Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

News: IBM’s path to the cloud and a Virtual Desktop. Kronos and Unlimited Software plan a merger.
Hiring: Ways to hire tech talent. Are the “Algorithms” making your job search difficult?
Modernization: Strong technology organizations drive revenue. The case against a new ERP platform.
Trends: IBM i market Trends Summary from Help Systems. The Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

News

It’s clear the path IBM is taking is the Cloud

Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM will step down in April and Arvind Krishna will take over. While Rometty started IBM’s shift to the cloud with the acquisition of Red Hat, Krishna will be the one to make IBM succeed in the cloud.

Compared to Microsoft: A similar move was made 6 years ago when Satya Nadella, who was leading Microsoft’s cloud division took over as CEO. Look at Microsoft today with Azure. They are at the top with Amazon (AWS).

Will IBM have the same result? This will have to play out under Krishna’s leadership.

Microsoft and IBM offer Virtual Desktops

A cloud version of the desktop seems to be another segment of the cloud market that is about to heat up.

Microsoft: Formally launched its Virtual Desktop worldwide last year. It’s referred to as Windows As A Service.
IBM: It appears that since “IBM’s market-dominant technology is the mainframe, which has advantages in security, I/O, scaling and reliability” it will have a huge advantage here. Afterall IBM is a terminal expert.

Stepping back: One thing is for sure Enterprise IT is an ever-evolving landscape where legacy technology companies like IBM and Microsoft compete as well as partner with one another.

The sensible path for IBM i shops. Leverage your legacy investment by modernizing and plugging into the vast technology ecosystem that has emerged.

Kronos and Unlimited Software will merge

Kronos: “Kronos is a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions.”

Ultimate Software: “Ultimate Software is a leading global provider of cloud human capital management and employee experience solutions, with more than 51 million people records in the cloud.”

Hiring

Three Ways To Hire Technical Talent

There is intense pressure to seek out, attract and hire technical talent. All too often the focus is outward in that the market is not supplying the talent. What smart companies are doing is looking at different ways they can revamp their hiring.

Cost Cutting Search Algorithms Make Your Job Search Hell

Searching for a job is not necessarily fun.

Here is a worthwhile read that shares some of the unfortunate things that are going on out in the market.

More companies are using automated job screening systems to vet candidates, forcing job seekers to learn new and absurd tricks to have their résumés seen by a human.

Our philosophy, on the other hand, might be a little old fashion, but it works.

We build relationships with our candidates and clients by speaking with them. We are the algorithm.

Modernization

Don’t Build New Systems

Over the past several years’ modernization projects have heated up. More and more AS/400 shops have realized that the best solution is to modernize the one they have. They have done their homework and take advantage of all of the features Power Systems and the IBM i operating system has to offer.

But this is not always the case especially for the companies who look to move to another ERP system.

Does this ring a bell?

I’ve met with several companies that had an interesting common denominator: they were all building a new platform to replace a legacy platform and things weren’t going so well.

These legacy systems are more than just core systems, they support entire product portfolios for multi-million and multi-billion-dollar organizations.

As this article points out, this scenario plays out all over, including in the AS/400 market.

All to often executives, IT Management and business leaders don’t understand the difference between the AS/400 and the IBM i. As a result, they make a commitment to move to a new ERP platform without a full assessment.

And to no surprise, they run into problems.

A Strong Technology Organization Is Seen As A Growth Engine

Traditional IT has been positioning itself for a seat at the table for a long time. This McKinsey article points out that this mindset is starting to take hold.

Technology investment was once seen as a cost is now seen as a revenue generator.

65 percent of respondents expect that their companies’ use of technology is most likely to support revenue growth, rather than cost reduction, over the next three years.

We are seeing signals in the IBM i community that support this. Technology Departments now have a seat in the C-Suite.

Trends

The IBM i is Here to Stay

The recent Help Systems Marketplace Survey for 2020 is out and it’s clear the IBM i platform is in for the long haul. There are so many key takeaways from the study.

Key insights found in the article:

Home Grown Applications: The 2019 and 2020 reveal that 73% of respondents will run homegrown applications on the IBM i.
Security: 77% of respondents see security as the most important issue, edging out HA/DR, Modernization and IBM i skills. Cybersecurity threats are a daily occurrence. As the enterprise moves to IoT and Edge Computing, security concerns will continue to remain front and center.
Modernization: Touches a number of areas. Applications. Database. UI (User Interface). The Help System Study focuses on the UI/interface and finds that 85% are still using Green Screen with a mix of web-based (65%) and Graphical (38%).
Development: RPG and SQL still lead the pack as the most used languages on the IBM i. 2020 shows Node.js and Python are on the rise as open-source technologies make more of an impact in the community.

It’s hard to do the study justice here. Those who are new and those who have been around, need to dive into this report.

It brings truth to the state of the IBM i platform in the enterprise.

IIoT is changing the way we work

IIoT, otherwise known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is driving “three main revolutionary macroeconomic trends that will have major impacts on business: the mainstreaming of the flexible workforce, use of technology and a skills shortage.”

The theme of this article is what I find most important.

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution will create major changes to the foundations of work. Companies that are unprepared for these changes will struggle in the revolution’s wake.”

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