Dan Burger
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Temp Workers Remain An IT Hiring Favorite
August 15, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe IT job market continues to favor the temporary worker over the full-time employee, a trend that is most often tied to the weak economy, but may also signal a trend that will not reverse itself even after the economy picks up some long overdue momentum. Based on a quarterly survey of IT leaders, four out of 10 IT managers and executives expect to increase IT staffing using temporary workers during the next three months.
“Continued economic uncertainty makes contract workers more appealing,” says TEKsystems market research manager, Tania Lavin. “IT leaders would rather hire consultants on a project-to-project basis
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IBM Uncorks RPG Open Access Trial Version
August 8, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe scarecrow got a brain, the tin man got a heart, the cowardly lion got courage, and the RPG developer community finally got a free trial version of Rational Open Access: RPG Edition. It took a lot of patience and a lot of suggestion box stuffing, but IBM did deliver. Whether this small but significant step will lead to a surge in modern RPG development is yet to be seen. But it is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
Most importantly, it shows IBM’s support for RPG, one of the few programming languages created by Big Blue for business
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The OCEAN View: More Skills, Less Blame
August 8, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe best use of an IT manager’s time is planning IT strategy. Many would say this sounds good on paper, but the reality of the job pushes this best practice down the priority list. There are many sickening symptoms that arise, not the least of which is a disease that affects the IT staff. It’s called skills atrophy. Its weakening effects may not be noticed in the early stages. Yet, one day, when business units call on IT to do some heavy lifting, the muscle isn’t there. The next sound you hear is the complaining of the business strategists.
Just
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Lessons from a Bad MSP Trip
August 8, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreA few weeks ago, I wrote an article about hosted services in the IBM i market. Although there are many offerings, the only area where there’s a noticeable customer interest is in data backup and recovery. You can find plenty of vendors offering everything from exclusively backup to disaster recovery and high availability. Competition is good, but comparisons are not always easy. Services and prices vary and sometimes surprises are not pleasant.
The perception of managed service providers is pretty good overall. There are many more companies that are pleased than those that believe they were mistreated. One of the
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inFORM Decisions Adds Conditioning to Data Mapping Tool
July 26, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreBig things come in small packages. For instance, version 3 of the iMap electronic forms utility just released by inFORM Decisions. It is the mapping component for iForms, the company’s suite of products for converting spool files into laser printer output or electronic documents, which run natively on the IBM i platform. With version 3, it should be easier for non-technical people to customize how iMap distributes documents.
iForms was designed to allow companies to create their own business forms and reports rather than purchasing those documents from printing vendors and incurring those costs. And for companies that are
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RPG Open Access Suffering from Inaccessibility
July 25, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreYou would think that in any IT community, especially one as tight as the IBM i community, there would be few, if any, secrets. But that doesn’t do justice to IBM, where apparently it is believed that loose lips sink ships. A good example is RPG Open Access. Funny how you could have something called Open Access and yet hardly anyone talks about it except the proponents of modern RPG.
Here’s a tool, officially referred to as Rational Open Access: RPG Edition, that had RPG developers overflowing sessions at the COMMON 2010 Conference. It was one of the first
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Hosted Services And Great Expectations
July 18, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreFor 10 or more years, we’ve been hearing how hosted or managed services, software as a service, and cloud computing is sweeping across the business landscape picking up customers like a Hoover sucks up dirt. But what is “the dirt” here? In the IBM i user community quite a few ISVs offer shared computing models. But it doesn’t seem like the world is beating a path to the managed services door.
Not long ago, I read a survey-based article that indicated one out of every four small to midsize companies are using cloud services. The article forecasted that one out
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CEOs and CFOs Pull Rank On CIOs In IT Purchasing Decisions
July 18, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreHere’s a report that should be read by those who want the Power Systems IBM i platform to be marketed more effectively. It’s all about delivering the message to where the decisions are being made, which–according to the analysts at Gartner–is increasingly found at the desk of the top financial executive rather than the top IT executive.
Gartner surveyed two financial organizations, which certainly skews the results, but even with slightly tarnished revelations the results are noteworthy and perhaps cause for concern because it comes down to who’s driving the IT bus. The contingent with the financial credentials say
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iManifest EMEA Plans Webcast, IBM i Collateral
July 11, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe iManifest EMEA group is ringing the bell once again and hoping to bring together a more comprehensive cluster of like-minded IBM i enthusiasts willing to put effort into promoting the strengths and benefits of the platform to an audience that is largely ignorant or misinformed about IBM‘s midrange system. A webcast to present collective and collaborative ideas, as well as to solicit feedback, is scheduled for July 29 at 10 a.m. EDT.
Andrew Nicholson, sales and marketing manager at Utilities 400, an IBM i vendor based in the United Kingdom, serves as the group’s lightning rod and
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Lawson Stockholders Approve Infor Merger. What’s Next?
July 11, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe fat lady has sung. The curtain closed last week on the IT opera featuring ERP software companies Infor and Lawson Software after Lawson stockholders voted to approve the merger with GGC Software Holdings, an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital, the money watchers that direct the moves for Infor.
The merger agreement was approved by approximately 69 percent of the total number of shares outstanding and by more than 98 percent of the shares voted. The merger-related executive compensation package was approved by more than 93 percent of the shares voted.
Previously, the Lawson board of directors unanimously approved