Re: ERP Comments -- JAVA400-L

    Hi Roberto,

    As always, the support required depends on your application needs.
I saw a post on one list that was nonsensical to me, where someone
decided to include the J2EE jar in order to get email capability.  On the
other hand, if one were alreay running J2EE, the additional support is
virtually free, in almost every sense.  We run our site - actually three
virtual hosts - in a 100% pure Java environment ( including the HTTP
server ),  with J2EE enabled.  I don't think you will find it particularly
slow, and, cobbler's children syndrome, we haven't done any particular
optimizations yet.

    There are few, if any, other environments that include all of the
support available in J2EE.  Just to bore you, in J2EE 1.3, these are:

Enterprise JavaBeans Technology
JDBC API
Java Servlet Technology
JavaServer Pages Technology
Java Message Service
Java Naming and Directory Interface
Java Transaction API
Java Mail API
JavaBeans Activation Framework
Java API for XML Processing
J2EE Connector Architecture
Java Authentication and Authorization Service

    In J2EE 1.4, which is being held up so that it can include some new
industry standards that are still being resolved by the groups involved, Web
services and several other items are added.

> What about reliability, fiability, etc with this technology ?

    I'm not sure if "fiability" means viability or flexibility.  There are
probably few more flexible environments, and you have the entire Java API
set, as well as a huge amount of free and commercial software available.
For viability, see "Case Studies & Success Stories" at :

http://industry.java.sun.com/casestudies/0,2040,,00.html

    Yes, I wish there were failure studies too, so problems that others
encountered or created could be avoided.

    As to reliability, overall this is good to excellent, although it
depends, as always,  on the given vendor, underlying OS services,
and what the developer was thinking that day.  The last one is not
as big an issue as with most products because so much of the code
is portable and doesn't need to be different for each platform version.

> What about an inventory, invoicing process. You know what I mean, what
> are differences to do it in RPG as always or do it in J2EE ?

    You are looking at a large task, regardless, and I would expect to do it
in stages.  Since the AS/400, in particular, has subsystems optimized for
different kinds of work, batch RPG processes woudl be one of the last things
I would look to change - assuming acceptable performance and capability
now.  I have my own ideas about where various applications should be placed
to take advantage of platform strengths and dollar/value concerns, but the
main consideration should be the right approach for the given application.
For our clients, we always look at what makes the most sense for the
application and we may select Java or RPG for the job.  If you are looking
for complete portability or integration, then you may, at some point, want
to convert everything.  But I would begin with the most obvious and pressing
areas.

    HTH, or at least gives some food for thought,


                                                         Joe Sam

Joe Sam Shirah -        http://www.conceptgo.com
conceptGO         -        Consulting/Development/Outsourcing
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Roberto Carbajal" <rcarbajal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Java Programming on and around the iSeries / AS400"
<java400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 2:23 AM
Subject: RE: ERP Comments


> Hi everybody :
>
> First of all, I wanna thank everybody for your interesting answers about
> ERP.
>
> But one of the main questions is technology (J2EE) and Websphere.
>
> Are there experiences in this environment (inside your companies) with a
> fully ERP development, I mean finantials, purchasing , Production,
> Sales, accounting modules.
>
> Also SCM and CRM.
>
> What about reliability, fiability, etc with this technology ?
>
> What about an inventory, invoicing process. You know what I mean, what
> are differences to do it in RPG as always or do it in J2EE ?
>
>
> We have done other analysis like ( personal skills, cost of training,
> impact of change, user friendly, etc.) but not sure about this : Is J2EE
> right technology to do ERP re-engineering ?
>
>
> Thanks again for your comments.
>
>
> Roberto
>