• Rometty Kicks Off 2012 With Leadership Team Changes

  January 9, 2012 Jenny Thomas

  IBM‘s first female CEO in its 100-year history, Ginni Rometty, got right to work after officially taking the helm on January 1, announcing changes to Big Blue’s senior leadership team. The first order of business was to replace herself as the general manager of IBM’s sales and marketing group with Bruno Di Leo, who becomes senior vice president, sales and distribution. Di Leo most recently served as the general manager for IBM’s Growth Markets Unit, which increased revenues 19 percent last year, with 40 countries growing by double digits. Di Leo began his career at IBM in 1975 as

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• Big Blue Slashes Prices on IBM Forms Electronic Forms Apps

  January 9, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IBM is eager for customers to use its IBM Forms electronic forms software, and is so eager that it got the red pen out as the new year started and started marking down prices bigtime. In announcement letter 312-003, IBM announced a special promotion that runs until March 15 that cuts the price of IBM Forms by 60 percent when purchased through IBM’s Passport Advantage e-commerce site. This deal, which is being offered in the United States and Canada, covers Forms Designer, which does exactly what the name suggests and plugs into Eclipse-based integrated development environments. The discount is

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• I Was Just Wondering. . .

  December 14, 2011 Hey, Ted

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. I was wondering if you have come across any techniques using subprocedures to simulate associative arrays in RPG IV. I’ve just started experimenting with the idea. I’d like to create dynamic associative arrays using service programs and user indexes. –Steve As a matter of fact, I had thought about implementing associative arrays in RPG, Steve. I’ll share my thoughts on that topic. But first, let me talk about wondering. I do a lot of wondering. You’ve seen the results of many of my wonderings in previous issues of

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• End-of-Year Odds and Ends

  December 14, 2011 Ted Holt

  Dear Colleagues: It’s hard to believe that another year is coming to an end, but it’s happening yet again. Let’s wind up 2012 with some odds and ends. I hope you find something useful. In response to Message Received, But Not Understood, Michael wrote: I have used the CMPDTA parameter on the MONMSG command to provide this filter. See CPF2817. Here is an illustration of Michael’s suggestion: CPYF FROMFILE(&FRLIB/&FRFILE) + TOFILE(&TOLIB/&TOFILE) FROMMBR(&FRMBR) + TOMBR(&TOMBR) MBROPT(*REPLACE) CRTFILE(*NO) MONMSG MSGID(CPF2817) CMPDTA(CPF2861) EXEC(DO) /* to-file doesn't exist */ /* do something */ ENDDO MONMSG MSGID(CPF2817) CMPDTA(CPF2869) EXEC(DO) /* from-file is empty */

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• Admin Alert: Hidden Parameters of the Submit Job Command

  December 14, 2011 Joe Hertvik

  Power i operating system commands are like old friends. You think you know everything about them, then one day they surprise you by displaying a different side of themselves. This week, let’s look at a few hidden parameters available with the i OS Submit Job (SBMJOB) command. These parameters can help you perform some new tricks you may not have thought of. Non-Obvious Candidates Everyone knows the standard SBMJOB parameters such as Job Name (JOB), Job Description (JOBD), and Job Queue (JOBQ). But if you search the Additional Parameters section of the Submit Job command (available by pressing F10 from

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• Lowly Fax Still Essential to Business, Study Says

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  You can add one more item to the list of man’s creations that were supposed to have died out by now but hasn’t: the fax machine. When it was first invented, 168 years ago (no that’s not a misprint), the fax revolutionized the way we viewed documents. Today, despite the growing use of unified communications (UC) over IP networks, the lowly fax machine is used daily by an estimated 40 percent of workers at small and medium sized businesses, according to a recent Intel study. When the Scottish inventor Alexander Bain received the first patent for a chemical mechanical fax

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• Fireworks Company Retakes Control of its POS System

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  A new point-of-sale (POS) system from VAI is paying big dividends for BJ Alan Company, a national fireworks chain that operates from more than 1,000 locations. By canceling its POS outsourcing deal and bringing the operation and management of the new POS system in house, BJ Alan was able to cut costs, eliminate manual data entry, and gain access to real-time sales data that helps them make better business decisions. Founded in 1977, BJ Alan is one of the largest distributors and retailers of fireworks in the United States. The company sells its private-label line of Phantom Wolfpack fireworks through

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• Databeam Eases Custom IBM i Development with V2.0

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Custom development on the IBM i platform can be an expensive proposition. For an organization with established RPG coders, it may not be a big deal to make changes, but hiring a consultant to customize an application can be cost-prohibitive for a small or medium-sized business. One software vendor that’s trying to take the cost and complexity out of IBM i development is Databeam, which recently shipped version 2.0 of its Databeam suite. Astute IT Jungle readers will remember Databeam from earlier this year, when we covered the introduction of Databeam by the IBM i database experts at

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• Oracle Delivers Massive Update to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Oracle last week released new technological underpinnings for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. The tech giant says the large number of new features in EnterpriseOne Tools 9.1–including a new GUI, reporting enhancements, administration improvements, new high availability features, and a new SQL Alter Table function–makes it the largest EnterpriseOne release since it acquired the software. Seeing is believing and nothing impacts the way users view the applications they use like the quality and ease-of-use of its user interface. To that end, Oracle delivered a new Web browser-based GUI with Tools 9.1 that it claims will enhance the user experience and increase productivity.

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• Lawson S3 Now an Infor10 Product

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Lawson Software‘s S3 line of ERP software is now officially an Infor10 product, the company announced last week. The announcement is important because it gives S3 customers access to a range of add-on products from Infor, including the Microsoft Office-based Workspace interface, new mobile apps, and other Infor enterprise apps. Infor rolled out its new Infor10 brand late this summer as part of a company-wide overhaul in how it positions and markets its software. The moniker is significant because it indicates which of Infor’s products will receive the best treatment and be the strategic Infor products going forward.

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