• New VAI Reseller Likes IBM i-to-iPad Integration

  May 3, 2011 Alex Woodie

  VAI has signed Maryland-based BDK to become its latest reseller for the IBM i-based ERP suite, S2K, the companies announced last week. BDK cited S2K’s support of the Apple iPad as one of the reasons for choosing VAI. BDK was founded by Bruce Kimball in 1999 as a reseller of IBM AS/400 servers and related offerings. Today, BDK sells Power Systems and storage gear through the Avnet sales channel. It also sells Lenovo PCs and laptops and Cisco networking gear, and provides software and consulting for Microsoft Windows, VMware, Lotus Notes/Domino, Vision Solutions, and LANSA. The capability

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• Kubota Turns Retail Scanner Into Parts Kiosk

  May 3, 2011 Alex Woodie

  The folks at Motorola Solutions device that retailers commonly use as a price scanner store into a fixed kiosk-based scanner that plays a key role in the tractor company’s Kanban inventory control system. Since IMCORP installed the RF system at Kubota’s U.S. manufacturing facility in northern Georgia year ago, the vendor had a lot of familiarity with Kubota’s technology and processes, which includes IBM i applications and servers. So when Kubota began inquiring as to a solution that could streamline the restocking procedures for small parts and miscellaneous hardware, the vendor was well-prepared to suggest a solution. Previously, when supplies

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• SEQUEL Software Joins IBM i Solution Edition Program

  May 3, 2011 Alex Woodie

  IBM i business intelligence software developer SEQUEL Software has joined IBM‘s successful Solution Edition program, the company announced last week. The move is expected to help the Help/Systems subsidiary sell more software, while helping IBM to move Power Systems hardware. The IBM i Solution Edition program was launched last summer to make it easier and less expensive for customers to acquire and deploy the combination of IBM i software and Power Systems iron. IBM says the program saves customers up to 35 percent off the cost of buying the hardware and software separately. With a starting price of $6,500,

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• IBM Is Prepping Power7+ and Pondering Power8

  May 2, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It has been more than a year since IBM got its first Power7-based machines out the door, and about six months since the chips were fully ramped across the Power Systems lineup. The server processor racket waits for no one, and a slow poke will quickly get left behind in the volume and midrange space. And so Big Blue has to continue to advance the Power chips if it wants to get all of those systems, software, and services revenues these chips drive. IBM has not been exactly forthcoming about the future Power7+ and Power8 processors, but the company is

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• Lawson Accepts Golden Gate Takeover, Bucked Down to Private

  May 2, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  All of those shareholders of Lawson Software who had been hoping that perpetually hungry software giant Oracle might take a run at its much smaller software rival are no doubt sorely disappointed–and perhaps have lost a bit of money–now that Lawson last week accepted the original and unsolicited offer that Golden Gate Capital and its ERP software brand, Infor, made back in March. Golden Gate offered $11.25 per share to take over Lawson. The reason for disappointment, if there is any, is that Lawson shares were trading as high as $13.06 a pop when people thought that someone might

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Monkey Business

  May 2, 2011 Hesh Wiener

  It had been a long, difficult day for Tarzan. He was pleased to finally make that last swing into his tree house, where Jane was waiting. “Honey,” he said, securing the vine so it would be ready in the morning, “it’s a jungle out there.” The fictional jungle in which Tarzan lived had its share of two- and four-legged miscreants, but it was a safe haven compared to that digital sewer, the Internet, where IBM is trying to build a trade in security. IBM dove into the deep end of the security business about five year ago when it bought

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• End of V5R3 Support, Not End of the World, for Virginia County

  May 2, 2011 Dan Burger

  There are 95 counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And based on a few phone calls I made last week, it seems fair to estimate about 75 of those local governments run their core business applications on what most people there would call the IBM AS/400. That includes some just-out-of-the-box iron as well as some machines that are getting a little long in the tooth. Clarke County has a six-year-old IBM iSeries 520. And that’s where this story begins. A week ago, Clarke County’s Joint Administrative Services (JAS) committee met to contemplate, cogitate, and deliberate whether an upgrade of county’s

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• Reader Feedback on As I See It: ‘He Kindly Stopped for Me’

  May 2, 2011 Victor

  I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your insightful, thought-provoking articles. Today’s article, As I See It: ‘He Kindly Stopped for Me’, is another great one. I am very much like Richard in that I don’t think about death. But I know I need to in order to appreciate life and prioritize. Thanks. –Doug Thank you for that article. Insightful and meaningful. We all need a reminder for us to evaluate what is important in life. Thank you. –Paula Victor, your columns are always moving and thought-provoking. Today’s column put things in perspective for me

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• Some Insight Into the HMC-to-SDMC Transition

  May 2, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Two weeks ago, I told you about how IBM was replacing the Hardware Management Console (HMC) for rack and tower Power-based servers with a new console called the Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) that would add BladeCenter chassis and Power-based blades to the mix with converged Systems Director-HMC functionality. I received an interesting comment on the SDMC from a reader of The Four Hundred and also stumbled on a roadmap for the HMC-to-SDMC transition that spreads a little more light on Big Blue’s plans that its announcement April 12 did. First, the reader comment: Is it just me or is

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• Business Booming, IBM Jacks Dividend, Share Buybacks

  May 2, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The IBM money machine continues to perform as it has been engineered to do, and predictably at Big Blue’s annual shareholder meeting last week in St. Louis, Missouri, the company announced that the board of directors had bumped up the company’s quarterly dividend as well as authorized the company to spend another $8 billion buying up its own shares down on the New York Stock Exchange. The dividend was bumped up to 75 cents per share per quarter, a 15 percent rise since the dividend was increased almost exactly a year ago to 60 cents. IBM was bragging that this

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