iAdvocacy Resources On Demand

November 5, 2013 Dan Burger

The IBM midrange community, as a group, can be influential. But many individuals are unaware of the power of advocacy and what it can mean for their own organizations. Like a flashlight in a dark cave, advocacy for the IBM i system can prevent companies from making uninformed decisions.

There are proven advocacy successes, but there are also instances when the lack of advocacy results in the IBM i becoming a forgotten entity, a misunderstood system, and the black sheep of the IT department. It’s fair to say that too often the information about the i is locked up in the heads of IBM i professionals due to an uncertainty how to advocate or an unwillingness to effectively advocate.

You may not know this, but System i Developer, the education and training company that produces the twice annual RPG & DB2 Summit conferences, has an accessible repository of IBM i advocacy resources available to IBM i professionals with data and presentation materials that can be used to communicate the strengths of IBM i as a business application platform. The resources are free. The results are not guaranteed, but the results of doing nothing could guarantee second-class status to your first-class system. It’s happened more than once.

Just a few years ago, this iAdvocate repository of resources did not exist. But as the subject of advocacy became a more frequent and more serious topic of discussion, the repository continued to add tools and helpful advice. Last week, System i Developer added a few new resources.

“Twenty-Five Years of IBM i Innovation” is a presentation originally developed by IBM evangelist Ian Jarman. Most IT Jungle readers know Jarman as the most consistent IBM executive associated with the platform. General managers have come and gone–IBM rotates them through on approximately 18-month schedules–but Jarman has championed the platform for years. He put together the i25 presentation for the 25th anniversary of the platform and supports the use of it by individuals who are making a case for what the IBM i can accomplish for their own businesses.

“The 25 Years of IBM i Innovation materials are as a great way of educating the IBM i illiterate [the non-i business and IT executives] using simple, everyday comparisons,” says Susan Gantner, partner at System i Developer. “The stories are interesting and memorable, and they drive home just why the IBM i is the strongest platform for business.”

The resource includes Jarman’s speaker notes (he’s made several presentations on this topic) as well as a companion white paper.

Other iAdvocate resources include benchmark results for SAP on IBM i as well as independent cost/benefit research findings for SAP on IBM i.

Included in the research is a database comparison between DB2 for i and the highly publicized SAP HANA in-memory database, which–although it is not an apples to apples match–put the two databases in a virtual tie, a fact that clearly delighted Gantner.

“In spite of all the hype from SAP and Oracle, our very own DB2 for i has had in-memory capability for 25 years–35 if you count the System/38,” Gantner says. “Mike Cain set that record straight on his blog. It speaks to our database’s efficiency for any business application, not just SAP.”

Cain is a senior technical staff member at IBM’s DB2 for i Center of Excellence. He is also a regular speaker and presenter at the RPG and DB2 Summits on database topics and the lead presenter of an iAdvocacy session at the conferences.

One of the key resources in the iAdvocate repository is a multi-step process for making an effective presentation to decision makers written by Cain, who has a track record of making effective presentations to promote the IBM i in many organizations that have considered migrations. It is focused on techniques to articulate the IBM i message and influence decision makers within our organizations.

The System i Developer iAdvocate program and resource page contains more than 25 sources of useful information in the following categories: skills and tips, presentations and white papers, case studies, independent research, SAP on i, capabilities, inspiration, and finding young developers.