But Wait, There's More

• If you are trying to keep up with PTFs on OS/400 and related systems programs, check out the OS/400 PTF Guides, put together by our partner DLB Associates.
  
  

• June 21
• June 14
• June 7
• May 31
• May 24

• Everyone's been talking about the future "Madison" Itanium 2 processor from Intel for so long now that it sometimes feels like the processor is already here. Of course, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Group Bull, NEC, and others have been showing off benchmarks on the forthcoming processor in the past few months, but it isn't actually an available product yet. The scuttlebutt is that Intel and its Itanium partners, which will very likely include IBM and Dell, as well as the vendors mentioned above, are getting ready for the launch of the Madison processor sometime at the end of June or in early July. Madison is expected to run at 1.5 GHz and to include 6 MB of on-chip L3 cache memory, offering about 50 percent more oomph than the current "McKinley" version of the Itanium 2 processor, which runs at 900 MHz and 1 GHz, with either 1.5 MB or 3 MB of on-chip L3 cache. Given Intel's history with the Xeon and Itanium lines, it is likely that the company also will launch a 1.3 GHz version of Madison, with 3 MB or 6 MB of L3 cache, and then charge a premium for the 1.5 GHz, 6 MB L3 cache version of the processor.
  
  
• Analysts at Gartner have done their reckoning of ERP software sales for 2002, and it comes as no surprise that most vendors that sell ERP software saw new license sales decline, after an even more arduous 2001. Chad Eschinger, who watches the application software market for Gartner, said that overall new license sales were down to $5 billion for all of 2002, a decline of 9 percent. He says that customers who have been burned by failed software projects are spending their money a lot more carefully in the current economic climate. The rise of the euro against the dollar also helped the overall market, since, as the table below shows, SAP still commands the highest ERP market share in the world. Looking at the numbers, you can see why companies in the ERP business are trying to eat each other to get some growth. Only British vendor Sage actually saw new license revenue grow last year, and that was after Microsoft bought Navision and Great Plains to try to undercut Sage. The numbers also show that more than half of the money spent on new ERP licenses does not go to the top-five new license sellers. There's still a big ERP ecosystem out there. How long it will remain that way is a very good question, given the pressure that all ERP application providers are under to sell new licenses and to extract more services money from existing customers.
  
  

• It's a complicated time in the ERP market these days. After being rejected by PeopleSoft in its hostile takeover attempt, Oracle last week sweetened the bid to $6.3 billion in cash to PeopleSoft's shareholders. That's a 29 percent premium on PeopleSoft's market capitalization before its announcement of a $1.7 billion acquisition of ERP software rival J.D. Edwards several weeks ago. Oracle's initial offer of $5.1 billion was at only a 5 percent premium. This new bid, which comes as Oracle's executive compensation committee is coming under fire for stock trades in early 2001, before its announcement of less-than-expected financial results. A Delaware court has just ruled that the committee examining the trades was rife with conflicts of interest. Oracle execs are going to be spending a lot of time in Delaware, since that is also where Oracle is suing PeopleSoft, JDE, and their boards of directors for allegedly ducking their fiduciary responsibilities by altering the original PeopleSoft-JDE deal as an all-cash transaction that circumvented the need for a shareholder vote. Oracle has also filed an antitrust argument with the Federal Trade Commission to try to block the PeopleSoft-JDE merger. And in an interesting twist, the attorney general of Connecticut, a state that uses PeopleSoft applications, has sued on antitrust grounds to block Oracle's hostile takeover of PeopleSoft.
  
  
• In other news in the software application market, SSA Global Technologies has acquired privately held Ironside Technologies, a supplier of sell-side, B2B e-commerce software that plugs into ERP software from SAP, J.D. Edwards, SSA GT, Geac, and other popular midrange applications. SSA GT is on a tear to reach $1 billion in annual sales and over 20,000 customers worldwide, and it is fueling this growth with venture capital and acquisitions. Only two weeks ago it acquired the Baan ERP software suite from Invensys. SSA GT is said to have a number of other potential targets in mind, including once high-flying supply chain software makers i2 Technologies and Manugistics. With the ERP market in a slump, there is probably no shortage of vendors that would want to cash out and become part of a larger organization. The problem--and one that any conglomerate faces--is, what does SSA GT do with all of these companies once it owns them?
  
  
• Affirmative Computer Products has rolled out its YEStation 2214 thin client running the Linux operating system a month ahead of schedule, according to company president Charles Winslow. The YEStation Mini model 2214 was launched this spring, running Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, and is based on an X86-compatible system-on-a-chip processor called the SiS550, made by Taiwanese vendor Silicon Integrated Systems. The Linux variant of the YEStation 2214, like the Windows CE variant, has a manufacturer's suggested retail price of under $500. Winslow says that Affirmative is also putting the finishing touches on two new thin clients, the YEStation Mini model 2223 runs an embedded version of Microsoft's Windows NT/2000 operating system and will sell for $695, while the model 2225 will run the embedded version of Windows XP and will cost $745. Both machines will come with Internet Explorer 6.0, support for 5250e and 3270e green-screen emulation, and RDP and ICA terminal server support.
  
  
• COMMON, the largest organization of IBM OS/400 users, last week released its list of most popular sessions (based on attendance figures) from the spring 2003 conference in Indianapolis. With more than 700 sessions planned for the upcoming fall conference, from September 7 through 11 in Orlando, Florida, these most popular classes are a good place to start when filling out your day planner. At the top of everyone's list should be Dr. Frank Soltis's session, "A Vision for the iSeries." Soltis, IBM's iSeries chief scientist, who is widely regarded as the father of the AS/400, provides unique insights on the technological advantages of the hardware and software and how IBM has positioned that technology in 2003 and beyond. It was the most-attended session in the spring and is the odds-on favorite for this fall. Another must-see session is Randall Munson's "Success Through Creativity." Munson has a roomful of COMMON top-speaker awards, and this session, in which he demonstrates how creativity is vital for personal and business success, is the best of several presentations he will make. When it comes to RPG, Jon Paris is one of the top experts on the planet. Paris presented five of the most popular sessions at the spring conference. According to the rankings, conference attendees filled the seats in two sessions he presented on subprocedures, and he also drew large crowds on topics focusing on RPG with the latest versions of OS/400, prototyping, and printing to the Web. Other sessions finishing in the top 10 included "ILE by Example," by Paul Tuohy, "Introduction to WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries," by Dave Muir, "WebSphere Application Server Express," by Pat Fleming, "Why WebSphere?" by Kevin Larson, "Java for RPG Programmers," by Richard Shaler, and "WebFacing 5250 Applications with WebSphere Development Studio," by Linda Cole. To view the entire list of 28 top sessions, go to COMMON's Web site. A word to the wise: Show up early if you want a good seat at any of these sessions. For additional information about COMMON, a complete list of educational sessions and other activities, as well as registration and accommodations for the fall 2003 conference, go to www.common.org.
  
  

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