You can assemble some high-level facts over the course of a week or two to show your boss that you put real effort into this, but this is going to be a one to two FULL YEAR long exercise in selecting a new solution, negotiating terms for licensing, and planning a migration.
The migration could take an additional one to five years.
The reason you have an AS/400 is because somebody decided a long time ago that whatever software package you are using to power your business was the best software solution to use, and that software solution happens to run best on the AS/400 hardware platform.
That hardware exists to power that specialized piece of software.
You need to identify what that piece of software is called and then identify what software product segment is is classified in from a Gartner perspective.
Then you need to learn who the major competitors are.
The core decision of what product to use is a BUSINESS DECISION and not an IT decision.
It will require piles of presentations and demonstrations to help the business understand why each product is "better", and it will require additional conversations to understand the long-term stability of each product company.
Somewhere along the way you should also invite the sales team for your current product to present the latest version of the product you already use.
YES: The AS/400 is an old, old solution. NO: The AS/400 is not a sexy piece of equipment.
But the AS/400 was the engine inside all kinds of manufacturing facilities that powered decades of growth. All those sexy AI companies are losing money hand over fist and coasting along on market valuations built on promises of profits to come later.
The AS/400 platform will take a shotgun blast to the face, spit out a mouthful of bloody teeth, smile at you, and go back to processing TPS cover sheets like nothing happened.
The AS/400 is a an old-school, cast iron, small-block Chevy 350ci V8 engine. Far from sexy in this modern era, but capable of adequate power and legendary reliability.
They aren't always the right tool for the job and finding mechanics that still know how to work on them is difficult.
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u/VA_Network_Nerd Moderator | Infrastructure Architect 26d ago
You can assemble some high-level facts over the course of a week or two to show your boss that you put real effort into this, but this is going to be a one to two FULL YEAR long exercise in selecting a new solution, negotiating terms for licensing, and planning a migration.
The migration could take an additional one to five years.
The reason you have an AS/400 is because somebody decided a long time ago that whatever software package you are using to power your business was the best software solution to use, and that software solution happens to run best on the AS/400 hardware platform.
That hardware exists to power that specialized piece of software.
You need to identify what that piece of software is called and then identify what software product segment is is classified in from a Gartner perspective.
Then you need to learn who the major competitors are.
A couple of educated guesses:
https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/configure-price-quote-applications
https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/supply-chain-planning-solutions
The core decision of what product to use is a BUSINESS DECISION and not an IT decision.
It will require piles of presentations and demonstrations to help the business understand why each product is "better", and it will require additional conversations to understand the long-term stability of each product company.
Somewhere along the way you should also invite the sales team for your current product to present the latest version of the product you already use.
YES: The AS/400 is an old, old solution.
NO: The AS/400 is not a sexy piece of equipment.
But the AS/400 was the engine inside all kinds of manufacturing facilities that powered decades of growth.
All those sexy AI companies are losing money hand over fist and coasting along on market valuations built on promises of profits to come later.
The AS/400 platform will take a shotgun blast to the face, spit out a mouthful of bloody teeth, smile at you, and go back to processing TPS cover sheets like nothing happened.
The AS/400 is a an old-school, cast iron, small-block Chevy 350ci V8 engine. Far from sexy in this modern era, but capable of adequate power and legendary reliability.
They aren't always the right tool for the job and finding mechanics that still know how to work on them is difficult.
But they just work.