Calling All RSE/RDP Users--Vote Now!

Back in December we blogged about the RSE wish list. But lately, we've discovered that it seems not many of you followed up on our suggestion, so we're taking another shot at it.

IBM developerWorks has a place for submitting and voting for your favorite requests for enhancement (RFEs) for RSE (and/or other Rational products). Many of the requests we have heard most often from RSE users are already on the list. If some of your favorites are already there, add your votes to help direct IBM's development efforts to the features that the most users want/need.

For example, we took a look at the top 20 voted RFEs for Rational Developer for Power Systems. Some of our favorites are in the top 20, such as an SQL prompter, the ability to re-indent /Free-form RPG code and--our personal pick--support of RDP running natively on Mac.

So there are some great RFEs out there. But the sad thing is the small number of votes that have been cast for the enhancements. Given how many RSE users we hear from who want some of these functions, there should be (at least) hundreds of votes out there for several of these RFEs. But when looking at the top 20 RFEs by number of votes, as of yesterday, we found fewer than 50 votes for even the most popular ones.

Susan taught two RSE sessions yesterday at the RPG & DB2 Summit in Fort Worth, Texas. Each had enough people present to double the votes for nearly all of the requests if every student present voted for them.

Just as Susan challenged all of her session attendees to go look at the submissions and vote for their favorites, we're now challenging all of you out there. You can put in your own suggestions as well. But make sure you check to see if something close to your own requirement is already out there so that you can simply add your own vote.

It's easy to add your opinion. Go to the website and create an IBM ID if you don't have one already. Under "Browse RFEs," look at the top 20 voted RFEs. Then choose Brand: Rational, Product family: Design & Development, Product: Developer for Power Systems. There are many other ways to browse and search for RFEs if you don't see your favorites in the top 20.

Don't just sit there, VOTE. Your favorite tool needs you.

Upcoming Travels and Products

Today marks the start of a two-week road trip that will take us to visit the great folks at WMCPA for their annual conference, and then directly to Fort Worth for the 11th (Wow - can it really be that many?) RPG & DB2 Summit. These kind of road trips are exhausting - but also highly rewarding in that we get to meet one-on-one with so many fellow iFanatics.

Summit will no doubt be exhausting. This will be the first one we have run without Skip Marchesani who has decided to retire (again). Skip will be there to help us out this time but there's nothing like a team member moving on to teach you just how much work they did. Thanks, Skip - we'll miss you.

There are two things though that we are particularly looking forward to in Fort Worth. First is the chance to catch up with our long-time friend Bob Tipton who is delivering our keynote presentation. If you haven't had a chance to read Bob's new book "Jump!: Get Unstuck" you need to grab a copy. In fact if you come to the Summit we'll even give you one! 

The second highlight is that the folks at CNX have chosen the Summit to announce the latest version of their Valence web tools. They gave us a sneak peak at the new Valence Nitro application builder that they will be featuring in the new announce. All we can say is WOW. This is a really interesting tool and you owe it to your shop to take a look at it once it is formally announced. We were so excited though that we asked the guys at CNX if they could give us a link to a "sneak peak" Web page to give our readers a brief preview. They have done just that and you can find out more right here. Page down and look for the section on Valence Nitro. We will be giving it a test drive as soon as we can sit still for 5 minutes. 

We can't say anything more at the moment, but last week we were given a brief open kimono on another new tool from a major vendor in the IBM i application development arena. We'll be getting more information toward the end of this month and hopefully they will allow us to share some details with you then. If the preliminary information is anything to go by then it too will be a game changer just as Nitro promises to be.

Seems to us that we have left the doldrums of the IBM i application development field and that some really exciting tooling is beginning to emerge. Perhaps it was spurred in part by the interest shown by users in the Open Access tools, or maybe the easy availability of high quality Open Source products like SugarCRM or osTicket - the latest to catch our eye. Whatever the reason the future is looking brighter than it has for a long time. Many excellent tools, more realistic price levels - there's some real excitement out there.

 

 

SAP on IBM i

You've all heard it: "My company is switching to SAP ..." - sadly the next part of the sentence often includes a statement to the effect that IBM i will not be part of the new environment. There are many reasons for this, ranging from pure ignorance on the part of the management/consultants involved in the decision to willful ignorance.

Willful ignorance? Well, if you talk to an SAP consultant who has been actively involved in installing SAP on IBM i they will tell you that it typically takes less time and effort to install and tune the software on IBM i than on other platforms. But SAP's value proposition, at least to those marketing it, has always been about selling consulting and customization services - the actual base cost of the software is a relatively small component.

Consequently when an SAP installation is based on IBM i it will end up costing less than if hosted on another platform. That should be a good thing, right? Wrong! Hardware and software sales are an ever-shrinking component of the cost of new systems. Services are the new profit center - even for IBM. If you have any doubts take a look at IBM's latest financials:

"... Our Services businesses delivered powerful margin and profit growth with combined pre-tax income up 17 percent. Services revenue growth was again led by growth markets which were up 13 percent at constant currency..."

Easy Pickings

As we've discussed here before, many IBM i shops have allowed their applications to stagnate in the green screen world and as a result it is rarely difficult to convince senior management that they should dump their "old fashioned AS/400". Heck, even IBM's own SAP consulting practice rarely recommends that the IBM i be used as the server for new SAP deployments, even when the shop is an existing IBM i user. That is truly sad and something that the folks at IBM really need to fix. We have encountered many situations where IBM i customers were already well into an SAP conversion to a different platform before they even realized that hosting on IBM i was an option. No one had told them - they didn't find out until they went to SAP conferences, etc., and met IBM i users there. "Too late" came the cry.

But there is good news. There is finally sufficient awareness of the IBM i option in the marketplace that at least people are beginning to ask for advice from their fellow iBM i professionals BEFORE it is too late. IBM themselves have published a few success stories - this one relates to a conversion from a Windows SAP install. There have also been a number of threads on different internet boards ranging from this one on Midrange.com to this recent thread (one of several) on LinkedIn.

This "SAP question" is one we are constantly being asked, so if you can contribute anything to the discussion please add your comments. The more material we have the better.

 

 

RPG Programming Contests and a 'Free Stuff' Update

We've been talking to our friend Jim Buck recently about an RPG IV programming contest he is orchestrating at the upcoming AITP National Collegiate Conference. Jim is one of the biggest supporters of IBM i on the planet. He walks the talk. He is not only in charge of the IBM i curriculum at Gateway Technical College, but also finds the time to serve as President of the WMCPA User Group, which in addition to its regular monthly meetings runs an excellent annual conference at Lake Geneva, Wis., each spring. In fact we'll be presenting there in couple of weeks. Did we mention that he has also been a member of several IBM Certification test development panels? We worked with him on the RPG tests. We recall one time when his leg was in a cast during one memorable set of meetings in Las Vegas. Now that's dedication! Oh, and by the way, his graduates have an amazingly high placement rate. In fact we believe that he currently has more job placements available than graduates. Perhaps IBM could clone him and send his clones out to duplicate his programs at other schools! We're not sure how he manages to find the time, but he also teaches sailing during the summer--one day we're hoping to get a chance to sail with him. Jim does great work. If you ever bump into him, shake his hand and say, "Thanks."

Another of our friends, Aaron Bartell, is also involved in this project and has written bout his involvement in the project in his latest blog.

More Free Stuff

Back in late February Arpeggio Software announced it was making its ARP-ZIP product available at no cost to the IBM i community. We didn't mention it right away because Arpeggio said at the time that a version with AES encryption would shortly be available. "Shortly" arrived today. We haven't had a chance to test it yet but from the responses we've seen from folks who have tried it, it sounds promising. Free is always good!

Elsewhere on the free front, Lansa has announced version 1.1 of its LongReach product is now available. We've been playing with the 1.0 version and are impressed by its speed and ease of use. We're planning on upgrading to the new version before we do a full evaluation.

Similarly CNX announced version 3.0 of its Valence software. CNX will be demonstrating the company's latest and greatest at the upcoming RPG Summit in Fort Worth. We're looking forward to seeing it in action. If you can't make the Summit then look for CNX at local user group events. 

If you know of any other companies offering free community editions of their software please, let us know and we'll pas it on. We've seen how much of an impact tools like SugarCRM, Wordpress and other free software has had on the success of many IBM i shops. It's great to see traditional IBM i vendors moving in that direction. It can only be good for all of us.