IBM yesterday showed it’s serious about competing in the mid market business intelligence space with the launch of Cognos Express, a collection of analytics, reporting, and budgeting tools for groups of 100 users or less. With its in-memory OLAP capability, streamlined implementation, and Web- and Excel-based interfaces, the $12,500 offering can be used without much help from IT staffs, which will put it up against the likes of in-memory BI leader QlikTech.

IBM’s Cognos group has been working on Cognos Express since Big Blue bought the BI software vendor more than two years ago, says Ben Plummer, director of

RPG programmers who are looking to escape the limitations and fees associated with IBM‘s flagship RPG editor, Rational Developer for i (RDi), now have another option with RPG Next Gen, a free and open source RPG editor that is based on Eclipse and runs under Linux. Created by Mihael Schmidt of Germany, the RPG Next Gen project is still fairly young, but it shows promise as a lightweight and easy-to-use source code editor.

RPG Next Gen was released to the public at version 0.5.1 in May, and was updated to version 0.5.1 last month. The software and its

Old habits may die hard, but here’s one (or more) that will pass with few tears being shed or remorse being noted. IBM i programmers in the CL camp take note. All the time consuming grunt work you put into gaining access to database information using RPG, COBOL, or C user interfaces are no longer necessary. A new product called CL for Files (CLF) not only provides direct database access for CL commands, but also support for accessing both display files and print files.

That clacking sound you hear are shackles being released.

Bruce Vining–an ex-IBMer with enough OS/400 (i

Application modernization is a high priority at many System i shops these days, but few of them have the time or money for a head-to-toe makeover. That leaves tactical green-screen-to-Web modernization tools, such as Genie from Profound Logic, a decent option for those wanting to get moving quickly. Earlier this month, Profound unleashed an upgrade to the on-the-fly modernization tool that brings back-end performance enhancements, as well as new screen customization options on the front-end.

Profound unveiled Genie more than two years ago to provide i Power Systems, System i, iSeries, i5, and AS/400 shops with a quick way

Kisco Information Systems‘s SNDTWEET utility got more useful earlier this month when the company added automatic file monitoring capabilities. The new feature automatically posts a “tweet” to the Twitter Web site whenever a database record is accessed, changed, or modified, providing a handy way to monitor file activity on the System i server.

SNDTWEET, which Kisco rolled out in April, turns the Twitter Web service into an extension of an i OS server for systems management and communication purposes. The software basically enables messages, logs, or communications originating from the i OS server to be displayed on the

Transoft and ASNA, two longtime competitors in the System i modernization and code migration business, are now working together as partners thanks to a technology agreement hashed out by their parent companies, IRIS and BluePhoenix Solutions, respectively.

Transoft, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, has completed hundreds of code migration and modernization projects involving AS/400, VAX, HP3000, and other business systems. The company continues to operate as its own entity, even though it was acquired in 2005 by the British company Computer Software Group, which in turn merged with another private British firm, IRIS Software Group, in a

Cilasoft an international software company based in France that specializes in security, audit, and compliance software for the IBM Power Systems server (also known as the System i, iSeries, and AS/400) platform, has contracted with IT Security and Compliance Group to build sales in the U.S. market. Cilasoft has clients in more than 40 countries around the globe, ranging from small businesses to large multinational corporations, but has had minimal impact in the USA.

IT Security and Compliance Group is a new company led by Dan Riehl, a System i security expert and the founder of PowerTech Group, a

ACOM Solutions issued a new release of EZContentManager last month that features a completely re-worked workflow module that ACOM claims is more intuitive to use while maintaining full audit controls. The Southern California company also announced the hiring of a new vice president of channels, Joe Torano, who previously worked at FormScape, VillageEDOCS, and IBM.

EZContent Manager was launched by ACOM four years ago to fill the entry-level content management and document storage needs of mid-market companies, including IBM System i shops. The software, which delivers index, archiving, and search capabilities to users through a Web browser, is

Help/Systems this month added a new “host mode” capability to its Robot/CONSOLE utility that allows it to manage the messages, logs, and other i OS resources of multiple Power Systems and System i machines from a single display. The update also brings new reports that consolidate the information, including a “good morning” report that shows messages and logs generated overnight.

Robot/CONSOLE is an i OS systems management tool that helps to automate System i operations by collecting and filtering thousands of messages generated daily by a typical system. The software does the grunt work of sifting through messages and log

Symtrax, a developer of document management and spool file solutions for the i OS Power Systems server, recently issued a new release of Compleo Archivor, its Windows-based document archive product. With version 4.6, Symtrax has added closer support for Microsoft‘s Active Directory user authentication service, as well as more advanced search options.

As its name suggests, Compleo Archivor is an electronic archive for business documents. The software accepts documents in many formats, including i OS spool files and output from JD Edwards and SAP ERP systems, and transforms them into PDFs. Along the way, Archivor generates an index