feature for restarting interrupted role swaps. These come on top of core HA features that are leading some System i shops to consider RSF-HA for their HA and DR needs. READ MORE >

Crossroads Unveils SPHiNX, a New VTL Solution for i OS
by Alex Woodie

Crossroads Systems last week took the covers off SPHiNX for Power Systems, a new virtual tape library (VTL) offering designed for IBM Power Systems running i OS. The SPHiNX lineup is largely based on the company's preexisting lineup of Virtual TapeServer (VTS) products, but features some changes in product packaging and lower pricing, in addition to the name change. The announcement was made at the COMMON show in Indianapolis, Indiana. READ MORE >