IBM PartnerWorld News: Edition 53

Business Partner Technical Support Community A central source of technical sales information for Power Systems, System z, System x, BladeCenter and Storage. Links to the primary sources of information on Technical Collateral, Education, Tools, Solution Assurance, Community forums and wikis. Click here to find out more

Unleash the power PHP on IBM i with MySQL for IBM i MySQL now supports IBM i. You can download the community server edition of MySQL Version 5.1 at no cost. Click here to find out more

Storage Engine GA: The DB2 for i (IBMDB2I) MySQL on IBM i A new pluggable storage engine has been developed specific to MySQL running in IBM i, V5R4 and V6R1 and is now available as GA starting in release 5.1.35. This storage engine is The DB2 for i (IBMDB2I) Storage Engine for MySQL on IBM i. Click here to find out more

The IBM i ISV Technical Enablement team is now on Facebook You can now become a fan of the IBM i ISV Technical Enablement on Facebook and keep up to date on all of the latest technical IBM i ISV news. Click here to find out more

Build your IBM i knowledge with the IBM Systems technical library The IBM Systems technical library is a collection of technical resources in a wide range of formats for all of IBM systems, including IBM i. Click here to find out more

Leverage the IBM System Services team to accelerate your development. This team has experience in all aspects of technology implementation in Power Systems environments. We provide technical consulting services in installation, migration, porting, application architecture and development, performance tuning, and hands-on skills transfer. We are a highly trained extension of IBM's Power Systems development lab, with a comprehensive knowledge of the products and solutions to assist you in establishing a dynamic infrastructure including asset management, business resiliency, energy efficiency, information infrastructure, security, service management and virtualization. Click here to find out more

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IBM i PartnerWorld News: Edition 52

No charge, on demand remote access to IBM systems and software
The IBM Virtual Loaner Program (VLP) offers no-charge remote access to IBM systems with IBM AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems. The VLP provides the global IBM i ISV community access to IBM i 5.4 and i 6.1. Through the VLP Web site, users can reserve IBM i systems, manage existing reservations or receive support through e-mail or online chat with VLP support. The VLP offering is available to IBM PartnerWorld members and is a quick and easy way to test, validate and demonstrate solutions with IBM systems and software.
http://www.ibm.com/systems/vlp

IBM Executive Briefing Center, Rochester - A Turbocharger for i Sales
An Executive Briefing has proven to be a boost to sales time and again. Deals can close faster and they often become larger. It provides a clear demonstration of your partnership with IBM, exposes your client to information and expertise that they may not find anywhere else, and creates an opportunity to strengthen your client relationship. We offer flexibility in content and format, so please visit our Web page to begin exploring the possibilities.
http://www.ibm.com/systems/services/briefingcenter/rbc/

Easily add Voice Integration with any IBM i Application with iNspire
In today's challenging business climate, businesses are looking for projects that will reduce costs and can be deployed quickly to provide meaningful ROI. The iNspire Telephony Integration Suite, offered by IBM, can be ordered through the configurator, is a software-based solution capable of delivering such results. IBM clients and Independent Software Vendors who develop applications for the IBM i can now use iNspire to integrate business applications with voice to offer a variety of customizable features such as; call queuing with intelligent call routing, application screen pops, assisted dialing and self-service IVR. What's more, as a software-based solution, iNspire integrates without the need for major application modifications so deployments can roll out quickly and without significant operational disruption.
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/solutions/unifiedcommunications/imessaging/

Explore the latest DB2 for i technology - IBM OmniFind Text Search
The DB2 for i 6.1 release includes many new features and functions to enhance the capabilities of your applications. The IBM OmniFind Text Search Sever is one of the new features in 6.1 that is often overlooked. This product enables applications to perform high-speed linguistic text searches against DB2 text data and documents stored in rich-text formats such as Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word. These search capabilities can be tapped by your application to extract business insights out of the text data.
http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/whitepaper/i5os

i Can ... a new blog on IBM i's lesser known features
IBM i, being an integrated operating environment, has tremendous capabilities. Some of the leaders in the development lab in Rochester have wanted to find a more direct way to share all of the great things done to improve and enhance IBM i. "i Can" is a new blog to share the "hidden gems" within IBM i. The name "i Can" is to convey the fact that IBM i can do even more than most realize. The updates to this blog will generally be information about the latest features in the most current releases of 5.4 and 6.1.
http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/i_can/

How-To Sign up for IBM i content in your PartnerWorld Newsletter

In order to receive the IBM i ISV content in the monthly PartnerWorld newsletter you have to opt-in. To opt-in follow these steps.

Go to the PartnerWorld website www.ibm.com/partnerworld/

Sign-in to your profile.

Click on “Update your profile”

Click on “Update your personal employee profile”

Select the profile you want to receive the IBM i ISV content in the monthly PartnerWorld newsletter.

Click on “Communication preferences”

Click on “add optional data” at the bottom of the page.

On the Communications preferences page, select the following values. You may also have to set other values based on your interests or location.
· Opt in to receive PW newsletter : “Yes”
· Business model : "ISV"
· Areas of Interest (Check all that apply) : "IBM Power Systems on i (Midrange Servers)"

August IBM PartnerWorld News (IBM i in the news)

Announcing IBM DB2 Web Query for i October Education Series
This in-depth webinar education series, starting October 8th, has been put together by IBM to fulfill a request from IBM i ISVs for more in-depth knowledge around IBM's DB2 Web Query product. DB2 Web Query is the IBM replacement for the popular Query/400 reporting tool with extensions into Business Intelligence (BI). IBM has already shipped over 30,000 licenses of DB2 Web Query to existing or new customers, and with BI being the top priority of mid-market CIOs even in an economic downturn, there has never been a better time to understand how DB2 Web Query can drive revenues for you and your clients.

http://www.ibm.com/systems/i/software/db2/webquery/db2_isv_webinars.html



No cost access to IBM systems and software with expert guidance
IBM Innovation Centers are the heart of a superb technology community and act as physical and virtual "storefronts" for technology, business, and academic innovators. These centers provide the global IBM i ISV community access through remote or in-person testing and validation on IBM hardware and software, in-person events, and sales linkage activities.

https://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/RBAA-7V3RA4



Better understand how customers are running your software
Earlier this year, IBM created a set of PTFs for IBM i 5.4 and 6.1 that provides a tool to gather system capacity information. The tool, called QLZARCAPI (Retrieve Partition Capacity Information), provides data on features and characteristics of a partition, allowing you to better understand your customer's environment.

http://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP101489



Engage IBM Benchmark Centers for in-depth benchmarks
IBM World Wide Client Benchmark Centers provide tailored benchmark capabilities, including proof of concept, scaling and performance services for IBM Power Systems and the IBM i operating system.

http://www.ibm.com/systems/services/benchmarkcenter

Social Media Lunch and Learn with Sandy Carter

Yesterday I listened to Sandy Carter present "Social Media Lunch and Learn with Sandy Carter" I highy recomend it if you are interested in exporing social media. If you missed it, a replay is now available and can be accessed at your convenience.

Download link
http://www.webdialogs.com/archive/20090715_IBM_social_media.zip

To play back the conference recording, follow the steps below
1. Right-click on the recording file you have just downloaded and choose "Extract All.."
2. Follow the on-screen prompts to extract the zip file
3. Once the zip file has been extracted, open the folder containing the extracted content and double-click the "main.html" file to play back the recording.

July IBM PartnerWorld News (IBM i in the news)

I am happy to say that the July PartnerWorld Newsletter is now out, with the IBM i content I submitted. This is the first of a year long information/communications campaign I plan using the PartnerWorld Newsletter. I will be covering free resources, fee resources, and technologies that I think are key to IBM i ISVs. Keep and eye out for the following in the coming months: ALXARCHAPI, Benchmark Centers, DB2 for i & Web Query, Rochester Executive Briefing Center (REBC), Unified Communications (UC), Value Nets, PHP & MySQL, and more.

IBM System i

Introducing the ISV Technical Enablement for i team The ISV Technical Enablement for i team is a group of IT Specialists and IT Architects dedicated to working with IBM i ISVs to technically enhance ISV solutions to make them more competitive in the market, at not cost to the ISV. If you are seeking new sales opportunities that require technically enhancing your application(s), contacting the ISV Technical Enablement for i team is the first step towards ensuring that you are engaging all of the IBM resources available to you to help drive your success. Send an e-mail to iaic@us.ibm.com?subject=ISV Technical Enablement for i team

Low cost technical support for ISV software development Speed your development cycle with IBM i and middleware technical support for ISV development. This comprehensive developer assistance covers IBM i and cross-server middleware products and technologies for your application development efforts. Technical support is specifically for ISV development systems only, and includes a range of benefits including: Assistance in identifying software problems on your development system, their causes, and suggested options to resolve them; Searching for APARs and recommended PTFs related to the problem; Discussing IBM products that could be used when developing your solution(s), and identifying and helping resolve problems related to your application development efforts. Click here to find out more

Enable your IBM i solutions on IBM i 6.1 IBM i 6.1 is critical to sales opportunities in 2009. IBM i 6.1 is required for lade Center S, and several IBM hardware models today. Another critical factor is V6R3 going out of support, meaning that you need to move your customers forward. Enabling your IBM i solution on IBM i 6.1 - roadmap delivers an overview of the new features and functions in IBM i 6.1 and will help you develop, market and support your solutions on the IBM i 6.1 operating system. Click here to find out more

Getting Started

This is my first blog post ever, congratulations to me! I plan on raising my on-line profile and that of the work I do with IBM Business partners with this blog, Google Profile, LinkedIn profile, and other resources I find along the way. While I plan to have business items be the main focus, I also plan to touch on personal technology projects.