The announcement and shipment of V4R3 has created an industry dilemma. V4R3 is great, yet the majority of AS/400 users are lagging three releases behind—at V3R7! This frightening state of affairs confounds the analysts who are trying to predict the success or failure of IBM’s AS/400.

But who cares about IBM? What’s really frightening is the potential damage to our businesses. Our sites are being galvanized on an operating system release that will cripple our businesses in the months and years ahead. Why is it happening? What are the causes? What are the implications? What can we do?

The primary cause is Y2K. Most AS/400 installations are so focused on their real- world Y2K projects that they have no time to mess around with V4R3. AS/400 staffers are bent to the task of getting the system in order so that it—and the company as a whole—can safely make the jump to millennium hyperspace. It’s an awesome task. But what’s that sucking sound you hear? It’s the sound of personnel recruiters enticing our qualified professionals out of our shops and into the consulting market, leaving us with still fewer in-house resources to manage the Y2K projects and absolutely no one to study or implement the newest version of OS/400.

But so what? Who cares, as long as we make the Y2K jump, right? Ah, but the implications for our companies are staggering. With so many shops delaying implementation of new technology, the larger, strategic goals of e-commerce, Java, business intelligence, and work-flow automation will wither. When 2001 rolls around, we’ll discover that our businesses have entered the new millennium with neither the tools nor the personnel to navigate in the new, post-modern universe of the Internet. We’ll be way out in the vacuum of space without so much as a star map to guide us. And with no one trained to man the ship, how will we get to our destination?

This disturbing industry dynamic is already happening on a small scale. Many companies that don’t have the trained personnel to address e-commerce today are quietly contracting to others—such as Yahoo—to build and manage their e-commerce sites. But

isn’t the use of this type of data service a move backward? Isn’t this the equivalent of business hell, in which a company’s control and influence over a vital market shrinks at exactly the same rate as the market’s expansion? Would your company place its business relations in the hands of a service bureau? No way! So once again, we’ll need to find or train new personnel to implement our business goals. But, by then, we’ll be four releases behind, and the cost and the learning curve will be greater still.

The only solution is to act now. We must start planning to educate our in-house staff. “Oh, yeah!” you’re thinking. “Plan for education? Give me a break! I can hardly get away to my user group!” I know! But ad hoc educational models won’t be enough after Y2K. Our shops must start planning and budgeting now to deliver qualified, accredited, and certifiable technical courses to our personnel next year, before we move into the post- modern millennium. Without this investment, we will lose all the strategic fuel that has propelled our past automation efforts.

What will that education look like? At COMMON last month, IBM announced the formation of AS/400 University, a new program composed of accredited education providers. At this writing, the university appears to be divided into tracks aimed to provide basic AS/400 education as well as courses targeted toward formal IBM certification. The university’s scope will include e-commerce, application development, and a constellation of evolving technologies. It will use the industry’s best talents and materials to deliver quality AS/400 education. It will probably also involve the community colleges that historically deliver courses in AS/400 technology. This new organization may be just the ticket to get our shops jump-started after we pass the Y2K barrier. In fact, AS/400 U may be the launching platform that delivers the educational fuel for our shops.

How do we at Midrange Computing know so much about the AS/400 University? We know because we’re working with AS/400 U, helping to identify the challenges and to map the strategies that will move us all ahead. We’re working toward the future to ensure that you have all the fuel you need to blast off after Y2K. But to do the job, we want and need input from you—as IBM customers, as subscribers, and as AS/400 professionals. Send me your thoughts, your shop’s list of concerns, and your suggestions for tackling this historical challenge. How can we effectively deliver the education your organization needs? How can we mount a successful initiative to train and educate personnel as we all move beyond the Y2K barrier? With your input and our efforts, we will all pull together to bridge the gap and push ahead. Without it, I fear we may all become literally lost in space.