Assessing AS/400 Future Strategies
Ken Deats
If your platform of choice is the AS/400—and there are soon to be 700,000 of you—consulting firm D.H. Andrews (Cheshire, Conn.) definitely wants to hear from you, and they are specifically interested in your plans for your AS/400. The recently implemented D.H. Andrews Group “Technology Research AS/400 Project” is aimed at making “definitive new assessments of the role of the AS/400 in IT strategies in the next few years.”
The project was piloted by D.H. Andrews analysts interacting with AS/400 users culled from user groups on a one-to-one basis, says Lee Kroon, a senior industry analyst from D.H. Andrews. “The goal is to better understand what primary applications customers are planning to implement over the next two to three years, and where; AS/400, Unix, NT or mainframe,” he explains. “We want to determine if there are any significant shifts toward or away from AS/400s.”
In addition to the accounting of what is being planned at individual AS/400 sites, analysts want to gain a better understanding of the whys behind those plans. “We want to determine the attitudes and beliefs behind the customers’ moves,” Kroon adds. “For instance, if people believe that ISVs are moving (away from the AS/400) are they planning to move as well.”
The research project is being conducted in two stages. There’s an initial online questionnaire, which will be followed by telephone interviews conducted by a team of D.H. Andrews’ AS/400 experts to selected participants. The questionnaire combined with the interview will provide the evidence needed to help the experts better understand where customers and developers believe the AS/400 platform is headed. The interviews will also give participants the opportunity to talk directly with some of the most knowledgeable people in the AS/400 business.
The project runs though Feb. 28, with data expected to be analyzed and available mid to late March. Those who take part in the pilot will receive a complimentary copy of D.H. Andrews Group's white paper on AS/400 Application Modernization Strategies, which was written by recognized world class experts and every participant will be entered in a drawing to receive a Palm Pilot Vx. The project’s Web site (new window) is complete with the questionnaire, explanation and relevant FAQs.