Costco still on IBM i? -- MIDRANGE-L

I made Greg's statement to what I thought was the appropriate personnel at my last 3 firms with examples.
No one cared to hear it except for the dedicated IBM i staff I worked with. You can only speak up so much.
All 3 of these firms either moved or are moving away from the box. It's hurts to write this.

1 was a hospital system that decided that CERNER / EPIC fit their need instead of the IBM i.
They felt that future acquisitions / integrations with other CERNER / EPIC hospital systems was on the horizon.
It's hard to make a compelling argument in a case like that.

The next was a state legal system that decided for a variety of reasons that SalesForce was their answer.
They said the IBM i was too expensive to run, someone in a position of CFO at the legal system supposedly
had a bad experience with the IBM i (AS400 I guess) and hated it. As I found after the fact, it wasn't the system
but how it was run that bugged that person. Once it was in their head that all IBM i's ran the way of the poor
experience, the system was doomed no matter the expense and time. It took 8 yrs to finally get of the system.
I recently ran several D-manual IPL's across multiple partitions for them after full system saves. They
deconstructed the system and returned it to where it was leased from.
They also used the excuse that their talent had retired and their "legacy" software couldn't be maintained. In fact,
they had people on staff in IT that had many years of IBM i experience, They didn't want to use them to modernize.
They converted them to SalesForce personnel. I was their IBM i consultant and they didn't offer me a SalesForce role.
Pretty sure I wouldn't have accepted a role like that anyway.

My current firm is moving of the box due to a huge acquisition with a move to INFOR LN. They decided it was easier
to combine the various companies into an acquisition's INFOR LN system rather than bring them into our IBM i. The firm felt INFOR LN fit the combined entities
better than the IBM i.

I'm kind of hopeful this is the last time I have to experience the disappointment of living with a move off of the system. It's beyond disappointing
to see it and live it. And to Rob's point, sometimes it's not a hill to die on. So we keep quiet and run the system until we're told not to.

Respectfully,
Michael Mayer
IBM i on Power System Admin
Cell, Office and Text Messages: 518.641.8906
IBM i Award Winning Blog Site: https://ibmireference.blogspot.com/
Awarded IBM 2024/2025 Advocate, Contributor, Influencer and IBM i Ready Badges.

1. RE: Costco still on IBM i? (Greg Wilburn)
2. Re: Costco still on IBM i? (Jon Paris)
3. Re: Costco still on IBM i? (Rob Berendt)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

message: 1
date: Fri, 16 May 2025 18:10:30 +0000
from: Greg Wilburn <gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: RE: Costco still on IBM i?

With the tools available now, you should be able to stay on the platform while providing a UI that looks nothing like a "green screen".

Now, if I could just get my "mature users" to move over to the browser... They would rather press 3 Fn keys, field exit and F5 than click a button to release an order. ?

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 12:30 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Costco still on IBM i?

Like many others Pete, Costco have been attempting to move off the platform to one degree or another for 12+ years. Like most others, it hasn't worked that well so far as I can tell.

I wonder if the interface you saw is mostly a skin? Certainly, in my local store, the green screen is front and center as always.

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
301.895.3792 ext. 1231

------------------------------

message: 2
date: Fri, 16 May 2025 14:24:08 -0400
from: Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: Costco still on IBM i?

I remember when Best Buy introduced the new GUI interface for the staff. On the surface, it was much better than the old green screen - except apparently when you knew what you were doing! According to the staff member I was working with it had clearly been designed after consultation with managers and not workers. He spent 15 minutes trying to find out if a particular item was available in a nearby store. After 15 minutes he said a rude word followed by "Thank goodness they still let us use the old app", He went to the green screen and had the answer in less than a minute. This was a tech-savvy guy - not an ancient Luddite,

My point? Most green screen apps have evolved over many years and the restricted real estate forces you to design for your user's needs and not cuteness. In too many cases the GUI designers haven't a clue and often appear to be trying to reuse code developed for customers.

Don't get me wrong - we need to update the interfaces we need, but all too often the results are less than adequate.

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On May 16, 2025, at 2:10?PM, Greg Wilburn <gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

With the tools available now, you should be able to stay on the platform while providing a UI that looks nothing like a "green screen".

Now, if I could just get my "mature users" to move over to the browser... They would rather press 3 Fn keys, field exit and F5 than click a button to release an order. ?

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Jon Paris
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 12:30 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Costco still on IBM i?

Like many others Pete, Costco have been attempting to move off the platform to one degree or another for 12+ years. Like most others, it hasn't worked that well so far as I can tell.

I wonder if the interface you saw is mostly a skin? Certainly, in my local store, the green screen is front and center as always.

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
301.895.3792 ext. 1231
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message: 3
date: Fri, 16 May 2025 15:17:28 -0400
from: Rob Berendt <robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: Costco still on IBM i?

The new marketing guy hated our internal use only website. Typefont was big enough to be readable and it all fit on one screen. So he changed it to big freaking boxes with tiny tiny font and you have to scroll and scroll and scroll.
Not a hill I was willing to die on and I hate to pummel new talent so I just kept my mouth shut.

On Fri, May 16, 2025 at 2:24?PM Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I remember when Best Buy introduced the new GUI interface for the staff.
On the surface, it was much better than the old green screen - except
apparently when you knew what you were doing! According to the staff
member I was working with it had clearly been designed after
consultation with managers and not workers. He spent 15 minutes
trying to find out if a particular item was available in a nearby
store. After 15 minutes he said a rude word followed by "Thank
goodness they still let us use the old app", He went to the green
screen and had the answer in less than a minute. This was a tech-savvy
guy - not an ancient Luddite,

My point? Most green screen apps have evolved over many years and the
restricted real estate forces you to design for your user's needs and
not cuteness. In too many cases the GUI designers haven't a clue and
often appear to be trying to reuse code developed for customers.

Don't get me wrong - we need to update the interfaces we need, but all
too often the results are less than adequate.

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On May 16, 2025, at 2:10?PM, Greg Wilburn <

gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

With the tools available now, you should be able to stay on the
platform

while providing a UI that looks nothing like a "green screen".

Now, if I could just get my "mature users" to move over to the

browser... They would rather press 3 Fn keys, field exit and F5 than
click a button to release an order. ?

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of

Jon Paris

Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 12:30 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: Re: Costco still on IBM i?

Like many others Pete, Costco have been attempting to move off the

platform to one degree or another for 12+ years. Like most others, it
hasn't worked that well so far as I can tell.

I wonder if the interface you saw is mostly a skin? Certainly, in my

local store, the green screen is front and center as always.

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
301.895.3792 ext. 1231
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