JD Edwards shops concerned about slowing performance of their production ERP environments–or limiting their liability in litigation–may want to consider a good old-fashioned purge to clear out some of the stale, old data and make way for fresh, new data. A handful of tools are available to help, including native JD Edwards commands. But only one product, Essentio‘s Archivist, is used exclusively in JD Edwards environments. With the recently released version 3, Archivist gains more intelligence.

Essentio was founded in 2004 by Nirav Shah, a former consultant with CIBER who had taken a job in the IT department of

Help/Systems, which is fast becoming one of the dominant providers of system administration and security tools for the i OS platform, last week unveiled a new release of Robot/CONSOLE, a message management utility. Version 5 introduces a new GUI management console, called the Explorer, that should make it easier for operators and administrators to track and respond to messages generated by i OS-based servers.

Robot/CONSOLE is designed to alleviate the burden and potential for error introduced by relying on human eyes to filter through thousands of messages generated daily by IBM‘s family of System i and Power Systems

When the Farmer’s Cooperative needed an easy way to enable farmers to access basic account information about their corn and soybean positions from the comfort of a Web browser, they knew a couple of things they didn’t want. They didn’t want to learn a new language like Java or PHP to access their i5/OS server, and they didn’t want to muck around with their DDS files. When the Iowa non-profit organization discovered ProData Computer Services‘ RPG Server Pages (RSP), they found a tool that suited them well.

The Farmers Cooperative (FC) is an agriculture co-op dedicated to serving farmers

Oracle last week made several announcements surrounding its JD Edwards ERP systems at its OpenWorld user conference. Version 9 of the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne application was updated with a new accounting module, as well as enhancements to existing financial management, supply chain management, and human resources modules. The i OS-based World ERP system, meanwhile, was enhanced with a new plug-in for Oracle’s Demantra supply chain planning software and new user productivity kits designed to boost the training and upgrade processes.

Implementations of Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ERP system, which runs on i OS, Unix, and Windows operating systems, are divided

Infor last week delivered a new release of ERP XA (formerly MAPICS), version 7.8, that brings enhancements in the areas of inventory management and query and reporting. Support for advanced shipping notices (ASN) will enable XA shops to extend their inventory visibility beyond just what’s in the warehouse, while improvements in the product’s SQL query engine should speed the delivery of reports.

Much of the acceleration in executing queries in ERP XA version 7.8 will result from support for the SQL Query Engine (SQE) that IBM has been building into its i operating system (OS) since OS/400 V5R3. The SQE

Recently, several JD Edwards customers have been heard complaining to Oracle about the lack of mobile applications for their ERP system. Thanks to a new product released last week by System i modernization solution vendor looksoftware, JD Edwards World shops no longer have to wait for the software giant to deliver an iPhone interface–they can get it straight from looksoftware instead.

The long wait for mobile and Web interfaces from Oracle is over for Dave Hyzy, the IT director at Benderson Development, a Florida-based strip mall developer that owns more than 25 million square feet of retail space in

CYBRA last week announced that an unnamed pharmaceutical company has deployed its i-based EdgeMagic system to provide radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking for its manufacturing and distribution operations. The company selected EdgeMagic primarily for its support for the IBM i operating system (OS).

As one of the only companies developing native i OS RFID solutions, CYBRA and its OEM partner for the EdgeMagic product, Solzon, have a decided advantage when it comes to servicing i OS shops. Such was the case when a “leading specialty pharmaceutical company” came calling, according to Chuck Roskow, CYBRA’s vice president of operations.

CYBRA

Nippon Express’ North American operations dodged a bullet recently when its WebSphere MQ subsystem was inadvertently shut down while another problem was being investigated. Luckily, the logistics provider had previously upgraded its CCSS i OS system monitoring software, and was able to detect the shut down before downtime had a deleterious effect on business.

Based in New York, Nippon Express (USA) is part of the Japanese logistics giant, Nippon Express, and provides land, sea, and air transportation and distribution services for thousands of customers from 67 branch locations across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Backing this extensive operation are a

MGM has implemented an i OS-based system that will eventually track more than 15,000 employees working at three Las Vegas casinos. The solution is based on Kronos for Gaming, and is expected to reduce labor costs and boost compliance.

Kronos for Gaming is a suite of software that includes components for time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, hiring and selection, and biometric data collection. The software was introduced in April 2007, and has hooks into major i OS ERP systems.

With much of the Las Vegas strip depending on the IBM System i server and i OS-based applications to

Trucking outfits that rely on i OS and Windows fleet management software from TMW Systems can continue to use ALK Technologies‘ routing software to ensure that trucks take the quickest and most efficient route–and avoid low bridge clearances and expensive toll roads along the way.

Last week, TMW announced it has certified the latest releases of ALK Technologies’ two primary products, PC*MILER and PC*MILER|Tolls, for use with its Windows-based TMWSuite and TruckMate products and its i OS-based TL2000 system.

PC*MILER 22–the 22nd update of the software from the Princeton, New Jersey, software company–provides a substantial map data update of