Today's modern workforce is ever changing and companies must continue to modernize the way they do business as well as the way their business looks. Modernizing the look and feel of your green screen is an essential step in keeping up with the modern workforce and can be a huge moral boost for any IBM i shop. 

The green screen (5250 emulator) terminal was created in 1977, so those who are still utilizing the 5250 are missing out on 30 years in advancements in UI/UX technology. To be competitive, today's businesses must offer employees a modern graphical user interfaces. But Why? Here are 5 employee benefits to modernizing your green screens:

1. Eliminate the perception that your applications are outdated.

Perception can be reality in some cases and if the perception of your applications is that they are outdated, then they are... no matter how well they work for you. Eliminating that perception can be a crucial part in your modernization project and convincing your employees they are working for a company that is looking to the future. The perception of your applications means a great deal to your employees. Showing that you are willing to go the extra mile to make their jobs easier will go a long way in building moral and employee loyalty. 

2. Make employees more productive and efficient with applications that are easier to learn and use.

An efficient employee is not only good for business, but also good for moral. Studies show that employees that feel they are positively contributing to a companies success feel more empowered and work harder. Modernizing your green screen can give employees more efficient and productive work days, allowing your business to grow and providing moral for your employees. Easy to learn applications are essential in boosting employee moral. When you require employees to use slow and difficult to use programs, they can become easily frustrated and production can stagnate. When you provide easy to use tools, employees are more likely to achieve goals set for them and feel empowered to learn and do more. 

3. Increase application adoption, reducing application training time and costs.

Employee training time can be expensive for you and frustrating for employees. With a typical green screen, training new (and current) employees can take time due to the naturally slow moving user interface. This extends the time that an employee is training, and prevents them from working independently quicker. For the new employee, taking an extended time to train can lower moral and subconsciously give them the feeling of not doing the job correctly. With a modernized UI, you can quicken your training time... lower your training costs... and increase the moral of your employees. 

4. Extend the value of the IBM i platform to the modern workforce.

When you extend the value of your company and its assets, you extend the value of your employees as well. As we have discussed before, employees that believe in the future of their company feel valued and empowered to work harder. When you modernize your green screen off of the old 5250, you can extend the value of your IBM i applications to begin to utilize a wealth of other technologies (including: Watson, IoT, Cloud, and others) which in turn makes your company more valuable and relevant. Everyone wants to feel they are participating in something that is relevant and helpful, by modernizing your applications you are sending a clear message to your employees that you are invested in the future, and they will be too. 

5. Attract new and upcoming development talent.

On of the largest fears in the IBM i world is finding new and young development talent. Many of the new developers coming out of school have learned the newest languages such as JavaScript and are not very familiar with the more standard languages of IBM i like RPG. If new talent notices that you are still using an old 5250 green screen user interface, they might be hesitant to come and work on a system that they don't have a great deal of experience with. Modernizing your user interface sends a clear signal to all employees (and future employees) that you value technological growth and innovation. That kind of commitment will attract the best and brightest employees you need to move forward in your business. 

Profound Logic's green screen modernization solutions can take your existing RPG applications off of the 5250 stream and onto web and mobile devices. Look no further than Profound UI, our comprehensive suite of tools that allow you to modernize your applications. If you don't have the time to take on the project yourself, we provide services to take care of the entire process for you. Interested? Contact our team today to find out how we can help you modernize your green screens today!