The IBM i has a bit of an image problem. Ask those not connected to the platform what they know about it and you might get comments like “is that old dog still around?” or “you mean that old green screen legacy system?” It does not help the platform’s image that, to this day, many applications running on it still sport 5250 green screens that look like they were written for its AS/400 predecessor. And that is a real shame because, while the platform retains a lot of the features that ensured its success when its first iteration was introduced back in 1988 (unrivalled security, resilience, reliability, built-in DB2 database etc), the platform has long moved on from the legacy look and feel that many companies are still using. And it continues to evolve.
Now, it should be acknowledged that many companies and their users remain very happy with their IBM i green screen applications. Such applications are reliable, stable, simple to use, and great for fast data entry and retrieval. Some, however, are looking for ways to improve the look and feel and the interoperability of such systems because they are getting push back from users, and even technical staff, who now expect a great deal more functionality from their systems, plus accessibility to their data from a variety of devices. Users have vastly different expectations of their system in today’s world – after using sophisticated mobile, tablet, and PC apps for many years, coming into the office and being faced with a green screen UI can be a bit of a turn off.
Companies faced with concerns regarding the relevance of their IBM i applications in this new world may mistakenly decide that the best option available to them is to move off the system completely. Such an approach is, however, fraught with complications. First up, its going to be a massive project with all the risks and cost associated with such projects. And be aware that many such projects run significantly over-time and over-budget. It also means ultimately throwing away all those years of investment and hard work in developing the databases and code that have kept the business operational all these years. Finally, it means moving away from a platform that is still unrivalled in its security, resiliency, and reliability.
A better option available to companies is to modernise their existing IBM i systems. This is the approach that we recommend, as it enables you to build on your current investment (in both hardware and software) and allows for a less disruptive and reduced risk approach to keeping your systems relevant – for now and into the future.
What Is IBM i Modernisation?
IBM i modernisation will mean different things to different people. But what all modernisation should ultimately come down to, regardless of platform for that matter, is applying modern technologies to your existing system to generate increased business value – because, at the end of the day, if there is no perceivable ROI, then it is going to be hard to get approval from those who control the purse strings. To borrow a phrase from an ISV with a lot of experience in IBM i modernisation, companies should steer away from modernisation projects that essentially do nothing more than put “lipstick on a pig”. Examples of such approaches might include taking the lazy approach and using simple screen scrapping implementations without adding any enhancements. For such deployments, users can very quickly tell, either visually or through usage, that the system is very much the same – it just looks a little different, like a veneer. There will be no ROI for such projects! No – IBM i modernisation must deliver significant value to, and further empower, the end user, the customer, and the business itself.
Let me address a couple of examples that you could consider when approaching the modernisation question.
One of the biggest impediments to using traditional IBM i 5250 applications is the limited amount of information that can be displayed on a single screen. This lack of screen “real-estate” means getting the full “picture” of an order, investment, insurance claim, customer details or whatever, often requires opening multiple Client Access sessions (if the security department allows that) or using multiple function keys to navigate to different screens one by one. This is one focus area for which a modernisation project will deliver clear business benefits and a real ROI – generally in quite a short timeframe. There are a number of tools in the market that will enable you to provide a GUI interface to your green screen apps, without actually having to change the backend code. And the following are example of some simple enhancements that can be incorporated, by such tools, to get more information to a user:
- Drops Downs– to replace pop-up list screens (e.g. country lists, or product codes);
- Radio Buttons & Checkboxes– for simple lists or yes/no, true/false data;
- Calendars– to ensure the accurate selection of dates and in the right format;
- Tabs– allowing for related information to be made available at the click of a tab. (Tools are available that even allow for each Tab sheet to contain different but related 5250 screens)
This feature list is far from exhaustive, and there are many other problems areas that can be overcome; such as enhanced application navigation that replaces the cumbersome menu-driven screen access typical of green screen apps with something you might expect to see on a MS Outlook type of system – allowing users more efficient access to the information they need. And let me repeat, as it is very important – one of the nicest things about such enhancements is that, using the correct technologies, they can be administered with no changes to the back end code. This should alleviate fears of having to make changes to or duplicating existing code.
Beyond these essentially cosmetic changes, companies can then look into adding enhanced functionality, like extending their existing applications with features like:
- Charts and Graphs– creating executive dashboards
- Images– such as product images, or employee photos
- Move Data to PDF/Excel/Word etc– for more formal presentation of data (e.g. invoices)
- Email Generation– send emails (including data in attachments) from within the application
By combining structured data (e.g., DB2) and unstructured data (e.g., documents, spreadsheets, images, graphs, video, sound, etc.) into a single interface, end users get a complete 360-degree view of business information. Composite applications like this turn all users into super users. Once again, such enhancements can be made without making any changes to your backend systems.
Deploying IBM i Apps to Mobile Devices
With mobile phones and tablets now so pervasive in our societies, it makes perfect sense to make the data residing on your IBM i systems available to staff, and even customers, when they are away from their offices, desktops and laptops. If you are not providing such access to your systems already, then you are possibly doing yourself, your staff, and your customers a disservice, and the chances are that your competitors are ahead of you on this curve. People, young and old, are now familiar with processing bank transactions, purchasing airline tickets, and an endless number of other transactions, on their mobile devices – so if you are not already thinking about extending your IBM i systems to mobile devices, then you may want to start doing so. By providing such access, not only will you empower your users by giving them access to order details, inventory levels, expense claims, time sheets, or whatever, you can also explore incorporating the power of the mobile devices themselves and draw upon such features as GPS and cameras.
And while deploying applications to mobile devices may seem like a scary new endeavour for traditional IBM i shops, it need not be at all. Leveraging the capabilities of the IBM i Power Systems that you already own, there are tools available that enable your RPG and Cobol users to be empowered to extend their own applications to this new world, using their existing skills.
Modernisation is not just about the front end
Modernisation projects should also consider addressing the question of how to integrate this oft-called legacy system with other platforms. You’d be pretty hard pressed to find an organisation operating just one type of application on a single platform that does not need to integrate with data from other systems (internal or external to the business). Which raises the question of how to seamlessly ensure the real-time flow of data between systems with as little human intervention as possible? Whether that be something simple, like grabbing the latest bank exchange rate off the internet, or something more complex, like retrieving or sending lists of data between disparate systems. In days of old such processes will have been handled manually, with users re-typing data or doing a multi-step process of extracting data to a spreadsheet, sending it via email or FTP, then manually triggering an import service on the target system. If you are doing anything close to these practices with your IBM i today, then please stop NOW! and take advantage of capabilities available within the operating system to interface automatically with other systems – whether using capabilities like HTTP(S) calls, Web services, or even direct SQL calls to other databases from your existing RPG or Cobol apps.
The IBM i, running on the IBM Power Systems, is an incredibly modern and powerful operating system that cannot be beaten for its security and resiliency. Architecturally, it is complete – a database, application, and web server all in one, making for simple and reliable system management. If you have one today, it is probably running your core systems and is the life-blood of your business. Since its inception more than 30 years ago, the platform has continued to evolve, and in many ways it leads the world of midrange business servers. And based upon IBM’s strong 10+-year roadmap it is going to continue to do so. Companies currently using it should be taking advantage of its ever-evolving capabilities to keep their businesses relevant for the modern computing world.
Want more information on IBM i Modernisation?
For more information on how to modernise your IBM i applications and keep the platform working for you now and into the future, contact us here at Joule Tech. We’d be more than happy to discuss with you your IBM i modernisation options. We carry a number of solutions from a number of vendors that can help keep your IBM i relevant!