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OS/400 Edition
Volume 2, Number 38 -- October 3, 2003
   In This Issue

We Bring It All Together So You Don't Have To.

Sponsored By
BCD INT'L

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Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(Guild Companies) In a tough economic environment, iSeries vendors have been producing some interesting out-of-the-box pricing schemes to move product. BCD is giving away free product, CMS Manufacturing Systems is offering rent-to-own pricing, and Computer Resource Systems has put together a return-on-investment tool that proves StoreReport.com ASP service can save customers as much as 60 percent a year in IT administration and personnel costs.
(Guild Companies) At its annual user conference last week, SSA Global executives presented a new branding initiative as well as the broad outlines of a plan to gradually consolidate its ERP suites into two core lines--one for OS/400 and one for Unix--while simultaneously grouping and renaming its products according to function, such as SSA Manufacturing and SSA Financials.
(eWeek) IBM is growing its on-demand server services to include its entire line of eServers. This move will allow customers to gain enterprise access to their choice of x-, p-, and iSeries servers that are hosted by IBM at its Service Delivery Center in Boulder, Colorado. And customers who remotely access these hosted systems will only pay for the computing power they use.
(MC Press Online) PeopleSoft has announced several product line expansion plans over the last few weeks. These plans have implications for thousands of iSeries customers who run their businesses on J.D. Edwards software.
(InformationWeek) SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said his company has picked up new business because of Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft, but he also noted that "desperate pricing" by software companies is hurting SAP sales in the short term. Kagermann also predicted that Oracle has "…less that 50% chance" of successfully completing the [PeopleSoft] acquisition."
(iSeries 400 Experts) A new initiative called 2005 Sunrise calls for changes in barcode standards, including the addition of support for a larger number of digits. The initiative promises greater opportunities to new companies and organizations outside North America, as well as for retailers.
(eWeek) IBM released four tools to help with the programming, data mining, and replication monitoring of its DB2 Universal Database, company officials announced. Trial versions of some of these tools are available through IBM's alphaWorks site.
(Guild Companies) The rapid adoption of UCCnet's GlobalRegistry is spurring software vendors to get their UCCnet products out the door. During the first half of this year, the number of companies subscribing to UCCnet's data synchronization service increased six-fold compared with 2002, and that number is now believed to have surpassed 1,000 companies.
(Computerworld) Even as it completes its planned purchase of Brio Software later this month, business intelligence software maker Hyperion Solutions is working on its development priorities for integrating the two companies' product lines. Hyperion plans to produce a product road map by year-end.
(Guild Companies) At the Intel Developer Forum last week, Intel bigwigs presented a sneak peak at future processor and related technologies and a view of how they see the world of computing. While that made for an interesting presentation, what most people in the enterprise want to know is what Intel is going to do with its processors.
(eWeek) By year end, Computer Associates International plans to release its Unicenter Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) tool. The company is also actively working to create Web services management standards, with the help of IBM and Talking Blocks--a company that will soon be acquired by Hewlett Packard.
(ComputerWorld) The Bush administration has no plans to impede company efforts to move IT jobs overseas. Instead it plans on developing an economic climate that helps create U.S. jobs.

Sponsored By
ASNA

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ASNA releases Visual RPG for .NET!

"I worked with WebSphere and Java for 2 months. It was very difficult to learn a new language and environment at the same time. AVR for .NET allows me to use the RPG knowledge I already have in my programs."
--Jeff Cubinski of JTS Technology, Inc. for YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee

AVR for .NET is now available!
http://www.asna.com/infoavrdotnet.aspx


Vendor Announcements, Promotions, And Deals

(ComputerWorld) EMC released new network attached storage products aimed at small- and mid-sized companies, including an entry-level version of the Celera NS600, two versions of the Celera NS600 that contain external storage, and two non-clustered external models that connect to Clarion CX600 or CX400 storage.
(IBM) Based on the number of months that have passed after a customer's IBM Software Maintenance for iSeries or iSeries Software Subscription for iSeries coverage has lapsed, customers can receive an 8 percent to 100 percent discount on IBM Software Maintenance After License Fee for iSeries when coverage is reinstated. With a 100 percent discount for customers who reinstate coverage within a month, does this mean customers can re-up for free if they purposely let coverage lapse before renewing?
(TechWeb) IBM introduced two new enhancements to its WebSphere Business Integration product line. The two products--Business Integration Modeler and Monitor--enable business managers to view events and activities across an enterprise.
(Guild Companies) IBM shipped new releases of Personal Communications for Microsoft Windows and Host On-Demand, two of its 5250 emulation products, which are for fat and thin clients respectively. The releases include enhancements to improve networking, security, and session management. The products are available in Host Access Client Package for iSeries 4.0, which shipped last Friday, as well as an upcoming release of Host Integration Solution that ships next month.
(TechWeb) IBM and retail-management-software company Evant announced a joint marketing and technology agreement. The companies will collaborate on sales and deployment of the Evant Merchandise Planning Online and Evant Demand Planning and Replenishment products. Evant will also continue to optimize its J2EE and AS/400 platforms for IBM WebSphere and DB2.
(IBM) IBM extended WebSphere MQSeries for iSeries program service for an additional four months to a new end-of-service date of April 30, 2004.
(Guild Companies) At Fall COMMON, Invenso--a Belgian software company that sells OS/400 and Windows .NET development tools--demonstrated its new product, XB/400, a native OS/400 data exchange engine. The company is also beginning to develop a U.S. reseller channel for the product.
(Guild Companies) OS/400 document management vendor Konica announced DocuBreeze, an any-to-any document router that supports complex business processes, as well as iSeries data. Meanwhile, Inventive Designers announced the release of Scriptura 2.0, its XML-based document design and output management tool, which features new OS/400-specific commands.
(CRN) Enterprise application vendor Lawson Software is acquiring, for an undisclosed sum, Closedloop Solutions, a privately held supplier of financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting software.
(eWeek) SAP AG announced the SAP Master Data module for its Netweaver technology stack. The module attempts to solve the problems created by similar but different product, customer, or vendor information stored in a variety of systems.

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New Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(Candle Corporation) Candle's White Pages Web site contains a number of white papers dealing with application management, data management, and WebSphere.
(GST) In its white paper "Backup Insurance, Are You Covered?" GST uses the concept of insurance to explain how the hardware decisions in a company's backup strategies relate to the levels of insurance that the organization deploys to protect its applications and data.
(IBM) IBM is offering a free Web Services Software Evaluation Kit that provides the tools, training, and technical support to get started with Web Services development.
(T.L. Ashford) -- Reference Guide to Bar Code Labeling is a 52-page book designed to give readers an understanding of barcode labeling and compliance topics. Chapters include "Ten Key Points of Bar Code Labeling," "Bar Code Symbologies," and a glossary of terms.

Sponsored By
RJS SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

Implement Document Imaging on your iSeries-AS/400 in 30 minutes or less

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Documents can be quickly scanned and stored in IFS folders, and then located and retrieved for viewing via any Web browser. Integrate with other iSeries-AS/400 applications.

Call us at 888-RJS-SOFT or download a FREE fully functional demo from our Web site at www.rjssoftware.com


Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

October-November -- ASNA holds one-day technical seminars on ASNA Visual RPG for .NET. Seminar locations include St. Louis, Houston, Toledo, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Atlantic City, and Guildford, England. For a complete list of seminar topics, locations, and dates, go to www.asna.com/avrintro.


October-November -- Bytware is conducting several workshops to help customers take advantage of the most valuable features of Bytware's monitoring, security, and paging products. There are workshops on MessengerPlus, StandGuard, and MessengerConsole. Go to www.bytware.com/products/workshops.html for more information.
October 7 - Phil Couthard of IBM and Daniel Magrid of Aldon Computer Group will discuss the relevance of WebSphere for iSeries and multiplatform development in a live Webcast titled "Managing WebSphere Development." For more information, go to Aldon's Seminar and Events Web site.
October 8 -- The Cascade 400 User Group will hold its October meeting at the NW Natural Gas Offices in Portland, Oregon. Jackie Jansen, from IBM's ATS Solutions Center for iSeries, will present "Building an eDatamart in 60 minutes or less!!" Go to Cascade 400's Web site for more information.
October 13-17 -- IBM presents an iSeries Technical Conference at the Renaissance Hotel in Orlando, Florida. According to IBM, this twice-annual iSeries event is where technical experts and programmers can get their questions answered by IBM's most knowledgeable Rochester and Toronto gurus. Go to IBM's Web site for more information.
October 17 -- Jeff Elmore, senior technical specialist for the iSeries brand, will present a V5R2 technical overview at the October meeting of the Central Florida Midrange Users Group, at Lee's Lakeside on Lake Eola in Orlando, Florida. For more information, go to the user group's Web site.
October 21 -- The Fairfield AS/400 User Group will present "Application Development Day," a one-day conference featuring some of the best speakers in the iSeries world, including Sharon Hoffman, Bob Cozzi, Al Barsa, Carson Soule, Karen Richner, and Ron Harvey. The conference will take place at the Sheraton Hotel in Danbury, Connecticut. For session agendas or to register, go to the user group's Web site.
October 22 -- The Long Island System Users Group will host a presentation by Karen Richner, a software engineer at IBM Rochester, during its October meeting at the Fox Hollow Inn in Woodbury, New York. Go to the user group's Web site for more information.
October 23 -- IBM's iSeries Nation presents a citizens chat on "Red Hat: new products for iSeries," with Craig Johnson of IBM Rochester and Pete Hnath of Red Hat's Raleigh operation. The two speakers will give an update on Red Hat's latest products for the iSeries. For more information, go to the iSeries Nation home page.
October 23 -- The Midrange User's Group of Western New York will hold its Halloween meeting at Harry's Harbor Place Grille in Buffalo, New York. Mark Mendelson, director of e-business at the Corning Data Center, will speak after dinner. Go to the user group's Web site for more details.
October 28 -- The Denver area iSeries-AS/400 Front Range IBM Users Group will host a one-day seminar on "Untangling IT--25 years of lessons in effective IT leadership," presented by Robert S. Tipton. Go to the user group's Web site for more information.
November 6 -- IBM's iSeries Nation will host a citizens chat on the iSeries Developer Roadmap. Doug Fullmer of IBM Dallas will discuss Big Blue's developer roadmap for deploying applications, pointing out where the milestone developments are and showing you where programmers should look for guidance. Go to the iSeries Nation home page for more information.
November 7 -- The Washington Area Midrange Users Group presents its annual JAM technical conference at the University of Maryland, in College Park, Maryland. The conference features in-depth educational sessions presented by nationally recognized experts. The agenda includes a breakfast with iSeries Chief Scientist Dr. Frank Soltis and a luncheon and keynote address by iSeries marketing maverick Malcolm Haines. The cost is $225 for members and $250 for nonmembers. Go to the user group's Web site for more information.
November 11 -- The Central New York User Group will host a presentation on "The iSeries on the Internet" at its November meeting at the Doubletree Club Syracuse in Syracuse, New York. For more information, go to the user group's Web site.
November 18-21 -- EXTOL will host its 2003 user conference at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. Go to EXTOL's Web site for more information.
November 19 -- The Long Island System Users Group will host a presentation by Debbie Sauger, technical owner of iSeries and AS/400 backup and recovery for IBM's Rochester labs, at its November meeting in Woodbury, New York. Go to the user group's Web site for more information.
November 20 -- The OMNI User Group, an association of Chicagoland Computer Professionals, will present its 17th annual technical conference at the Wyndham Hotel in Itasca, Illinois. The conference focuses on four educational tracks, featuring 32 sessions on topics such as WebSphere, RPG, Java, XML, Linux, and Eclipse, as well as eight vendor product sessions. Malcolm Haines of IBM will give the keynote address. For more information, go to the conference Web site.
December 4 -- John Quarantello of IBM Dallas will host a citizens chat on "WebSphere Portal Express for iSeries." Now that Portal Express is part of the iSeries Enterprise bundle for Model 825, 870, and 890 hardware orders, Quaranetello will answer many basic questions about what the new Portal Express support means for the average iSeries shop. Go to the iSeries Nation home page for more information.
December 5 -- The Computer Professionals Unlimited Midrange Users Group of Kansas City, Missouri, will present a full-day seminar on "Advanced RPG IV and ILE." The seminar will be presented by OS/400 experts Jon Paris and Susan Gantner and will cost $199 per person. Go to the user group's Web site for more information.
December 10 -- The Long Island System Users Group will host a presentation by Becky Schmeiding, senior software engineer in the IBM Client Access/400 development organization, at its December meeting at the Fox Hollow Inn in Woodbury, New York. For more information, go to the user group's Web site.
March 22-24, 2004 -- The Northeast iSeries-AS/400 User Group will host its spring conference at the Sheraton hotel in Framingham, Massachusetts. The conference will feature a keynote address by Frank Soltis, as well as training sessions and seminars by many award-winning speakers from around the world, including Allison Butterill, Linda Cole, Dick Grenham, Donald Heller, Skip Marchesani, Pete Massiello, and Craig Pelkie. For more details, go to the conference Web site.
April 28-30, 2004 -- ASNApalooza 2004 will be held at the Westin River Walk Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. ASNApalooza is three days of ASNA Visual RPG instruction and technical insight, with an emphasis on RPG development for Microsoft's .NET platform. ASNA is also offering a special registration price of $1200 per person, if you register by Tuesday, September 30. Go to ASNA's Web site for more information.
May 2-6, 2004 -- The COMMON user group presents its spring 2004 conference and expo in San Antonio, Texas. COMMON is the largest and most widely attended of the iSeries-specific conferences. IBM's own experts and many other industry professionals present sessions and hands-on labs. COMMON provides an excellent opportunity to network with fellow professionals, attend a multitude of educational tracks, and get real-world solutions at the vendor expo. Go to COMMON's Web site for more information and to register.
May 19-21, 2004 -- Aldon Computer Group will present its annual user conference in Chicago. Sessions will highlight the practical application of Aldon software, including Affiniti, CMS, and eTEAM. Go to Aldon's Web site for more information.
June 20-22, 2004 -- The COMMON European Congress will present its annual conference in Cardiff, Wales. Initial planning has already commenced, but if you have any ideas for the event, go to the COMMON Europe Web site to see how you can contribute.

Editor: Joe Hertvik
Managing Editor: Shannon Pastore
Publisher and Advertising Director: Jenny Thomas
Advertising Sales Representative: Kim Reed
If you have a resource, event, or any other interesting item that you want to see publicized in Midrange Monitor, send an e-mail to Joe Hertvik


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THIS ISSUE
SPONSORED BY:

BCD Int'l
ASNA
Hewlett-Packard
RJS Software Systems


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