The AS/400 has evolved into the modern and powerful IBM i
inFORM Decisions is dedicated to creating innovative solutions to help clients get more from their IBM i/Power systems
IBM i‘s AS/400 heritage and strategic innovation point to a bright future for this strategic server that continues to support organizations in almost every industry around the world.
- The market for the IBM i continues to be extremely stable with 1.3% annual attrition.
- 24% of IBM i shops are planning to expand their IBM i footprint in 2019, which outnumbers those who plan to migrate off the platform.
- 71% rely on IBM i to run more than half of their core business applications, a strong indication of the platform’s stability.
- 92% of the respondents from IBM i Marketplace Survey believe that IBM i with Power Systems provides better ROI than other server options.
The continued reliance on IBM Power Systems hardware and a dedication to keeping current with the latest technology is revealing long-term trends that give insight into the future of this trusted technology. The most popular version of the IBM i operating system is currently IBM i V7R3. The jump to 7.3 speaks to the longevity of platform as organizations continue to invest in keeping current.
Since its arrival, one of the strongest features of this platform has been its upward compatibility. For the most part, you can run a program created for the AS/400 in 1988 on a Power Systems server today with little or no changes. However, there are some IBM utilities such as the IBM Advanced Function Printing Utilities are not supported on IBM i 7.3 OS.
While AFP data stream and protocol might still function, the AFP Utilities and the InfoPrint tool for designing pages are not supported in 7.3 and beyond. This would indicate that you can continue to print existing applications, but that you can’t create a new form overlay or modify an existing one.
AFP is an outdated technology and was always painful to work with. IBM sold off its printing division which subsequently removed support for AFP utilities along with the Infoprint Designer and is recommending 3rd party alternatives such as the acclaimed iDocs Forms Suite from inFORM Decisions. iDocs provides easy-to-use forms design and spool file data mapper with menus to set up business rules for manual or automatic processing and intelligent distribution of merged, formatted reports, forms and security MICR checks. Print in color with graphics and bar codes.
Whereas most of the IBM Solution providers have evolved with the platform, some antiquated or obsolete laser forms solutions such as Jetform, Optio, Createform or Createprint, ACOM, and others, are forcing users OFF the powerful IBM i platform onto a Windows or Cloud based solution with higher costs, higher maintenance and totally new learning curves.
inFORM Decisions offers a seamless, painless, and no-cost migration. Migrate to a continually developed and enhanced Document Automation solution running natively on the IBM i. Our modules include laser forms printing, laser check printing, email with PDF and Excel formats for spool and database files, document scanning and archival and document workflow.
As the platform continues to evolve, becoming increasingly robust, embracing modern technologies, and giving many of the world’s top organizations a competitive edge, so do IBM i providers like inFORM Decisions. inFORM Decisions has been a Document Automation provider specializing in state of the art Document Automation solutions for the IBM i – iSeries – AS/400 arena since 1994. We believe that the IBM i/Power Systems will be relevant for a long time offering the stability and security that you’ve come to expect from IBM. inFORM Decisions is committed to the IBMi platform forever!
Call (800) 858-5544 / (949) 709-5838 or visit us at www.informdecisions.com for more information about our acclaimed iDocs suite of IBM i products.
