• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • SNAP: It’s looksoftware’s Office GUI for ERP on i

    April 8, 2008 Alex Woodie

    Last week at the COMMON conference in Nashville, Tennessee, looksoftware gave a formal name, SNAP, to its solution that allows users to access ERP applications running on i (formerly i5/OS and OS/400) servers from the comfort of their favorite graphical productivity tools, such as Office or Google. The first SNAP solution will soon be available for Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server, with support for Lotus Notes and WebSphere Portal expected in the future.

    For years, Australia-based looksoftware has been chasing the application modernization business on the popular 64-bit server known before Wednesday as the System i. The company’s group of tools, collectively known as the Dynamic Environment, enable users to accomplish a range of modernization chores, including refacing 5250 screens with HTML, building composite apps, creating smart client interfaces, eliminating interactive CPW usage, enabling offline access, and creating Web services.

    And about 11 months ago, the company announced it was following in the footsteps of the “Duet” Office interface project between Microsoft and SAP by enabling customers to access any RPG- or COBOL-based application from the comfort of the Outlook e-mail program or using Google’s Gadgets interface.

    That project was formally christened SNAP at last week’s COMMON gathering, a name that pays homage to the Dynamic ‘Snap-Ins’ that Microsoft delivered more than two years ago. The first SNAP offerings will support Office 2007 and SharePoint Server, Microsoft’s portal environment, and will be delivered in June 2008, the company says.

    The SNAP products will allow users to access their Web-enabled ERP screens (primarily JD Edwards and BPCS) from the comfort of their e-mail client or portal interface. Outlook users are able to switch between their e-mail or calendar views and their ERP screens with the click of a mouse, and full functionality of the ERP program (including support for workflows) is maintained. With Office 07, looksoftware even enables access to Microsoft’s “ribbon” interface for accomplishing other tasks.

    Following the release of SNAPs for Outlook and SharePoint in June, looksoftware will deliver additional SNAPs for Google Gadgets, Lotus Notes, and WebSphere Portal, according to Marcus Dee, managing director of looksoftware.

    The company is also working on supporting additional back-end applications with its SNAP programs. JD Edwards and BPCS are the most popular ERP applications, so looksoftware has them ready out of the box. But it’s not a big deal to support other RPG or COBOL applications, Dee says.

    One deal has Agilysys, developer of the i-based Materials Management System (MMS) that is used by MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, the Venetian, and 80 percent of the casinos on the Las Vegas strip, developing a SNAP component to give customers access to MMS from Office. “Around 70 percent of users of MMS actually spent most of their day in Microsoft Outlook,” says Arjen Verkerk of Agilysys, “so providing MMS integration with Office means our customers can cut costs through streamlined workflows.”

    While SNAP for Office is not yet available, it has been given a workout at beta sites, including adidas Korea. “Our end users are very happy with the improved user experience and additional functionality,” says B.H. Lee, team leader of the company’s IT department. “They love the seamless integration with Microsoft Office, and now think the System i is wonderful!”

    RELATED STORIES

    looksoftware Gives Adidas Korea’s Green-Screen ERP an Office Interface

    looksoftware’s Modernization Suite Resembling a Full IDE

    Look, Ma, 5250 App Access from Outlook, Google

    Microsoft ‘Snap-Ins’ to Smooth Integration from Desktop to ERP



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    Midrange Dynamics North America

    Git up to speed with MDChange!

    Git can be lightning-fast when dealing with just a few hundred items in a repository. But when dealing with tens of thousands of items, transaction wait times can take minutes.

    MDChange offers an elegant solution that enables you to work efficiently any size Git repository while making your Git experience seamless and highly responsive.

    Learn more.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Sponsored Links

    MoshiMoshi:  An Interactive Experience for the System i Community. See Episode 1 now!
    Northeast User Groups:  18th Annual Conference, April 14-16, 2008, Sheraton Hotel, Framingham, MA
    LANSA:  It's Time for 4 days of education at the LANSA User Conference, May 4 – 7, in Orlando

    IT Jungle Store Top Book Picks

    Easy Steps to Internet Programming for AS/400, iSeries, and System i: List Price, $49.95
    Getting Started with PHP for i5/OS: List Price, $59.95
    The System i RPG & RPG IV Tutorial and Lab Exercises: List Price, $59.95
    The System i Pocket RPG & RPG IV Guide: List Price, $69.95
    The iSeries Pocket Database Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket Developers' Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket SQL Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket Query Guide: List Price, $49.00
    The iSeries Pocket WebFacing Primer: List Price, $39.00
    Migrating to WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    iSeries Express Web Implementer's Guide: List Price, $59.00
    Getting Started with WebSphere Development Studio for iSeries: List Price, $79.95
    Getting Started With WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries: List Price, $89.00
    Getting Started with WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    WebFacing Application Design and Development Guide: List Price, $55.00
    Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?: List Price, $49.00
    The All-Everything Machine: List Price, $29.95
    Chip Wars: List Price, $29.95

    Linden Lab, IBM to Take Virtual Worlds Corporate and Private SQL Doesn’t Like Logical Files

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 8, Number 14 -- April 8, 2008
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

ProData Computer Services
Bytware
Aura Equipments
nuBridges
RJS Software Systems

Table of Contents

  • Profound Ships New Web-Based DB2/400 Editor
  • Coglin Mill Debuts Lower Cost Versions of ETL Tools
  • Linoma Unveils Browser-Based Data Transfer Tool
  • RJS Adds Document Capture, Packaging Offerings to WebDocs
  • Readers Respond to “IBM Changes Name Back to AS/400 . . .”
  • PowerTech Updates Security Tools for i6.1
  • Jack Henry Unleashes Hosted DR for i Systems
  • SNAP: It’s looksoftware’s Office GUI for ERP on i
  • Domino Security Gets System i Watchdog
  • Original Launches Web Site for Manual Software Testing

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Public Preview For Watson Code Assistant for i Available Soon
  • COMMON Youth Movement Continues at POWERUp 2025
  • IBM Preserves Memory Investments Across Power10 And Power11
  • Eradani Uses AI For New EDI And API Service
  • Picking Apart IBM’s $150 Billion In US Manufacturing And R&D
  • FAX/400 And CICS For i Are Dead. What Will IBM Kill Next?
  • Fresche Overhauls X-Analysis With Web UI, AI Smarts
  • Is It Time To Add The Rust Programming Language To IBM i?
  • Is IBM Going To Raise Prices On Power10 Expert Care?
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 20

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle