Welcome to my first blog entry. I am excited to get started writing, although the hardest decision was to decide what this blog should cover. The reason I wanted to write a blog is because I want to tell you about what is happening in the world of IBM i, from my perspective as the Product Offering Manager for IBM i and to tell your stories – IBM i customer stories.
I have worked for IBM since the days of System/38. My first job at IBM was as a Field Systems Engineer. After a number of years, I moved to Customer Technical Education and taught new customers how to use their S/38 systems. In those days, there were four one-week classes that taught everything from how to power on and power down the system, to RPG programming, to Advanced Performance Tuning. Eventually, after a few more roles in National Support and Advanced Technical Support, I arrived at the Toronto Development Lab where my job was technical marketing for Development Tools and compilers for the AS/400.
While I have spent my entire IBM career in the Midrange marketplace, I have learned more in this last year about our clients and partners than ever before. Clients use IBM i for everything from taxi dispatch systems to retail systems, online and traditional, tracking produce from field to consumer in addition to the more traditional applications such as distribution, insurance and banking. What an amazing plethora of sizes, shapes, colors and industries in which we find IBM i installations—thousands of clients using i in thousands of ways. So, the first objective of my iSight blog will be focused on telling those stories—your stories.
I have worked with ISVs for most of my career, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, so I also want to tell you about the ISVs who are doing exciting things with their solutions. For example last year, while at COMMON, I was asked to watch a demo of a newly released product from one of our ISVs. I was completely blown away by the level of technology integration. Their application included mobile support, interfaces to other types of data collection equipment, and amazing graphics. These are the things that everyone with an interest in IBM i deserves to hear about.
Another focus for me will be telling you about new and exciting IBM announcements and technologies. We have been delivering new Technology Refreshes two times per year and each one has a lot of content. I want to tell you about the things that I think are the most exciting and why. For example, did you know that Lotus has recently announced the mobile and collaborative tools for IBM i? Lotus Traveler and IBM Connections are both available for IBM i.
Consider this first blog entry the teaser to the upcoming stories. Watch this space!