TEMBO Technology Lab has chosen next week’s COMMON conference as a launch pad for AO Foundation, a new tool designed to automatically modify IBM i applications utilizing DB2/400’s native SQL engine without requiring a recompilation or using surrogates. AO Foundation is the first of several tools the South African company has in the works to help IBM i shops break up their monolithic code bases, rebuild with a multi-tier architecture, and increase the agility of companies in the process.

Most of the modernization tools on the IBM i market focus on building GUIs replete with the latest Web technology. This

Infor and Salesforce.com are working on two new products that will deliver ordering- and marketing-related functionality as part of its joint Inforce line of offerings. And the CEO of the first Infor customer to go live on the generally available Inforce Everywhere product–the IBM i shop C.H. Briggs–shared her thoughts on the importance of integrating front- and back-office functions during last week’s Inforum 2012 conference.

C.H. Briggs is the largest independently owned distributor of interior and specialty building products in the U.S. The Reading, Pennsylvania-based company buys building products from 250 manufacturers around world, and sells them to residential and

Organizations that are concerned about tracking the activities of IT professionals as they’re logged onto IBM i servers may want to check out the new Elevated Authority Manager (EAM) tool from Cilasoft. The software provides a rich array of options for controlling the use of powerful user profiles, such as those with QSECOFR authority and keeping an organization compliant with government regulations.

EAM gives organizations two ways to temporarily grant powerful authorities to IT professionals who need to work on an IBM i server. First, a user can be swapped into a different user profile that contains the necessary

Infor is temporarily reducing the price of its ION Foundation suite by 60 percent. The price cut, which was announced at last week’s Inforum 2012 conference, was made to encourage Infor customers to adopt the middleware component that’s key to the vendor’s product strategy–and just as important for Infor customers that want new functionality.

Now through July 31, Infor is offering a one-time discount of 60 percent off the cost of ION Foundation, a suite of tools that includes:

• ION Connect, an enterprise service bus (ESB) and message broker that’s based on open source, Java Messaging Service (JMS)-based Apache ActiveMQ

VAI recently announced that it’s released a roadmap for S2K Enterprise Resource, its IBM i-based ERP software used by small and midsize manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. The company says the roadmap calls for S2K to be enhanced in several areas, including big data, cloud computing, mobile computing, analytics, CRM, and collaboration.

VAI says it has a lot of new stuff in the pipeline. Like many ERP software vendors, VAI is working on figuring out the best way to bring new cloud, mobile, and analytic capabilities to its user base. Its customers are also being affected by the so-called “big data”

RJS Software Systems last week unveiled a new release of SignHere, a piece of software that applies captured signatures to digital documents. SignHere version 1.3.3 brings several enhancements, including integration with the signature capture components of VeriFone point of sale (POS) devices, one-click integration to Microsoft Word and Excel, and “print-to-sign” capability from any Windows application.

RJS introduced SignHere a year-and-a-half ago to streamline the flow of digital documents, speed up the approval process, and minimize wasteful printing. When an invoice, bill of lading, or other document in digital form requires a signature, the user can use SignHere to apply

mrc recently unveiled a template that allows users of its mPower Web app dev tool to quickly create timeline applications. The Timeline Template allows users to view events across a scrollable timeline, and was posted to the Project Exchange, a free online app exchange for mPower users.

The new Timeline Template makes it easy to implement a Web-based timeline of events. The template allows users to use their mouse wheel or cursor to scroll forward and backward through the timeline. When an event piques their interest, they can click on it, and a window pops up that contains detailed information

DocPath, a Spanish developer of document management software, will be using next week’s COMMON conference to show prospective users how it can help them migrate away from IBM‘s InfoPrint Designer.

DocPath is a developer of document management software that was founded in 1992 by Julio Olivares. The Madrid-based company has a U.S. office in Atlanta, Georgia (thanks to its 2008 acquisition of IBM i document management software developer Resolutions), and touts more than 50,000 installations around the world, including companies such as BBVA, Santander, Groupama, Liberty, Mapfre Group, DHL, and Danone.

DocPath says existing InfoPrint Designer users are

InsightSoftware.com, a provider of business intelligence software for users of Oracle E-Business Suite and JD Edwards World and EnterpriseOne, last week announced the availability of a new community support portal for customers, as well several new features in its software.

InsightSoftware.com develops business intelligence software that is used by 500 Oracle JDE and EBS shops around the world. The company’s flagship Insight Reporting tool replaces native JD Edwards reporting tools like Enterprise Report Writer (RDA), WorldWriter, and FASTR. Surrounding Insight Reporting are several other products that work with both JDE World and EnterpriseOne, including Insight Reconciler, Insight Budgeting, Insight

Island Pacific last week announced that it has successfully completed an upgrade of its IBM i-based Merchandising Suite for Aéropostale, which sells clothing to teenage girls and boys through nearly 900 stores.

The Irvine, California-based software vendor said it upgraded Aéropostale’s implementation of its Merchandising Suite (formerly IPMS) from Release 1.5 to Release 3.2. The upgrade involved several Merchandising Suite modules in use by Aéropostale, including Sales Audit, Finance, and Deals and Promotions.

This was a “major upgrade” that brought several new capabilities, Island Pacific said. For example, Aéropostale gains better encryption for customer-related data, which is a big concern