Infor to Drop Support for IBM i 6.1 with ERP Apps

December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie

Infor will drop support for IBM i 6.1 with some of its most popular ERP products late next year, the company announced last month. It’s the same end-of-support timeframe that IBM itself has for IBM i 6.1.

In November, Infor sent a notice to its customers that it will no longer support or provide enhancements for Infor LX, Infor BPCS, and Infor EAM SSA running on IBM i 6.1 after September 30, 2015.

“Effective Oct 1, 2015,” the company writes, “releases, patches, and solutions delivered may be compiled for IBM i7.1/OST. These Support deliverables will install and function with IBM i7.1/OS operating system software and above. This will require that your operating system be at a minimum release level of IBM i7.1/OS.”

September 30, 2015 is the same day that IBM is planning to end support for IBM i 6.1, according to its support matrix. IBM originally announced IBM i5/OS V6R1 back in January 2008 and delivered it in March of that year, giving it more than seven years of service. However, if IBM’s handling of i5/OS V5R4 is any indication, support for the IBM i 6.1 family of OSes (including IBM i 6.1.1) may be extended to allow customers more time to upgrade to IBM i 7.1 or 7.2.

Infor has many other IBM i products besides BPCS, LX and EAM, of course, including ERP System21, ERP XA (the MAPICS product), and Infor10 Distribution iBusiness (A+). It also still maintains some of the Infinium products on IBM i, as well as the Lawson M3 products. It’s unclear whether Infor has the same end-of-support timeframe for these products.