Re: Say Hello to IBM System i5!

["Trevor Perry" <tperry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ah, I see the problem..

> Obviously, it's more important for you as vendor to persist on your
> views of application "transformation".
Keith, I am not a vendor. I used to work for a vendor, and I now do 
occasional refacing/repurposing consulting assignments. I have had a lot of 
success with several modernizing tools, and from that can talk about the 
benefits of modernizing - which, btw, is not just refacing.
I currently work for an IBM hardware business partner, although my primary 
job now is a higher level of consulting - defining IT Strategy and roadmaps 
for modernization. When I do this, there is no selecting a particular 
product until defining a roadmap. The choices then depend on the current 
environment, the skillset available, and specific company business 
objectives and directions. Change your assumptions about me, and you may 
read my words in a different light...

> I don't share yours that business apps are inheritantly modal or need to
> be modal and thus make a refacing tool OK.
I never said a refacing tool makes modal ok. I do think that most ERP 
processes are modal. For example, you must determine the customer, then 
credit check them, then look for product, then allocate product, then 
confirm shipping, then process the order. A good ERP will let you revisit 
each of these steps, but the process is primarily modal. Web applications 
tend to be much lighter than that, and the lack of modal can cause problems 
in the middle of the process.

> I'm sure there are cases where such a tool is appropriate
> (B2B,B2C, casual/occasional users), but from what I've seen,
> management tends not to see much ROI in refacing
> their core 5250 applications (by 5250 I mean terminal not the data 
> stream).
This is a difficult thing. A lot of IT management don't understand the value 
of just refacing. A lot of user management want refacing so they have 
something like Windows that is familiar to their users. And IT management 
tell them they are wrong. And then there are a large number - from what I've 
seen - who want to start with refacing. And, if you do ~any~ research, there 
are often significant gains and ROI from ~just~ refacing. While there are 
people telling them that there is little or no advantage (again with the 
lack of education), then there will be management who think there is not 
much ROI. And while there are people building crappy GUIs and selling crappy 
GUI tools, there will always be evidence that refacing has little ROI. I 
know many customers who spent more time in upgrading their refacing than 
they did on the intial refacing pass. Althought that was caused by crappy 
tools, people blame the GUI for the problems and lack of ROI.


> If you make the case, open mind people will buy it.
Aha! And how do I open the minds of people who still call the System i5 an 
AS/400? How do we open the minds of people who call i5/OS an AS/400? How do 
we open the minds of green screen developers to move forward?