The word is getting around the IBM midrange community that application modernization has not reached mission accomplished status after converting the green-screen interface to a graphical user interface. There's backend work to be done. And if you don't have software change management tools, or the SCM you have is only minimally adequate, this is a piece of the modernization puzzle to keep in mind. Recent activity in the SCM market has drawn my attention, so I talked with the folks at Remain Software about what's up.
 
There's a one-word answer to the question about what's up. The answer is business. A combination of improving economy and emphasis on modernization has more companies looking at full-blown modernization projects.
 
In conversations with folks at IBM i shops, I'm hearing that budgets are not as tight as they were several years ago," says Joan McKittrick, a SCM sales and service veteran whose company, Solutions First, represents Remain Software in North America. McKittrick travels the IBM i tech conference circuit, which this year has already put her in touch with conference attendees in the Northeast (including Toronto, Canada), the Midwest, and the West.
 
"It used to be tales of no budget this year were repeated regardless of location, but now I am consistently hearing things are better," she says. "Shops are taking the time to look at change management software again."
 
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