• Jack Henry Debuts Outsourced Call Center Service

  October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Community banks that use the IBM i-based SilverLake core banking system from Jack Henry & Associates are among the customers that Jack Henry will be looking to sell a new outsourced version of its jhaCall center service. Jack Henry’s software can serve the needs of many aspects of retail banking, including providing ATMs, e-banking websites, and automated telephone response systems. But when it came to providing a real human on the line for customers to talk to, while Jack Henry could set its clients up with software, they still had to provide their own flesh and blood to operate it.

  …

  Read more

• IBS Bundles All Enterprise Apps Into Business Suite 2014

  October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie

  International Business Systems (IBS) this month unveiled IBS Business Suite 2014, a new offering that includes all of the Swedish software company’s business applications. In addition to being a marketing umbrella, the Business Suite implements standard user interfaces and integration points across IBS’ various products. Business Suite 2014 includes functionality in the areas of ERP, Warehouse Management (WM), and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP). Specific products include the flagship IBS Enterprise offering, which runs on IBM i and Windows, in addition to IBS Dynaman, IBS Bookmaster, and IBS S&OP. IBS says the individual components have been integrated into a suite

  …

  Read more

• Micro Focus Finally Goes GA with RUMBA for iPad

  October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Micro Focus last week announced the general availability for its RUMBA 5250/3270 emulator for the iPad. The GA announcement comes a full nine months after the UK-based firm originally launched the emulator for iPad as part of its RUMBA+ roll-out. The Surface client is available now, but the Android client that Micro Focus had originally slated to get into its users hands by last spring will likely be delayed until 2014. The mad dash to merge mobile functionality into our daily lives is not abating. The mobile revolution is here to stay, and it promises to reshape how we think

  …

  Read more

• Will Modern, Free-Form RPG Bring New Blood To The Platform?

  October 21, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Veteran RPG coders around the world are getting in a free format frame of mind in anticipation of the launch of IBM i 7.1 TR7 next month. While getting experienced RPG programmers to write more modern looking syntax is great, the real promise of free format RPG is the potential to get more people–particularly younger coders, but not necessarily students–interested in RPG. The big question is: Will it work? The IBM i platform could definitely use an RPG-shaped shot in the arm, because the pool of experienced RPG programmers is shrinking every year. Whether it’s shrinking as fast as the

  …

  Read more

• The i Cloud Wasn’t Built In A Day

  October 21, 2013 Dan Burger

  IBM is building an IBM i-based cloud. You could say it’s already built, but it is an ongoing project. As good as the cloud services for IBM i are, there’s always work to be done to make it better. Taking a step in that direction, IBM hosted the IBM i Cloud Summit earlier this month to bring together a group of managed service providers (MSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and business partners who are all, along with IBM, the stakeholders in the i cloud. The fact that there even is an IBM i Cloud Summit is an indication that this

  …

  Read more

• Power Systems Sales Hammered Down In Q3

  October 21, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  What happens–or doesn’t happen–in China has a much larger effect on IBM i shops in the rest of the world than perhaps any of us might have anticipated. The return to profitability for IBM‘s Systems and Technology Group in the second quarter was short-lived and the group was pushed into a loss in the third quarter by a freeze on spending in China. Economic growth in the Middle Kingdom is the weakest it has been since 2000, and the government of President Xi Jinping has been working since May to put together reforms and a stimulus package. Those reforms

  …

  Read more

• As I See It: Reading the IT Leaves

  October 21, 2013 Victor Rozek

  Economic activity is notoriously difficult to predict because it depends on the daily decisions of millions of individuals who themselves are difficult to predict. Behavior can often be capricious, and the money guys who manipulate markets are even more uncomfortable with uncertainty than a nun opening an attachment from Carlos Danger. Consequently, any time the needle moves in the wrong direction, hand wringing and consternation are sure to follow. So when Gartner reported that IT spending would fall $74 billion below predictions, the sky wasn’t exactly falling, but it teetered ominously. Granted, $74 billion is not pocket change, but the

  …

  Read more

• Butterill Brings Crowd To OCEAN Meeting

  October 21, 2013 Dan Burger

  A week after IBM i Technology Refresh 7 was announced, Alison Butterill, product offering manager for IBM i, showed up at the OCEAN user group meeting with plenty to talk about. Butterill, who travels like the wind except the wind has trouble keeping up, was asking a group of IBM midrange executives, in a roundtable discussion with software vendors, how many knew about TR7. Very few acknowledgements were signaled. That led to a question about how many in this group were running IBM i 7.1 on Power Systems. Again, very little response in the affirmative. How about 6.1? The

  …

  Read more

• Successful CIOs Have Machiavellian Tendencies, Says New E-Book

  October 21, 2013 Jenny Thomas

  Cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics or advancing one’s career. These aren’t the skills you’d expect to see listed on the average resume, but if you’re looking to rise to the top, especially if you’re gunning for a CIO spot, maybe they should be. A new e-book from Gartner vice president and fellow, Tina Nunno, takes a look at some new leadership styles for CIOs and IT leaders that can help ensure their own success and that of their teams. The Wolf in CIO’s Clothing: A Machiavellian Strategy for Successful IT Leadership examines the role of CIOs, who are

  …

  Read more

• IBM Peddles Another 2,000 PureSystems Machines

  October 21, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The ramp of IBM‘s PureSystems converged machines continues apace, with the company growing its installed base of unique systems by 25 percent in the third quarter ended in September. “PureSystems continues to gain momentum,” said Mark Loughridge, IBM’s chief financial officer, on a call with Wall Street analysts going over the third quarter financial result for IBM. “In the major markets, we grew more than 30 percent sequentially. Globally, we shipped over 2,000 systems in third quarter, with over 8,000 total shipments since announcement.” Depending on who I ask, and when I ask them, a PureSystems system is a

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles