i5 Innovation Effort Shifts from Getting Modern to Making Money
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

It has been a year since IBM launched its iSeries Initiative for Innovation, a broad development and marketing program--funded with hundred of millions of dollars--that was designed to breathe some life into the OS/400 ecosystem. And, if software vendor count and enthusiasm are any measure, then it looks like that investment has paid off for Big Blue. READ MORE >

Offshore Outsourcing and the OS/400 Ecosystem
by Mary Lou Roberts

"I think that just about every tech company has considered the use of offshore outsourcing resources to reduce costs," says Henry Martinez, chief technology officer for Vision Solutions. If that is true (and I believe it is), most of them--at least in the iSeries world--aren't talking about it. In the course of preparing this article, I contacted approximately 25 iSeries ISVs, most of them sizable, and almost all of them took a pass. The standard reply went something like, "Thanks for considering us, but we have no comment on this topic. Please consider contacting us in the future for other topics." READ MORE >

Xperia Takes on Tier One ERP Vendors in the SMB Market
by Dan Burger

Where do small- and mid-sized businesses find ERP systems when they have outgrown the ones they have or can't afford to maintain the ones they have? There are niche ERP software vendors that know the requirements of a specific industry and have applications that are not very modern; there are large ERP application makers with reputations for not being very supportive or very cost effective for midrange shops. Getting the right fit of function and finances is not easy, but a software company called Xperia Solutions thinks it has what OS/400 shops need. READ MORE >

As I See It: The 'M' Word
by Victor Rozek

She was a tall, solid woman, with burnt copper skin and tribal features. "Write your name on a piece of paper," she told us. "Go ahead, do it several times. Notice how simple, effortless, and familiar it is. Now put the pen in your other hand and sign your name again. How does that feel?" It felt awkward, frustrating, unfamiliar, and harder than it should have been. "That," she said, "is how people from foreign cultures feel when navigating the dominant white culture." READ MORE >