The new IBM i Solution Edition program that IBM re-launched last August appears to have paid immediate dividends. Not only has participation by ISVs expanded four-fold, but it looks as though the program was well received by customers in the fourth-quarter. And with a new lower-cost, four-core Model 720 in the Solution Edition mix, the practice of selling enterprise applications pre-bundled and pre-integrated with IBM hardware and software looks to be one of the best things the platform has going for it in 2011.

While IBM won’t release its fourth-quarter results until the markets close this afternoon, there are indications

Symtrax recently launched a new release of its business intelligence query tool, called StarQuery, that is fully Unicode compliant, which enables the software to display the complex character sets used in Asian languages. JD Edwards customers will also notice a significant performance improvement when they use StarQuery version 3.3, the vendor says.

StarQuery is a Windows-based query tool unveiled by Symtrax in late 2003 as a replacement for its XL400 product. The core components of the StarQuery suite include a data mapping engine called MapDesigner that’s used to create user-specific views of a database (DB2/400 most often), and an Excel

Business Computer Design International (BCD) quietly shipped new releases of two Web development tools late last year, including Presto, its modernization tool for converting 5250 green screens into Web screens, and WebSmart, which is geared toward writing new Web applications for the IBM i server. Both products saw minor enhancements ahead of a major release planned for later this year.

Presto and WebSmart are two Web development tools that share a slot in BCD’s IBM i product arsenal, but they have decidedly different roles. Presto, which has been in use at client sites for only about two years, is a

There’s more than one road to take when going from traditional IBM i green-screen applications to Web-based apps. One of those options is a new product from ASNA, a company with a history of products that favor Microsoft .NET development and presentation tools. ASNA’s newest product is called Wings, and the company announced its general availability last week. Four Hundred Stuff reported on the coming of Wings last October.

Of particular note is that Wings uses IBM‘s Open Access: RPG Edition (OAR), a methodology that allows RPG programs to redirect display file I/O–the traditional 5250 data stream–to ASP.NET

Jaspersoft last week unveiled a new version of its commercial open source business intelligence application that it says will transform how users interact and use BI applications on the Web. The company says that, with the new user interface architecture in Jaspersoft 4, the product now will live entirely on the Web, which will spur adoption by users wary of complexity, and also pave the way for a software as a service (SaaS) business model.

Jaspersoft is a collection of commercial open source reporting tools that has been in development for about 10 years. The suite consists of the core

Kofax announced yesterday that it plans to sell its hardware business to a German private equity firm for about $20 million. The U.K. company also has recently made some enhancements to its enterprise document-capture software products.

Kofax said the sale of its hardware business to Hannover Finanz, which it expects to close in March, should yield Kofax at least $20 million after taxes. The former Kofax hardware unit will continue to do business under the name Dicom International AG.

“We’ve chosen to use the Dicom brand and corporate name to build upon the legacy strength of this business and want

The board of directors of IBM i ERP developer International Business Systems (IBS) has elected former Intentia executive Johan Berg to be the company’s new CEO. The December announcement culminated a seven-month period when the company operated without a permanent chief executive, and hopefully begins a new period of stability for the respected Swedish software company.

Berg has his work cut for him as IBS’ new CEO. He will be asked to fill the shoes that have been temporarily occupied over the last seven months by Christian Paulsson, the executive vice president of corporate development and M&A, who had been

Systems management software firm CCSS has written a new best practices guide aimed at enlightening administrators about the ramifications of security breaches in the IBM i OS. The four-page paper encourages admins to think not only about the data lost to cyber criminals eager to hack their systems, but also about unintended security breaches hurting system availability.

One doesn’t usually think of CCSS as a security software company. After all, the U.K. firm’s main field of expertise is systems management and monitoring of IBM i servers, not exit points or users with ALLOBJ authority. Keeping the server running efficiently with

LogLogic last week unveiled LogLogic version 5.1, a new release of its log data management designed to help organization track logs for compliance purposes. It also unveiled a new release of its security information and event management (SIEM).

LogLogic sells a range of log data offerings, including pre-configured appliances geared to different tasks, and virtual appliances that customers can install on their own hardware. LogLogic’s offerings do support the IBM i platform, along with more than 300 other log or data sources.

With LogLogic version 5.1, the San Jose, California, company introduced a new Dynamic Dashboards feature that’s designed to

American Top Tools, the Spanish developer of the GoFaster performance tool for maximizing the performance of IBM i interactive capacity, says it is experiencing strong demand for GoFaster in China, where companies are adopting second-hand AS/400 servers, as well as installing new servers.

In a recent e-mail blast, ATT boasted of its business dealings in China, which it described as a “devouring sponge” that’s making up for a languishing market in the U.S. and Europe. Competition in China to keep costs low helps to explain the boost in sales of the GoFaster performance tool in that country, ATT says.