IBM, Remote Work and New Tools for IBM i Development

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

News: Google employees at home for all of 2020. IBM doubles down. THINK is all digital this year.
Career: How to be more productive working from home.
Development: A simple REST Webservice Framework. ILEditor version 2 is here.
ERP: What is the role of ERP today?
Remote Work: RPG Developers enjoy the flexibility of the home office.
Trends: Power grids and Blockchain. Edge computing solution (IoT) from IBM.

News

Google employees told to expect to work from home for the rest of 2020

This is a big deal. “During an all hands-meeting on Thursday, Google employees were told that those who needed to return to the office would be able to do so in June or July, but said there would be certain safety measures put in place.”

IBM Market Report and other insight

IBM’s CEO believes they are in a good place in the market. They have the flexibility to move on acquisitions when they make sense and the price is right. Doubling down on hybrid services say CEO.

Will IBM break up pieces of the company? No, the model is integrated. Clients are looking to bring solutions to solve the puzzle for them.

THINK 2020

For the first time, IBM had an all-digital event. IBM talks about innovative tech that is essential for business. They talk about the hybrid cloud, the power of AI, and the ecosystem of products that IBM offers.

Here are some highlights from Think Digital.

IBM is all-in on hybrid cloud

“Hybrid cloud and AI are the two dominant forces driving change for our clients and must have the maniacal focus of the entire company. IBM has already built enduring platforms in mainframe, services, and middleware. I believe now is the time to build the fourth platform in the hybrid cloud.”

Career

Do you struggle to be productive working from home?

Here are 7 rules for staying productive long term.

“The best habit I’ve ever started was to use a productivity system. The idea is simple: organizing all the stuff you need to do (and how you’re going to do it) prevents a lot of internal struggle to get things done.”

Development

Are you looking for a simple to use REST Webservice Framework for IBM i?

The one thing that I have found on the IBM i platform is that it is made up of an incredible community of creative, business-minded, and unbelievably talented developers who often go unnoticed.

Here is a Webservice solution developed by Jefferson Vaughn. He asks a simple question:

What if you could download a product and with 2 simple menu options (which take less than 3 seconds) and your IBM i would be a fully functional REST/API Framework?

My guess is, the front end developers and business partners will love you. If you are looking for a fully functional REST/API Framework, this is an option for you.

ILEditor 2: The alternative to RDi

A new version of ILEditor is here. “Liam Allan recently unveiled ILEditor 2, a new integrated development environment (IDE) for IBM i. The new IDE sports a fresher look and better performance compared to the first version of ILEditor, as well as an extensible plug-in system, which should also deliver better code coverage.”

A Node.js website on IBM i

This is a continuation of a series of posts teaching how to use Node.js on the IBM i.

ERP

What is the role of ERP today?

Ten years ago, the trends were just-in-time, minimizing your inventory, and reducing your costs. Today, key trends have shifted, focusing on customer experience and customer satisfaction.

Mobile ERP is emerging as a much-needed solution because of its focus on the user and the customer. A Mobile ERP is simply where users can create, share, and access business data in real-time via a mobile device. In other words, it is a mobile app.

While Infor, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and other vendors have fully integrated Mobile ERP solutions, where does this leave IBM i shops who wish to continue to leverage their legacy ERP systems?

The fastest way to develop a Mobile ERP Solution on the IBM i is to leverage any number of modernization solutions that the platform offers and/or turn to the development APIs and Webservices that deploy on mobile devices.

Remote Work

Home Office Ideas for the remote RPG Developer

It is my guess that 90% of RPG developers have been working from home over the past month or so. If you are still in the process of getting things organized, here are some ideas you might want to incorporate into your home office.

Crystal Ball:

Working remotely is not temporary. It is here to stay. Organizations that were nervous about letting their RPG Developers work remote, this has been an opportunity to “test the waters”.

Now that developers have had the taste of what it is like to work remotely, it is going to be hard for some of them to return to the office on a full-time basis.

While it is necessary in many cases to have your development team work onsite, the modern IBM i shop is going to see the real benefits of offering a flexible work-from-home policy. But don’t ask me. Ask your developers.

Eight Remote Work Lessons

“For some companies, having employees work from home is a new concept. For others, it’s standard operating procedure.” But now, it’s not just one part of the company — it’s the whole company.

Here are some simple strategies to implement.

Trends

IBM, Power Grids and Blockchain

“IBM has created a blockchain consortium with three of Europe’s electricity grid operators to help smooth the transition to renewable sources of energy.“

Working on the edge: ensure safety with IoT and edge computing

Here is a tool from IBM that offers protection for workers as they use various IoT technologies.

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Contact us

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We look forward to assisting you.

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