Take The IBM i Marketplace Survey

October 2, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

In days gone by, IBM used to have a great amount of insight into what was going on at AS/400 shops. But somewhere between the iSeries and through the System i down to Power Systems running IBM i and what is, apparently, being called Db2 instead of DB2 these days, with or without i, Big Blue stopped having the kind of insight that helped us not only understand the trends in our community, but how they related – or didn’t – to the larger IT community.

This community, which is more than a marketplace but still encompasses that, has always been a little different. And the key vendors in the community, in the absence of information from the big IT consultancies and Big Blue itself, have stepped up to poll and survey the IBM i shops that they interface with. For the past several years, HelpSystems, if not the biggest then certainly one of the two biggest software vendors in the IBM i space (rivalling Vision Solutions in size and beating it in the diversity of tools it supplies), has stepped up and not only polled the IBM i customer base, but has put together a report, called the IBM i Marketplace Survey naturally enough, and hosted a set of webinars spanning three time zones – Asia, Europe, and the Americas – to have people in the know comment on the results in each annual survey and the trends over time.

They also let smart-alecks like me participate, which is fun, and as you know, I do not do these things very often. But this one is important. That’s why IT Jungle has always encouraged readers of The Four Hundred to participate in the annual survey put together by HelpSystems, and so have our peers in Europe, PowerWire.eu. Having the widest possible response from the largest number of real users – not consultancies, vendors, or other interested third parties, not matter how keen their interest (like ours!) – gives us all the best view into what the base is up to.

So, in that spirit, we are asking you to spend a little time and play 30 questions with the 2018 IBM i Marketplace Survey, which has just opened up. You can take the survey at this link. The survey is expected to close around October 15, so do it now rather than waiting. Sometime in January 2018, just before the Power9 generation of systems gets into full swing, HelpSystems will make the results of the survey available in its annual report and will also host its webinars to discuss the results. I plan to do the webinars along with Tom Huntingdon, the executive vice president of technical solutions at HelpSystems, and the IBMers – very likely Alison Butterill and Ian Jarman as in years gone by – who participate. We have an interesting year ahead of us, and some good current data will give us some good footing.

Thanks for helping out.

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