iModernize - The Profound Logic Software Blog

In our "Application Transformation Contest" last month we challenged our customers to show off their most impressive "Before" and "After" modernization screenshots along with a story of how it's affected their business. What they came up with even surprised us.

Welcome back to your favorite IBM i News roundup. We've been trying out a bi-weekly posting schedule for the past few weeks so we could cover more content for you guys. How are you liking it? Let us know in the comments!

It's that time of the week again for you to catch up on your IBM i news. Let's start this edition off with IBM i's "exciting" announcement of IBM i 7.3 aka...

Welcome to this week's edition of IBM i Pulse, your favorite news roundup. Before we begin, I want to mention that we were glad to get some great feedback for our Profound UI 5.3 webinar. You can watch the replay here if you weren't able to make it. Now let's get to the news.

You’re reading IBM i Pulse, our weekly bite-sized roundup of the latest headlines in the IBM i industry. Before we begin, I want to let everyone know that our modernization survey results are now available. We discovered things like the #1 concern upper managers with IBM i, the direction of the platform, and more. Click here to learn more.

Now for the news. This first article is great.

Ain't Nobody's Business But Your Own
by Dan Burger

• The distance between the IT department and the executive suite in some IBM midrange shops makes a trip to Mars seem like a hop, skip, and a jump. How do you close that gap? 
• For one thing, you probably will need to learn another language. No, not Java. Not HTML, either. It's the language of business.
• Emphasizing business benefits is Oberholtzer's strongest advice, and that's done by steering clear of technical dialogue and learning how to talk in terms of business advantages.

You’re reading IBM i Pulse, our weekly bite-sized roundup of the latest headlines in the IBM i industry. Some interesting projections this week...let's get straight to it!

More proof IBM i 7.3 is coming
by Simon Hutchinson

• "In the IBM developerWorks website there are now sections for IBM i 7.3 and 7.2 TR4 enhancements, which were created on January 13."
• "Does this mean that the new release will be out this spring?"

You’re reading IBM i Pulse, our weekly bite-sized roundup of the latest headlines in the IBM i industry. Let's get straight to it!

Profound Survey Adds To 'Why i Matters' Discussion
by Dan Burger

This edition starts off with an IT Jungle story featuring our recent IBM i Modernization survey results. You can pre-register for the white paper where we go in-depth into the responses and dissect developers vs. upper management viewpoints on the IBM i. It'll be released sometime next week!

• "Profound Logic, one of the leading application development tool vendors in the IBM i community, shared a glimpse at a soon to be released white paper with IT Jungle based on its recently completed modernization survey."
• "The top complaint from developers was the negative perception of the IBM i platform that is held by company executives, which results in a reluctance to invest in IBM i."
• "From the business executives' perspective, the cost of modernization was their biggest concern. It's unclear whether the cost of modernization will result in maintaining the status quo, reducing the scope of modernization, or investigating the cost of migration to another platform"

It's been way too long since our last blog post and we're sincerely sorry. We got stuck in an extensive process moving off of our previous blogging platform. Who would've thought migration could be such a hassle?  Fortunately, we're now completely settled into our new home here at blog.profoundlogic.com—and we're excited to get back on track with IBM i Pulse, your favorite (and likely only) IBM i news roundup!

For those of us in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow. And in the spirit of that holiday, we took a few moments to write up the things about IBM i and its community that make us thankful. What are you thankful for with the i? Let us know in the comments!

Hearing someone proclaim "The IBM i platform is on its last leg!" is something I had to get used to when I first started working at Profound Logic. I had experience working with Microsoft and Oracle, and knew those platforms weren't going away anytime soon. But IBM i?

After a year with the company and several of these "sky is falling" claims from so-called experts, however, it quickly became clear to me that the prognostication about the demise of the IBM i wasn't accurate at all.

Here's the short of it: The AS/400 is several decades old, as is the RPG programming language. Therefore, according to these experts, the platform can't possibly be modern enough to support the needs of modern businesses.

And in that context, they're right - The AS/400 can't. But the IBM i can!