Dan Burger
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Third Party’s A Charm For JDE Maintenance Contracts
April 23, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreLike a fur coat on a hot summer day, the cost of software maintenance is making a lot of companies sweat. Maintenance has always been a factor whether it relates to purchased or home-grown software, but in recent times its shadow grew while budgets were pinched. Nowhere in the IBM i community has this issue been more apparent than among JD Edwards users. JDE apps have a large installed base, and ever since Oracle took over JDE, it has become the lightning rod example.
On average, the annual software maintenance fees come in at around 20 percent of the total
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IBM Sells Retail Systems Biz To Rival Toshiba For $850 Million
April 23, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM, the global leader in point of sale and related retail store systems, has checked out. Big Blue has bagged another portion of its hardware business, and the IBM cash register is singing to the tune of $850 million. Stepping up as buyer and partner is Toshiba TEC, which cartwheels from fourth to first in the POS field leaving behind the likes of Hewlett Packard, NCR, Panasonic, and Fujitsu. That trio has yet to react to the sale and multi-year agreement between IBM and Toshiba, which creates a formidable tandem.
Toshiba, which is Japan’s
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Coglin Mill And Help/Systems Tag Team For Analytics
April 23, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt’s fair to say business analytics on the IBM i platform has a more serious business attitude compared to some of the lightweight activities that get lumped into this category on less robust systems. And you’ve probably heard the complaints about insufficient analytical capabilities that do little or nothing to solve real business problems. The failure of deployments to achieve the hoped for objectives shakes the confidence of CEOs contemplating business intelligence projects at all levels.
It also raises questions about the wisdom of taking data from the IBM i platform and feeding databases on other platforms when the decision
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IBM Honors Its Top Technologists With Fellow Status
April 16, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreSadly, science and technology creates few celebrities. The occasional Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg breaks into the limelight, but they are known more for being successful business people than scientists and technologists. Almost all the incredible innovators in the IT world remain anonymous on the worldwide stage.
But excellence does not go unrewarded. Each year since 1962, IBM selects a handful of employees to receive its most prestigious technical honor. It’s a rare club, the IBM Fellows, made up of individuals who have played a leading role in developing some of the world’s most important technologies; the Fellow
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Companies Still Bullish On Business Intelligence Spending
April 16, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreResearchers at Gartner have launched another revenue rocket. Last week at its Business Intelligence Summit in Los Angeles, the company reported the combination of business intelligence and analytic applications and performance management software soared to $12.2 billion in 2011. Compared to the $10.5 billion that 2010 generated and the $9.3 billion that fell into this column in 2009, it’s a pretty impressive trajectory. Gartner ranked it the second-fastest growing sector in the overall worldwide enterprise software market in 2011.
Gartner analyst Dan Sommer described the interest in BI as not being defined decisions based on either a build or buy.
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JDA To Restate Financials From 2008 Through 2011
April 16, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreBased on the ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission review of its revenue recognition policies, JDA Software Group will be restating its annual and quarterly financial results during fiscal years 2008 through 2011. Previously issued financial statements from that time period should no longer be relied upon. JDA provides supply chain management software for the retail industry. The company’s software runs on machines equipped with IBM i as well as other operating systems.
The audit committee of JDA’s board of directors signed off on the plan to restate the company’s financial results. According to JDA, the anticipated adjustments center on two
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SQL Conference Puts Spotlight on IBM i
April 10, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreDatabase expertise begins with the ability to analyze database performance and scalability, create new features and functionality, recognize what not to change, and identify where changes are appropriate. And for RPG and COBOL application developers who haven’t already done so, learning SQL and using it to access the DB2 for i (DB2/400) database, is one of the skills that separates the modern programmer from the legacy folks. It’s a foregone conclusion the IBM i shops of the future will have these tools in the shed.
It’s with this in mind that System i Developer put together a two-day technical conference
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Checking For Cracks In The Technology Foundation
April 9, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreHave you ever come face to face with the reality that you are not getting what you paid for? You make IT investments like a Power Systems server running IBM i, but don’t come close to taking full advantage of the platform. The sad truth is that your hardware and software are loaded with unused capabilities. You paid for them, but you get value out of only the features you use. It’s sort of like paying the cable TV company for 150 channels, but never watching more than 10.
This is not a recent phenomenon, but it does seem to
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Avnet Jumps For WebSphere, Rational Services Provider
April 9, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreMastering the mechanics of managing information technology investments to be properly aligned with business goals is a skill that won’t go unrewarded. Ascendant Technology has done a pretty good job with that. Avnet, one of the giant master resellers in the IT business, took notice. Last week Avnet announced it was acquiring Ascendant, a move that emphasizes the importance of services in the current and future IT market.
“Avnet’s acquisition of Ascendant Technology is expected to accelerate our global solutions distribution model,” said Phil Gallagher, global president of Avnet Technology Solutions. “It supports our strategic focus on enhancing our
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Making A Case For IBM i
April 2, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe IBM i community has never suffered from a lack of advocates. Those who know it best know it to be a highly capable platform with many attributes that make it superior in many ways to other platforms. The Smarter Computing message that IBM has built its marketing message around is IBM i computing. There are innovative businesses around the world proving this. And there are companies that have resisted change riding the old AS/400 horse for far too long with little or no attempt to move with the system into the modern world.
The overall perception of the platform