Last week, a story in this newsletter questioned the apparent slow adoption of IBM i 7.1 by some of the top ERP vendors, as evident by listings in IBM‘s Global Solutions Directory (GSD). While some of the biggest ERP vendors have not updated their GSD listings, it turns out that some of them have already made their software available on IBM i 7.1, and others are close to supporting it, according to an IBM program manager in charge of ERP on the platform.

Following the publication of last week’s story, “IBM i 7.1 Supported by 120 ISVs with 300+

RJS Software Systems last week unveiled a free extension to its RPG2SQL Integrator software that uses the new Rational Open Access: RPG Edition (OAR) technology to connect RPG applications running on IBM i to remote databases. According to RJS, the OAR handler conceals some of the complexity of using RPG2SQL Integrator, and makes it easier for programmers to bring outside databases into the IBM i frame.

RPG2SQL Integrator is an established product that allows IBM i programs to read and write to other databases such as Microsoft‘s SQL Server and Access, Oracle‘s 11g database and MySQL, and

IBM i shops that aren’t afraid to dip their toes into the commercial open source waters may want to take a gander at Jaspersoft, a developer of business intelligence tools written in Java. The San Francisco company recently unveiled JasperReports Server Professional, a full-featured and fully supported version of its core report delivery tool that the company claims can do the job as well as big-name BI packages that cost 10 times more.

JasperReports got its start nine years ago as a SourceForge project to develop an open source reporting tool that can be embedded into Java and Web

IBM last week started shipping Cognos 10.1, the first major release of the business intelligence suite since IBM acquired Cognos in 2007. The new release adds a number of new features, including the capability for users to interact with BI content in a social media context, thanks to the inclusion of Lotus Connections software. IBM also added a new mobile component to Cognos that lets users view BI content from smartphones.

Cognos Business Intelligence is a sprawling suite of BI tools with over a dozen components, sub-components, add-ons, and options. But the software, which runs only on Windows, Linux, and

As a provider of barcode printing and radio frequency identification (RFID) encoding solutions for the IBM i platform, CYBRA has worked with more than a few companies in the apparel business. With that customer experience as guidance, the New York City company is now rolling out new solutions that address some of the printing challenges faced by clothing manufacturers as they apply to item-level RFID tagging, fabric care labels, and the new Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards (VICS) colorized ticket guidelines.

Wal-Mart’s surprise summer announcement–that it was jumping straight into item-level RFID tagging after a disastrous seven-year experiment with pallet-level tagging–has

IBM i systems management tool vendor Halcyon Software recently announced the start of beta testing for Authority Swapper, a new security tool designed to reduce the need for IBM i users to be signed onto the server using powerful user profiles. The vendor also announced a new iPhone interface for its IBM i performance tool.

The October issue of Halcyon Software’s newsletter, called “halcyonnews,” contained two product announcements of interest to its IBM i installed base. The first was the start of beta testing for its new Authority Swapper tool, which would bolster the U.K. software house’s existing security offerings.

IBM will help its business partners transition their on-premise software to cloud-based services at the new Cloud Computing Lab unveiled last week at the IBM facility in Hursley in southern England. IBM cloud computing experts and technology will be made available remotely–as a cloud service, essentially–by partners from any of the 38 IBM Innovation Centers around the world.

There is no shortage of statistics telling us how big cloud computing is going to be. For example, MarketResearch.com last week said that, in 2013, there will be $25 billion spent on cloud computing, including software as a service (SaaS), platform as

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a new casino resort that opens December 15, will use a suite of IBM i-based applications from Agilysys to run the property, the software maker announced last week. Among the packages selected by the new 2,995-room property are the Lodging Management System (LMS) and the Stratton Warren System (SWS).

Agilysys has been working hard lately to develop property management systems (PMSs) that run on platforms other than the Power Systems server from IBM. The new Windows-based Guest 360 PMS system, which is based on functionality found in LMS and SWS, and was developed using

The benefits of an ERP upgrade are readily apparent to the employees of Ford Hotel Supply, a foodservice equipment and supply distributor based in St. Louis, Missouri. After going live with the latest release of VAI‘s IBM i-based ERP package, the company reports that monitoring aspects of its business has never been easier.

For the last 99 years, Ford Hotel Supply has been keeping local restaurants, hotels, hospitals, bars, and other institutions fully stocked with food-making equipment, dishware, tabletop furnishings, and kitchen and bar supplies. The company, which operates warehouses in St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri, has been using

SoftLanding Systems recently unveiled its ITPowerpac for iSeries, a collection of all of the company’s IBM i-based software applications. In addition to the core TurnOver change management software that SoftLanding is known for, the ITPowerpac includes several tools that its parent company, UNICOM Systems, obtained with its 2009 acquisition of Macro4. SoftLanding also announced a discount on the software for anybody who buys a Power Systems server from UNICOM subsidiary CICS.com by the end of the year.

According to SoftLanding’s website, the ITPowerpac contains 13 different IBM i utilities spread across five modules. The modules and their utilities