Dan Burger
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JDA MMS Users Get Incentive to Go Paperless
May 3, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreBuilding on its existing partnership with JDA Software Group, IntelliChief has enhanced its content management system based on tighter integration with JDA’s i OS-based Merchandise Management System (MMS). This latest development brings JDA users electronic document management capabilities directly from their MMS screens–adding convenience and increased efficiency to processes like invoice routing, approvals, and paperwork filing.
IntelliChief vice president of sales and marketing Michael Rooney said in a statement the improvements in integration and implementation is expected to result in more JDA users converting from paper-based to digital-based systems. Rooney cited the capability to search and retrieve documents directly
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End of V5R3 Support, Not End of the World, for Virginia County
May 2, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere are 95 counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And based on a few phone calls I made last week, it seems fair to estimate about 75 of those local governments run their core business applications on what most people there would call the IBM AS/400. That includes some just-out-of-the-box iron as well as some machines that are getting a little long in the tooth. Clarke County has a six-year-old IBM iSeries 520. And that’s where this story begins.
A week ago, Clarke County’s Joint Administrative Services (JAS) committee met to contemplate, cogitate, and deliberate whether an upgrade of county’s
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Annual COMMON Conference Comes to You
April 25, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreLive from Minneapolis . . . it’s COMMON LiveTrack. Although you may be blue about missing out on the educational sessions, the vendor expo, and the networking with your IBM Power Systems brethren at the COMMON 2011 Annual Meeting and Exposition, you have an opportunity to see what and who you are missing during the May 1 through 4 event. Portions of the largest event exclusively for IBM i and Power Systems users will be free and a separate smorgasbord of educational sessions can be viewed for a fee ($299 for COMMON members and $399 for non-members).
The free
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iManifest EMEA Getting Back On Its Feet
April 25, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreBased on the results of a Webcast earlier this month, iManifest EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) is reported to have had a successful re-launch. The group is planning a second Webcast May 17.
According to a press release from Andrew Nicholson, sales and marketing manager at Utilities 400, an IBM i vendor based in the United Kingdom, the keynote speech by Frank Soltis “rallied the troops with his thoughts on why the movement is necessary in EMEA and his aspiration for the platform in the future.” Soltis, the chief scientist of the platform when it was known as
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New Conference Specializes in DB2 for i and SQL
April 19, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreSQL is not shorthand for squirrel. And if that’s just about all you know about it, you need to get out a little more often. Companies that haven’t changed the design, configuration, and implementation of their database systems since the cell phone was invented have a few lessons to learn about IBM DB2 for i (DB2/400) and SQL. Coincidentally, that’s what the folks at System i Developer had in mind for a new conference called DB2 for i Directions.
System i Developer is the same group that has presented the popular RPG & DB2 Summit conference twice a year since
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ERP Survey Leads to Oracle’s Answers
April 18, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe results of corporate-funded surveys are as predictable as finding donut crumbs in the conference room after RPG development team meeting. These surveys are designed to give the appearance of independent authority, but they rarely mask the built-in bias. In this case, I think Oracle is propping up its marketing efforts with a survey report that reveals what we already agree with while adding support for exactly what it wants to sell. If you have software upgrade worries, read this survey warily.
Just last week, Oracle was chirping about a survey of more than 400 enterprise application managers that confirms
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IBM and ISV Partnerships: What’s In It For Us?
April 18, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe relationship between IBM and the independent software vendors is built on mutual success. But where might that lead in terms of overall success and the health of the platform? It can mean a lot. As a case in point, let’s take a look at New Generation Software, maker of business intelligence software for IBM i shops.
Toward the end of 2010 NGS stepped up the IBM business partner ladder from the Advanced Partner rung to the Premier Partner position, a significant change in status.
IBM has a point system that allows ISVs, for example, to progress in what
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COMMON: The Blues Play Well in Minneapolis
April 11, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreAre you Blue? I’m not talking about you nearly frozen survivors of the winter of 2010-11. I’m talking about the IBM Power Systems users who support Big Blue. The COMMON 2011 Annual Meeting and Exposition is only three weeks away. It’s almost time to pack the bags and head to Minneapolis, where last week COMMON president Pete Massiello told me there will be “a lot of cool things going on.”
First of all, let’s take into account that IBM Rochester, always the hive of IBM i activity, is down the road from Minneapolis. It stands to reason that the COMMON
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Rimini Street Sets New Financial Highs
April 11, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreWhile Oracle maneuvers to balance higher maintenance fees with some customers unwilling to pay those fees, Rimini Street keeps doing what it can to serve those customers a lower-cost maintenance deal. The businesses that Oracle has driven to the brink are the same ones that are helping Rimini Street set records.
Last week, Rimini Street reported that its Q1 revenue was the highest in the company’s history and its growth approached 100 percent in year-over-year quarterly sales bookings compared to the first quarter of 2010.
Rimini Street provides alternative service contracts for organizations using Oracle software brands such as Siebel,
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IBM’s Brill Says Email is Overrated
April 4, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreEmail is a big part of business. Before terms like collaboration and social business began dominating the lexicon, email was the digital darling that replaced much of the snail mail and faxing that relied on “hard copies” and filing cabinets. Last week, IBM emailed me. The media relations person wrote to say Ed Brill, the director of messaging for the Lotus division, was in the mood to talk about email and its role as a collaboration tool. That struck me as odd.
It’s strange because Brill and the other executives at the Lotus division of Software Group normally don’t have