Newsletter - April 1999
Serving the community of IBM Midrange users.
Membership: $100.00.
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President's Message from Peter MaherWill Spring Ever get here? I'm sure most of you have, like me, wondered if Spring will ever get here. I know I shouldn't complain since we had another mild Winter but still there is nothing like Spring in and around Washington. I guess the reason for my melancholy mood is that I recently completed my annual pre Spring Inventory of my garden shed and I am finding myself behind already and I haven't even started. What has this got to do with anything you ask? Well this month I would like to go out on a limb and talk about a subject that is close to my heart - Staff Retention. Perform a Skills Inventory It's easy for us to focus on what we know best: maintaining the current hardware and integrating new technologies. However, as important as new technology is to your future, people are even more important. In fact, the most successful organizations will spend at least as much time managing human resources as they do managing technologies. Take a look at the economics. On the AS/400 the Hardware accounts for between 25% to 33% of the total cost of ownership. In addition, the price/performance of hardware doubles every 18 to 24 months. How about the cost of the people? In most environments, costs relating to employees are the largest share of the pie. At the same time, most organizations are not making major increases to their staff. In fact, one-quarter of the companies I talk with operate under a virtual head-count freeze-they are not allowed to add staff. Most of the remaining companies complain about how difficult it is to find qualified professionals. So if people are expensive and hard to find, what should your organization do? I suggest that you perform a skills inventory. Identify what skills you have in your organization, including technical skills. It also should include skills such as project management and business analysis. Next, identify what skills are needed and what will be needed in a year or two. Then do a "gap analysis" to determine what skills you need and when. Also decide which skills you will out-task. Remember that out-tasking itself requires skilled resources. If you are not in a position to properly manage the out-tasking relationship, don't even consider it an option. Develop a plan to attract, train and retain skilled employees but don't just try to throw money at the problem. The Computer Professionals I know will leave a job if they feel undercompensated, but they're much more likely to join your company-and stay-if they feel they're developing additional skills and making a contribution. Managing new technology is key to your organization, but it's seldom the only determinant of your long-term success. How well you manage your organization's human resources is often the more difficult test to pass. Let WAM Be Your Partner How can you add to your employee's feeling that you support them? Encourage their Participation in WAM events of course! Not only should you send your employee's to JAM 99 ( Dec 3rd 1999 College Park) or Our exclusive One day Seminar with Charlie Massoglia ( June 15th 1999 Tyson's Corner) - you should, but how about the monthly meetings? Perhaps you can make it easier for 1or 2 or More of your employees to attend the monthly meeting. We all know how hard it is to get around in this area, but just think how your employee would feel if you let them leave an hour early to get to a WAM meeting on the other side of the beltway? Show your employees this newsletter and tell them to go to the Web page WWW.wash-midrange.org. Ask your employees what they would like to see WAM present at a meeting and then call one of The Board and we'll do everything we can to get a speaker for that topic. Or better yet if you or one of your employees have always wanted to break into the big time at COMMON and be a speaker let us help you warm up! (Just don't forget us when you make it to the big time!) (and if YOU are the employee make sure your Manager reads this and YOU bring your manager to a meeting! Show them how useful WAM can be!) I don't propose that WAM has all the answers but I do feel very strongly that we can play a large role in employee development and education. We are your users group - use us. This month’s Meeting This month we are pleased to bring back John P Carr, CDP, President of EdgeTech. He'll be bringing us up to date on all that's involved with accessing the Integrated File Server with RPG. I know if you heard John last year, you are already looking forward to this month's meeting. And if not, take my word for it, it's going to be a great evening. And while I'm saying 'Thanks', I'd like to include Steve Drew of CAS for his fine presentation last month on WebSphere. Looking forward to seeing you this month! -Peter
Using RPG to access the Integrated File Serverwith John P. Carr, CDPMore and more information of the AS/400 world is starting to be stored in stream files on the IFS. Imagine from an RPG program summarizing, say, production after some batch run and put that summarized information in a comma delimited file so that your users could bring up the information and graph it in Excel or 123! This session will provide examples of how to write to and read from IFS stream files using RPG IV. The techniques involve RPG procedures, calling IFS APIs from within an RPG IV program. Complete program examples will be provided. John is President of EdgeTech, a Virginia corporation, and has 17 years experience working with the IBM Midrange environments. His expertise lies in helping companies develop and implement programming standards and methodologies. He has worked on and developed most major business applications including: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Sales Analysis, Production Scheduling, and Order Entry, to name a few. Through EdgeTech John has developed and markets ETIKIT (pronounced etiquette), a software package for the AS/400 that contains application program prototypes and APIs which radically increase programmer productivity and dramatically improve application consistency. ETIKIT also contains an advanced file driven menu/security system. Tuesday, Apr 20, 1999 - 18:00
Tyson's WestPark Rt 7 Tyson's Corner, Virginia
New Web LinksHave you checked out our links to other Users Groups? Find out what's happening in other parts of the world. Go to: www.wash-midrange.org/usersgroups
WAM Contacts:Our home page is at http://www.wash-midrange.org. Send suggestions to Peter.
President: Peter Maher 703/834-3706 F) 703/834-3707 1stplace@crosslink.net
GLIDE - COMMON's New Requirements ProcessOne of the most important functions of a user group is to provide a conduit for the exchange of ideas between members of the group, the user community, and product providers. For many years, COMMON has done an excellent job of fulfilling this task for the IBM midrange community. However, as the midrange industry has changed from an emerging technology to a more mature one, and as COMMON and its membership grow in size, the process currently in use (Requirements) no longer meets this objective.The Requirements Task Force was formed in 1997 to address this issue. Its mission is to examine the issue of idea exchange in all of its facets, and to provide a comprehensive redesign of not only the current Requirements Process, but all the processes that facilitate this exchange of ideas. The Task Force objective is to design, from the ground up, a set of processes that will ensure effective and efficient communication between the COMMON membership, the user community at large, and the product vendors. GLIDE - GLobal IDea Exchange - is the new process being proposed by the Requirements Task Force. The central concept is a Global Idea Forum that serves as a clearinghouse, into which all member ideas, suggestions, and requirements will be entered and discussed. A team of volunteers (Exchange Advocates) will categorize items in the idea forum and route them to the Idea Processing Team (IPT) responsible for that category. IPTs may bundle ideas into Strategic Idea Initiatives within a category and build a business case that supports the development of a solution. Ideas which do not fit into a bundled Strategic Initiative and do not warrant a business case on their own, will be added to a Tactical Idea List for each destination (vendor or COMMON organizational entity). Business cases and the Tactical Idea List are forwarded on to the appropriate destination. It is expected that the recipient will respond to business cases in a prescribed period of time. Ideas on a Tactical List will not require a response, but it is expected that all of these ideas will be made readily available to the recipient's development organization. The IPT may also pass an idea/issue to any of the Strategic Requirement functions (i.e. task forces, councils, committees, focus groups, Top Concerns). Each idea from the idea forum will be the responsibility of a given Advocate who will track its progress, communicate with the vendor, and see to it that status and destination responses are communicated back to the COMMON membership in a timely manner. The full White Paper on the GLIDE process can be downloaded from the COMMON web site at http://www.common.org/. Follow the links for GLIDE to get to the White Paper.
Congratulations !. . . to the door prize winners at the March meeting:
David Zhang (of Up & Up), $50.00 gift certificate.
Treasurer's Message1999 membership renewalThe benefits of being a WAM member continue to increase. As Peter Maher mentioned in his message last month, as a WAM member, you can now avail yourself of many discounts from NEWS400 and Midrange Magazines. In addition, you can also save $200 off the price of COMMON by registering through Midrange Magazine as a user group member. While most of our 1998 members have already renewed, there are still a few who have not. All 1998 members who have not yet renewed their membership for 1999 have been mailed their final reminder invoice. If you have not yet renewed, please do so at your earliest. If you have any questions, or if you would like to start a new membership, please feel free to call me. Your 1999 membership can be renewed or a new membership started by sending in your check for $100 for the annual fee. The checks made out to WAM may be sent to:
12023 Blackberry Terrace North Potomac, MD 20878 -K B Soni Treasurer
Respectfully Submitted,
Tom Jones, Newsletter Editor |
Latest Update - April 1999