• Admin Alert: Auditing Your IBM i Software Maintenance Bills

  December 12, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  Dealing with IBM i third-party maintenance can be a pain. You buy a software package once, but wind up paying yearly maintenance bills for the life of the application, paying 15 percent or more of the original purchase price per year. And the vendor may increase the cost on a yearly basis. This week, I’ll discuss software maintenance fees and give you some tips on keeping your maintenance costs down. Basic IBM i Maintenance Third-party software maintenance is a necessary but expensive proposition for IBM i vendors. Software vendors need to charge yearly maintenance to provide cash flow for creating

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• BASS: Build A Spreadsheet

  December 12, 2012 Ted Holt

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. This code was updated on 12/22/14. Everybody needs a project–something to putter with in order to relieve stress and deal with the vicissitudes of life. I would like to tell you about a project that I’ve been working on for the past few months. I only wrote it for the fun of it, but it has already come in handy. It seems that not a week goes by without someone asking me to stop providing them a report as a PDF and give it to them in Excel

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• End-Of-Year Odds And Ends

  December 12, 2012 Ted Holt

  Dear Esteemed Colleagues: We made it through another year! Thanks to you, along with our writers and advertisers, this august publication is 11 years old! Who’da thunk it? Let’s wind up 2012 with various and sundry items that you sent my way. –Ted Hey, Ted: I am using SQL to query an index, similar to what I do for a logical file. The system is responding with error SQL7011 (SOMEINDEX in SOMELIB not table, view, or physical file.) Could you please shed some light on why it is happening? –Jabir What you’re trying to do makes sense from

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• Trinium Keeps on Trucking with Mobile Interface from mrc

  December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Chalk up another win for mrc, the developer of Web application development tools for IBM i and other platforms. Last week, the Chicago, Illinois, company announced the roll-out of a new mobile interface that it helped build for trucking software provider Trinium Technologies. Trinium-MC2 is a Web app that lets truck drivers communicate with their Trinium dispatch system directly from any smartphone or tablet. Dispatch instructions can be sent, received, acknowledged, and completed by drivers on their smartphones or tablets, the vendors say. Trinium says it already has more than 1,000 users of M2C, which mrc and Trinium

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• Midsize Manufacturers Crave Mobile ERP, Survey Says

  December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Midsize manufacturers, one of the sweet spots for IBM i ERP, have a hearty appetite for mobile interfaces into their ERP systems, according to a new survey commissioned by South African ERP software developer SYSPRO. The survey, which focused on midsize manufacturers and distributors in the US with revenues between $20 million and $300 million, aimed to illuminate what decision makers in those companies thought of several questions, including whether they would like to have mobile interfaces to ERP systems, whether they’d like to have point of sale (POS) functionality embedded into ERP systems, and whether they would prefer

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• NCR to Buy Retalix for $650 Million

  December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

  NCR has inked a deal with the board of Retalix to buy the retail ERP software maker for $30 per share, or $650 million, the companies announced last week. Retalix develops software that retail chains use to manage their business. The company’s lineup consists of merchandising, point of sale, supply chain, logistics, and marketing components. Many of the company’s offerings are Windows based, including its flagship Retalix 10 in-store management system. However, its Power Enterprise line, which is a distribution-focused ERP solution, runs on the IBM i platform. Some of its offerings are developed in Java. Retalix says its software

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• Magic Teams Up with Samsung in Smartphone Pact

  December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Magic Software last week announced it has hooked up with Samsung, the biggest maker of Android smartphones and tablets, in a bid to gain a share of the booming market for enterprise mobility solutions. Samsung’s Enterprise Alliance Program provides a way for software vendors and integrators to get assistance from Samsung in developing and bringing to market applications for the South Korean company’s successful Galaxy line of Android phones and tablets. There are four levels of membership in the program, including bronze, silver, gold, and platinum levels. Silver partners, such as Magic, gain an advantage in building “differentiated user

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• Lavastorm Rains on Fraudster Parades

  December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Fraud is big business. It’s tough to pin an exact number on the size of fraud. By one account, fraud commonly accounts for five percent of a company’s annual revenues, or an average of $160,000. Whatever the numbers might be, here’s one thing that’s certain: There is a growing need for companies to protect themselves through the use of fraud management systems (FMS), such as the new Lavastorm Fraud Manager recently released by the smart folks at Lavastorm Analytics. Detecting fraud has been one of the many things you could do with the Lavastorm Analytics Platform, which is sort

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• Software License Audits and Penalties Are Up: True That

  December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

  If you’ve been asked to “true up” with your software vendor for exceeding your application license allotment following an audit, you’re not alone. According to a recent IDC report commissioned by Flexera Software, software vendors are getting more aggressive and seeking more compensation from customers who use more software than they pay for. According to IDC’s report, titled “2012 Key Trends in Software Pricing and Licensing Survey,” more of what organizations spend on applications is coming in the form of “true up” penalties that they must pay to software vendors following an audit. How much more? By one account,

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• IBM Flexes Its Power Systems Muscle with Wins at Overseas Banks

  December 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i platform has long been a favorite among midsize American banks and credit unions. But increasingly, IBM is doing a brisk business selling Power Systems servers to banks overseas. Since August, IBM has announced deals in India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Ghana. Not all of these deals are IBM i deals, but Bank Ekonomi Raharja (BER) in Indonesia certainly is. BER is a longtime AS/400 customer that sought to modernize its banking platform following its acquisition by UK banking giant HSBC in 2009. The bank acquired two Power Systems servers, including a Model 770 and a Model

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