The IBM i Supports Business Transformation

IBM i: From Modernization to Digital Transformation, to Business Transformation

This is the future of the enterprise. Regardless of what platform you are running the customer is requiring businesses to transform. Technology such as AI, Cloud, Blockchain, IoT and Machine learning is making it possible. As a result, a shift is taking place. Marcel Sarrasin, VP of Marketing and Business Development, Fresche Solutions is quoted in IT Jungle's article about trends for the IBM i in 2019:

The ERP implementation era is coming to an end; the focus will be on the modernization of ‘highly customized’ client value applications.

He is right. The customer, whether it be internal or external is driving technology decisions more than ever before. They are demanding customer-facing applications. "Consumer interaction is at the forefront of technology." And it is not slowing down. Think about it. Does the customer care if you have a legacy ERP? Not really. All they care about is you solve their problem. IT leaders should ask themselves the following questions:

Do we spend time money and resources on modernizing our internal legacy ERP systems?
Or, do we focus on building custom customer-facing systems?

The answer is somewhere in-between because you need to do both. Modernizing your RPG code base and moving from DDS to DDL, along with upgrading to current version of the IBM i operating system, as well as hardware, is necessary to get from digital transformation to business transformation. The trend is clear, customers are asking for access to information and to have the ability to interact with that data in ways they did not need to in the past. On to this week's issue.

Welcome to this week's edition of Talsco Weekly.

News: Will there be a Public Cloud for the IBM i & Evidence of a new release for the IBM i.
Leadership: We need to change how we hire and the associated "Behavioral Revolution" to come.
Modernization: People, process and technology. What does it really mean to modernize?
Open source: DevOps explained. Why understanding Go is important for the IBM i developer.
Trends: Trends that will shape Business Transformation in 2019.

News

Public Cloud Dreaming For IBM i

There is a lot to sort out when it comes to cloud computing. For the enterprise, it is clear that cloud solutions are part of the answer. The question is, what workloads are served best using a private or public cloud? And, how does the IBM i fit into the mix?

To date, "none of the public cloud vendors have made any public announcements of a pending IBM i cloud." The reason is partly due to the fact that the IBM i has so "many different models and flavors and it's impractical to think that any" of the major public cloud providers can offer such solution.

The good thing is there are providers within the IBM i market that offer the best of both worlds. Proof of a new release of IBM i is coming Earlier this year "there were signs that there would be a new release of the IBM i announced this year." The real questions is will "IBM i Next" be a version release or a whole new release.

Leadership

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty: Companies have to change the way they hire This article is a summary of a Business Leadership Panel discussion (video) with a group of leading CEO's to include Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM. The discussion centers around the speed at which new technology is changing the workplace. We have seen disruptive changes in the past but not at the speed of today. As a result, we need to change the way we think about hiring. Industry 4.0 will change the way we train and hire because "some jobs will go away, new ones will be created, and all jobs will be forever changed by AI." A new generation of skills will be needed for the future. It’s Time for a Behavioural Revolution in Innovation

How true is the following statement?

Humans are wired to fear and resist change – a trait that is amplified in group settings. We are also wired to be linear thinkers, which means we assume tomorrow will generally look like today. These characteristics make it difficult for organizations to envision what a different future would look like and even harder to create the change needed to influence it.

The key here is it is without question difficult to create the change that is needed. This is why so many organizations get stuck and often lag behind.

Modernization

People, Process and Technology - Three elements for a successful organizational transformation "Far too often business transformation efforts concentrate on the process improvement strategies and business process reengineering; while essentially ignoring the people aspect of the change initiative." Here is a PDF from a webinar out of the IBM Center for Learning and Development. It is a number of years old but the principles are still relevant today. Should you upgrade to a modern business system? This article compliments our featured article above regarding "Business Transformation" in that the biggest reason we need to modernize is that "customer-facing is in."

Modern systems are outward facing because digital systems no longer stop at a company’s door. You can really get closer to customers and they can get closer to you. This includes internal users. Employees are also customers to the system.

At the same time, it is important to point out that legacy systems and the value of the internal data allow for digital and business transformation to take place.

Open Source

What does DevOps mean to your organization? Think about this statement.

"It is said if you ask 10 people about DevOps, you will get 12 answers. This is a result of the diversity in opinions and expectations around DevOps—not to mention the disparity in its practices."

If you are unfamiliar with DevOps let alone how it can fit into your IBM i environment, this article offers some insight from experts who have been practicing DevOps for years. Intro to Go Programming Tutorial As I stumble across tutorials for open source languages I like to share them. Not, necessarily because it's a language you need to pick up but rather it allows you to see what is out there, and why it is being used. It provides insight to us as the IBM i community to make better decisions. So, if you are ready, let's Go.

"Go has concise syntax and grammar with few keywords, giving Go the simplicity and fun of dynamically typed interpreted languages like Python, Ruby and JavaScript."

Trends

6 Key Digital Trends to consider for Business Transformation in 2019 "Business transformations across industries will gain rapid momentum in 2019, helping organizations operate more efficiently, open to new markets and customer experiences, improve business outcomes, and reinvest savings for the digital future" 10 Trends shaping IoT for business McKinsey in their work with clients has noticed ten trends shaping the industry that they expect to continue in 2019.

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