But Wait, There's More

ASNA Customers Praise .NET Benefits at User Conference

You could describe what is going on within the RPG, OS/400, and iSeries communities as taking a second chance at love. Happiness within reach the second time around. What is this, a dating service for geeks? No, it's .NET getting together with RPG and DB2/400. In case you haven't heard, .NET technologies are on the iSeries Developer Roadmap, and one of the companies that is crusading for this iSeries sweetheart arrangement with .NET is ASNA, an iSeries development tool maker that has created visual programming software for the IBM midrange community since 1982.

At the ASNApalooza customer conference in April, attendees were surveyed to gauge their interest in .NET. It's not exactly shocking to find that ASNA customers embraced .NET as the best modernization platform for transforming legacy applications running on iSeries servers and built with RPG code. Asking ASNA customers if they like .NET is almost unnecessary. A majority of attendees are currently engaged in modernization of RPG applications on the iSeries. They are familiar with ASNA products and ASNA has made it relatively easy to move into the .NET world. It should come as no surprise that a majority of the conference participants, when surveyed, would prefer .NET to other options, especially WebSphere/Java, which is the other side of the tracks for most .NET developers. What this survey lacks in drama, it makes up for in enthusiasm. That's not particularly scientific, but it does demonstrate that .NET can be, and is, successful in application modernization.

That is certainly a message Anne Ferguson, president of ASNA, wants others to hear. Ferguson, who was frustrated by the former Java-centric roadmap IBM laid out in front of iSeries customers, seems much more pleased these days. ASNA's inclusion on the current roadmap, she says, is like having IBM's seal of approval, which is very important. Compared to just one year ago, Ferguson says, "People are much more knowledgeable about .NET and the benefits of modernizing iSeries to that environment. It's pretty obvious now that .NET has legs with the iSeries community."

The ASNApalooza survey indicated the primary reasons companies were choosing ASNA's Visual RPG for .NET and other .NET products were lower costs (relative to options such as WebSphere or ripping-and-replacing), ease of use and implementation, and Web services enablement. There is nothing astounding in this affirmation of ASNA's sales points, just solid support.

ASNA also pointed out that survey respondents indicated they are remaining loyal to their iSeries systems. The traditional iSeries and AS/400 attributes of scalability, security, and performance have kept ASNA customers solidly behind the box. ASNA uses this to disprove competitors' claims that its modernization strategy is one that results in shops leaving the iSeries camp.

This ASNApalooza conference was the first iSeries developer gathering that IBM and Microsoft jointly attended. Sometimes bitter enemies and other times backslapping business partners, both IT titans used this occasion to clarify their respective support for the iSeries and its application modernization options.

Microsoft's iSeries solutions architect David Bishop endorsed ASNA's .NET solutions as the best path to transform applications and data. Doug Fulmer, IBM's worldwide sales executive for iSeries e-business infrastructure, was there to show IBM supports RPG developers that have made the decision use products like ASNA's Visual RPG to leverage Microsoft's .NET frameworks.

Fulmer admitted (not for the first time) that WebSphere is not for everyone. But before too much air was let out of the WebSphere balloon, he noted WebSphere remains a solid choice for large iSeries customers with complex computing environments. But, shifting back to a focus on small- to medium-sized iSeries shops, Fuller emphasized that many or IBM's SMB customers have "neither the skills, budget, nor inclination to invest in WebSphere and Java."

Although it seems a bit odd for IBM and Microsoft to be sharing partners in the iSeries market, it is becoming more common. And for an indication of how ASNA has managed to work with both IBM and Microsoft, take note that the company is an IBM Tools Network Partner, an Advanced Tier Member of IBM's PartnerWorld for Developers, a Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner, and a Managed Microsoft Certified Partner. ASNA is also a founding member of the Midrange Alliance Program and the only member to be both IBM ServerProven and Microsoft .NET compliant.

LANSA Wins iSeries Innovation Award

Last week, application development tool maker LANSA was presented with the first iSeries General Manager's Award for Innovative Technology Deployment on the iSeries in the Asia/Pacific Region. (That must have been in pretty small typeface to fit on the award.) Mark Shearer, general manager of the iSeries line at IBM, presented the award at its annual iSeries strategic planning conference for the Asia/Pacific region in Perth, Australia.

LANSA, as you probably know, hails from the land down under (North Sydney, to be specific), but it is a worldwide company with 250 employees and over 7,000 customers in 67 countries. Like many other midrange tool vendors, LANSA has created tools that can deploy applications on iSeries as well as other platforms and has long since been a champion of cooperative processing between OS/400 and other platforms, including Unix and Windows.

Increased recognition for the innovation that iSeries tools and application developers bring to the market is one of the cornerstones of the iSeries Initiative for Innovation, which IBM announced in February to rejuvenate the iSeries platform. IBM has come around to the idea that you don't have to exclusively use IBM's tooling to create applications and nor do you have to exclusively support OS/400 to be an innovator. Just like the modern iSeries supports OS/400, Windows, Unix, and Linux workloads because midrange shops want to make their own choices even if OS/400 is their core application, tool makers like LANSA have to support these platforms and innovate on them if they are to appease the same customers. What is good for the gander is good for the goslings.

Two IT Vendors Sitting in a Tree: Partnerships for Peregrine and IBM, IBM and Printronics, Magic Software and SAP, Sterling Commerce and Hitachi, MKS and Aspen

After three years and 600 shared customers, Peregrine Systems and IBM decided things are working out well enough to extend their partnership a little while longer. The agreement continues a working relationship that optimizes Peregrine products on IBM software and hardware platforms. In addition to increasing their investments in sales and marketing activities, such as sales training and education, Peregrine and IBM will create a global project sales office in Tucson, Arizona. Key markets will be financial services, health care, manufacturing, and public sector. The two companies are currently collaborating on the deployment of Peregrine's asset and service management software at Reuters and Ford Motor Company.

Magic Software has been building its partnership network for iBOLT Special Edition by signing up SAP Business One Partners throughout Europe. Those partner agreements include Irish International Sales, a company that specializes in accounting software packages and services; Orbix, in the Netherlands; two British firms--CGA (Computer Generated Answers), a provider of finance and business systems, and Trinity Expert Systems, which focuses on the government, health, finance and insurance, manufacturing, legal, media, and utilities sectors; two French companies--Self Informatique and Absys. iBolt is used with SAP Business One to extend workflows, provide integration with other systems and platforms, and monitor business activity and performance.

Sterling Commerce signed a reseller agreement with Hitachi High-Technologies last week. The agreement gives Hitachi High-Technologies the Japanese marketing rights to Sterling's Gentran Integration Suite (known as Sterling Integrator in the Asia/Pacific region). Gentran Integration Suite provides business process management capabilities including detailed analytics and content-based routing for decision-making support.

MKS, an application lifecycle management vendor, has added Dallas-based Aspen Software Consultants as a partner. Aspen specializes in software configuration management, software project management, and software process optimization. In support of MKS' Integrity Suite for application lifecycle management customers, Aspen will offer project guidance, tools implementation and training, process re-engineering, and migration and application integration services.

Seagull Acquires Oak Grove for BPM Wares

Development tool maker Seagull Software said last week it has acquired Oak Grove Systems, a privately held software firm that is spin-off of the NASA Jet Propulsion lab in Pasadena, Calif., and that has created business process management (BPM) automation software. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Oak Grove created a process engine called Reactor, which is written in Java and XML, to integrate people, applications, and business processes. Reactor was sold to over 60 customers on an OEM basis (including Intentia International, Sybase, SAS Institute) as well as a few commercial customers, such as the U.S. Navy. Seagull says it will continue to peddle Reactor as an OEM product, but it will also integrate the program with its LegaSuite toolset, which is used to take monolithic legacy applications (such as those written in RPG or COBOL on the iSeries) and transform them into more flexible, service-oriented applications with Web front ends.

Wyse Brings Thin Computing to Developing Nations

Although we often refer to the Internet as the World Wide Web, there are many places the Web has not reached. One such place is rural India. This region is by and large a clean slate when it comes to modern communications. But change is under way. And in the midst of this is Wyse Technology and its network-centric, thin client approach to computing.

Not that Wyse is single-handedly bringing technology and opportunity to the other side of the digital divide. Two other companies are playing major roles. Comat, an India-based IT business solutions company that serves government, healthcare and legal support services, is a key component, as is ICICI Bank, one of India's largest financial institutions.

As you might imagine, there are big challenges and many obstacles.

In the past, these types of endeavors have taken a technology-only or technology-first approach. The goal of this project takes a variation of that strategy. To improve access for rural citizens, the emphasis will be on services--not just technology--and that will improve the chances that citizens will actually develop and strengthen their economic position, educational status, and access to healthcare. John Kish, president and CEO of Wyse, describes this as a pilot deployment of rural services and "a blueprint for populations in developing nations everywhere." Even though this expansive project is still in the early stages, Kish says, the rural citizens of India will gain reliable access to government, as well as private sector services, including public records, social services, and banking. Prior to this undertaking, these services were almost non-existent.

Wyse is there because of the proven benefits of thin-client architecture. Those benefits include remote management and a central server, which removes IT support from the client side. Also of great importance is the thin client itself is a device with no fan, no hard drive, and essentially no moving parts that can withstand high temperatures, high moisture, and dusty conditions.

"The difference is you are enabling information access and access to a variety of services, but you are not putting the burden of support and maintenance and reliability on the desktop," says Ali Fenn, vice president of business development for Wyse.

For the pilot programs, communications are being delivered wirelessly over GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). This is possible because the pilots are within an hour of Bangalore, one of India's larger cities and one of the centers of IT offshoring and application development, in fact. "The connectivity is definitely a challenge," Fenn says. "The plan will eventually use satellite connectivity for more remote locations because there is no consistent infrastructure at this time. Thin clients at local stations will act as servers, and the content behind the delivered services will be cached locally so that if connectivity is lost many of the services, not all, will be accessible."

Over the next 12 months, more than 5,000 of these business centers will be rolled out into the rural areas. Ultimately there will be tens of thousands of them across India. Wyse has ongoing discussions for similar projects in two other developing countries.

The first four pilot projects are being funded by the consortium members: Wyse, Comat, and ICICI. Additional funding as the project is being rolled out will be provided by International Finance Corporation and the World Bank. Over time there the services will require a fee, which will then provide a return on investment. The business of running these services will be run by Comat.

PeopleSoft Ex-Chairman Sets Up Fund to Help Laid Off Workers

PeopleSoft founder and ex-chairman of the board Dave Duffield has set up an $10 million fund to help laid off workers from his former company, which was acquired earlier this year in a hostile takeover bid by rival Oracle. While Duffield does not want any press about his generosity, according to a report in the New York Times, we say he deserves some. Duffield did not have to do that, and yet he did. To be fair, he has a net worth of about $1.3 billion and had over $900 million in PeopleSoft shares that Oracle paid him for, so he can clearly afford it. So far, according to the Times report, PeopleSoft employees have been granted a total of $800,000, with grants as high as $10,000, to help tide them over as they look for new jobs.

Duffield is expected to launch a new ERP software company any day now, and you can bet he is going to shake up the industry. Go for it, man.