The business intelligence project gone array is one of the most feared events in an IT professional’s career. Perhaps you’re familiar with an organization that spent millions of dollars on complex software, powerful hardware, and high-priced developers, only to be left with a cantankerous data warehouse that is more trouble than it’s worth. One BI software vendor with a decidedly different approach to information illumination is Datawatch, whose Monarch suite bases BI development efforts on a trusted asset that most organizations already have in abundance: reports.

The special trick that makes Monarch unique is its capability to recreate live

When it comes to the class of i OS software known as a governor buster, people tend to speak evasively, in hushed tones. Nobody wants to experience the wrath of IBM lawyers for making and selling software whose sole purpose is to unlock computer processing power that customers have not paid for. Everybody remembers what happened to Fast400. And while the Spanish company American Top Tools avoids the limelight, it continues to sell the GoFaster CFINT buster to AS/400 and iSeries shops around the world.

American Top Tools started selling GoFaster in 2002, soon after IBM ramped up its policy

System i users who have found it difficult to properly configure the IBM i OS FTP functions to render information that isn’t garbled upon transmission to a PC platform may find a solution with the latest release of Shield Advanced Solutions‘ FTP Client. With version 6.1, Shield says it has taken care of disparities in default CCSID settings in IBM i OS that tend to turn information into garbage at the other end of the FTP pipe.

There are a number of ways that the IBM i OS platform is different from its “open systems” counterparts. For starters, almost

Quadrant Software recently issued a new release of its FastFax product that delivers support for multiple time zones, which will provide organizations with geographically dispersed operations greater control of when faxes are sent out. FastFax version 4.7.6 also includes support for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, and compatibility with the latest Brooktrout fax cards from Dialogic.

Quadrant’s FastFax suite of products enable users to distribute i5/OS spool file output as either a fax or an e-mail, and also allows users to receive faxes and manage them from their favorite e-mail environment. The offering includes a “black box”

Linoma Software became the latest System i software vendor to join iManifest U.S., the grass-roots initiative founded last year to promote the System i in the United States. With last month’s pledge, Linoma joins close to 100 other companies around the world in the drive to spread the word about the System i platform.

Linoma joined iManifest to help shed more light on IBM i, says Bob Luebbe, chief software architect for the Ashland, Nebraska, software company.

“Any company that uses an IBM i understands its proven abilities, reliability, and speed,” Luebbe says in press release. “I think the

Organizations that use IBM‘s Lotus Sametime software for real-time communication and collaboration will find several new features with version 8.5, which became available in late December. Notably, the online meeting portion of the software has been enhanced, the audio should sound better thanks to updated codecs, and there are updated Sametime browser-based clients for iPhone, Blackbettery, and Windows Mobile smart phones.

Lotus Sametime is IBM’s entry into the “unified communications” software category for sharing voice, video, and data. The product delivers several ways that users can communicate in real-time, including via the product’s instant messaging (IM) client or through

Varsity Logistics and Island Pacific, two enterprise software vendors from California that have made their living in the IBM System i ecosystem, established a new partnership recently that will see each company leveraging the i-based strengths–as well as the customer lists–of the other.

The newly announced partnership between Varsity Logistics, a developer of i OS-based transportation management software based in South San Francisco, and Island Pacific, a developer of i OS-based retail and warehouse management software based in Irvine, is all about the “i.”

As the companies note, both vendors have a long history of providing System i-based enterprise

The First International Bank of Israel (FIBI) has standardized its System i security on software from Raz-Lee Security following a successful trial period, the vendor announced last month. The announcement marks another customer win for Raz-Lee, whose R&D organization continues to distinguish itself with innovative products.

Founded nearly 40 years ago, FIBI is the firth largest banking group in Israel, and today operates 175 branches in the country, as well as FIBI Bank branches in England and Switzerland. Through its various subsidiaries, the group provides an array of financial services, including deposits, commercial and private lending, securities trading, pension consulting,

First National Bank, a $274 million bank in Hope, Arkansas, has elected to replace an aging and cobbled-together banking system with a new i OS-based core banking system from Jack Henry & Associates, the software vendor announced last month. And instead of running the CIF 20/20 software in house, First National has elected to let Jack Henry run it for them.

First National Bank was facing a crossroads when it came to its information technology systems. The bank, which operates six branches in Arkansas and Texas, was coming to the end of its contract with its existing application provider,

Wolf Construction, a mid size general contractor in Topeka, Kansas, has elected to adopt an outsourced implementation of Computer Guidance Corp.‘s i OS-based Construction Management System (eCMS), the software vendor announced last month.

eCMS provides mid- to large-size contractors and other companies in the construction industry with a integrated platform for financial accounting, project management, and bidding capabilities. The application, which runs exclusively on the IBM i (OS/400) platform, has been offered via the software as a service (SaaS) delivery method since CGC rolled out its outsourcing business model last summer.

Wolf Construction signed a license with CGC