ASNA is weeks away from delivering the first beta release of Wings, a new tool for transforming the icky 5250 green screens of IBM i applications into nice modern Web interfaces. The tool, which works by generating Microsoft ASP.NET controls from IBM i display files, uses the new Open Access RPG (OAR) Edition technology that IBM delivered with IBM i 7.1. Wings also provides a new entry point for Monarch, ASNA’s suite of RPG-to-.NET migration tools.

When it becomes available later this quarter, Wings will provide a way for customers to automatically convert their DDS display files into ASP.NET-based Web

IBM i shops that want to develop mobile interfaces to their RPG or COBOL applications were given another option by LANSA last week with the launch of aXes Mobile. As an extension of its established aXes screen modernization tool, the new tool provides a quick route for creating IBM i client interfaces for the hottest handheld devices of the day, including iPhone, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry smartphones, and the surprise corporate hit of the year, the iPad.

aXes is an on-the-fly screen modernization tool that’s designed to be fast and uncomplicated to use. No changes to RPG, COBOL, or DDS

One of the great benefits of an electronic document management system is having a system that captures, indexes, and delivers or archives documents and reports in a single repository allowing greater organizational workflow and retrieval. Much of this work can be automated using standardized forms with numbers or bar codes that assist in indexing and filing. However, there are documents that are non-standard and require individual handling to place them in the correct files. That’s where Desktop Capture, a new product from S4i comes into play.

Let’s take an accounts payable process as an example. The typical documents that relate

QlikTech last week unveiled QlikView 10, a new release of its successful BI software used by thousands of mid-sized companies, including a good number of IBM i shops. With version 10, the company made enhancements across the board, including a new associative search feature that a product manger describes as “slightly magical,” a better and faster user experience, and a new way to connect with data sources.

The new Associative Search feature in QlikView 10 will help users connect the dots when searching for information they can’t quite nail down, says QlikTech senior vice president of product management Anthony Deighton.

CoralTree Systems will be showcasing the new GUI design tool for its Renaissance IBM i Web application development at the Power Shift event being held today in the U.K. The new GUI design tool builds off CoralTree’s recent adoption of the jQuery JavaScript library, and will allow developers to create Web interfaces by dragging and dropping user interface elements from a design palette.

Renaissance is an IBM i Web application development framework that marries IBM‘s CGIDEV2 with modern Web application technology. The software, which is available for free under an open source license, builds on the robust RPG integration

IBM i software developer International Business Systems is now shipping IBS Enterprise7, a new version of its ERP suite used primarily by distributors. New functions include an integrated CRM system, a new Web portal, better scalability, and about 150 other improvements. Meanwhile, the Swedish company’s board of directors scheduled an emergency meeting yesterday after the chairman and one other board member quit over the weekend.

Few details of Enterprise7 were available as this issue of Four Hundred Stuff went to press. But based on the press announcement that IBS put out nearly two weeks ago, Enterprise7 contains a mix of

HiT Software yesterday announced new releases of its OLE and ODBC drivers for accessing the IBM i database from Windows client and server machines. ODBC/400 version 9.0 and OLEDB/400 version 5.0 offer support for the latest Microsoft Windows server and development tools, as well as support for IBM i 7.1.

ODBC/400 and OLEDB/400 are Windows-based middleware products designed for accessing, retrieving, and updating the DB2/400 database from Windows clients and servers. The software, which complies with IBM protocols, is used by third-party vendors and in-house developers who, for whatever reason, are reluctant to use the database drivers that IBM ships

Cost-cutting has never been more in vogue in the world’s companies. And for those in the fashion industry, new releases of Lawson Software‘s pre-configured ERP suites unveiled last week will help slash implementation times by up to 50 percent, the company claims.

Lawson QuickStep for Fashion is a pre-configured version of the company’s M3 line of ERP software, which is often deployed on IBM i servers. The package goes in quickly because Lawson has already adjusted 70 percent of the switches to the most common settings used by clothing manufacturers and distributors. As a result, very little modification is

Quadrant Software recently issued a new release of FastFax, a hardware/software solution that handles fax and e-mail traffic to and from the IBM i server. Organizations adopting FastFax version 4.8 will find faster fax hardware, wider integration with e-mail services, and support for IBM i version 7.1, among other features.

FastFax is a suite of products that integrates fax communications into IBM i environments. The hardware component of FastFax is a “black box” fax server, which is a regular X86-based PC computer equipped with Windows and one or more fax communication cards.

On the software side, FastFax integration with IBM

Organizations that send out bulk communications to try and drum up business may soon be able to increase the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns by using new digital identifier technology from Acxiom, a software and services firm that aims to develop and keep accurate contact and background information for … well, basically everybody.

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Acxiom has developed a solid reputation for gathering data about consumers (such as their current and past addresses or their credit history), and selling it to organizations that need it, such as an auto dealership assessing the risk of a potential