In the press

Read all the latest articles of BCD in the press

In The Press

Dawn of the Dead: Portals' Revenge

January 23rd, 2012 - IT Jungle

Marcel Sarrasin, product manager at BCD says " Some iSeries shops that are new to the Web have a hard time picturing what a portal is since in the green screen world the login is built in and menus are very basic. I always recommend people start with pencil and paper and map out how they see the navigation, what type of menu, how many pages, etc. Really think about that up front rather than just jumping in and creating pages."

BCD Jazzes Up Presto Web Enablement Tool with Version 3.5

November 30, 2011 - IT Jungle

BCD originally launched Presto about three years ago to provide IBM i customers with a quick way to Web-enable green screens without modifying underlying source code--or even needing access to the original RPG, COBOL, or DDS code, for that matter. Over the years, the product has evolved from a quick-fix tactical Web-enablement tool to include more advanced rich UI and Web 2.0 capabilities, delivered largely through the use of modern coding techniques like JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), all of which is accessed through a Web-based Visual Editor.

BCD Helps K3S Modernize User Interface for Multiple Devices, Cloud

September 1, 2011 - System iNetwork

K3 Solutions searched for the best way to modernize its inventory management software for eight years before choosing BCD’s Presto solution. K3S wanted to give its software a new look that would satisfy existing green-screen users and new users. It also wanted the software to be accessible from multiple devices via the web and to offer a cloud solution for organizations that don’t already own an IBM i box.

You Can Give Your Green-Screen Application New Functionality with Presto 3

May 13, 2011 - MCPress Online

We've all heard the apothegmatic description of screen-scraping programs as doing little more than putting lipstick on a pig, but today's Web-enabling tools are going far beyond just dressing up an unattractive legacy program. The challenge of modernizing green-screen applications is larger than merely overcoming the limitations to the 5250 data stream; it is a question of how you add functionality, features, and information that the original architect never considered and how do you do it without starting over and redeveloping the entire application.

Customized Green Screens Key to BCD's Web Enablement

May 10, 2011 - ITJungle

If you're an application developer on a project that involves converting RPG and/or COBOL green-screen apps to Web pages, you hate being handcuffed with limited screen customization choices. When Business Computer Design (BCD) introduced its Presto software in October 2008, it realized a great many application modernization projects would sink or swim depending on the capabilities of its visual editor.

BCD Makes Web Enablement with Presto Even More Flexible in Third Major Release

May 9, 2011 - MCPress Online

Drop-down boxes and charts populated by DB2 data improve the end-user experience by making information easier to find or enter and they certainly add a visual appeal that isn’t achievable in green screens. While it’s always been possible to add these to your Presto Web-enabled screens, it just became a lot easier in V3.

BCD Focuses on LDAP and Cross-browser Support in Nexus Portal V4

May 9, 2011 - MCPress Online

The powerful user management features in Nexus play an important role in its ability to make enterprise information easier to access and to manage securely on the Web. V4 of Nexus now supports authenticating users against LDAP and Active Directory which makes it even easier for site administrators to manage users and improves the user experience.

1,000's of Green Screens & Three Solution Providers Journey to the Web

April 18 , 2011 - System iNetwork

Three IBM i solution providers who faced the challenges posed by large green screen modernization projects share their stories as they get close to going to market with new web versions of their proven RPG packages. One of the things they all have in common is they used BCD’s Presto to achieve their goals.

Walton County Improves Accessibility of Permit System with BCD PHP and Portal Tools

November, 2010 - MCPress online

Business Computer Design today announced that the local governing body for the northern-most part of Florida's gulf coast in DeFuniak Springs recently acquired software licenses for WebSmart PHP and Nexus Portal. With these tools, it developed a Web-based permitting system on its IBM i server, a system that county employees now can access online. Even officers patrolling Walton County beaches can access it from their wireless laptops in police cruisers.

How to Get Buy-in to Make IBM i Web Applications Part of Your IT Strategy

October, 2010 - System iNetwork

To truly leverage the full power of the browser interface your strategy should include new web development efforts that employ true web programming techniques. Kevin Cronin describes which web applications your plan must include and how to prepare your web development team.

Document Management Cuts Paper and Saves Money at Top Ranked City

September 14, 2010 - ITJungle

While the virtues associated with living in an environmentally conscientious way are as abundant as wavy shafts of tan prairie grass in mid-summer, one motive that exerts considerable gravity in the heated conservation debate is that of money. Naperville, Illinois, a city with muscular environmental policies, is setting an example for other cities by further paring back the inefficient use of resources and lessening its impact on the environment while making better use of funds.

Why Web-Enabled Screens Need to Look and Function Like Standard Web Applications

September, 2010 - System iNetwork

To build a stronger business case, web-enabled screens need to make users more productive, reduce training costs, and provide new functionality. This means they need to look and function as much as possible like standard web applications.

The West Haven Police Department: The 2010 COMMON / IBM Innovation Award Awarded to a Police Department for the first time

August, 2010 - COMMON Connect Digital Magazine

The COMMON / IBM Innovation Award recognizes members of the Power Systems community who have demonstrated innovation, leadership and ongoing commitment to the community. A judging committee made up of COMMON Board Members and IBM members rate nominees on a number of criteria.

BCD Enhances Nexus Portal, Presto, WebSmart Family

June, 2010 - IBM Systems Magazine

IBM i modernization vendor Business Computer Design Int’l (BCD) has issued new versions of several products. The company has added several new features to Nexus Portal. Version 3.6 of the Web portal solution offers a Google search appliance portlet that lets users use Google searching and indexing on their own content. The product now fully supports Firefox users, and a major code revision has improved page load times by up to 40 percent, according to BCD.

IBM and COMMON Call the Cops

May 10, 2010 - Dan Burger, ITJungle.com

Sergeant Joseph Wynosky, one of two WHPD officers responsible for the department's IT operations, was most impressed with the new capabilities in the DCS mugshot system that allow officers to make positive identification much more easily. "They know for sure who they're dealing with," he says about increased officer safety. "Often individuals will give false or misleading information when questioned."

Proven Approaches to Give Your IBM i Applications a Rich Web Interface

May 18, 2010 - Duncan Kenzie, System iNetwork

There has been a lot hype recently about the new add-on product to RPG, Rational Open Access: RPG Edition (RPG OA), that provides 'open access' to your IBM i applications. The truth is, both RPG and the IBM i have been 'open' for many years. For example, the IBM i provides exactly the same APIs for writing to/reading from web browsers as Unix, Linux, AIX, or Windows systems.

BCD Invigorates Software for Application Development, Portal, and Query

May 18, 2010 - Dan Burger, ITJungle.com

BCD has produced software for IBM's midrange computers--including the AS/400, iSeries, System i, and now the Power Systems--for more than 30 years. It's one of only seven vendors that has lined up to support iManifest, an independent (read: non-IBM) initiative to promote the IBM i platform. Each year when the COMMON conference rolls around, you can count on BCD to have some product announcements. Here's what the Chicago-based company has done to enhance its product lineup.

BCD Tools Instrumental in Winning the COMMON / IBM Power Systems Innovation Award

May 5, 2010 - Chris Smith, MCPress Online

DCS, a privately-held corporation based in South Carolina that markets software solutions for public safety, detention centers and prisons in the United States and the Caribbean, won an IBM Innovation Award in the small and midsized award category, and the company credits BCD Software for providing the tools that made the accomplishment possible.

BCD Makes a Cluster of Product Announcements at COMMON

May 4, 2010 - Agrubb, SystemiNetwork.com

Business Computer Design (BCD), a provider of application modernization products for the IBM i, made a cluster of announcements in tandem with the COMMON 2010 conference this week. The announcements include: * upgrades to BCD's WebSmart family of products * a new version of Nexus Portal * a new release of Presto.

Reduce the PHP Learning Curve with WebSmart PHP

April 27, 2010 - Duncan Kenzie, System iNetwork

If you are like me, you probably come from an RPG background. You know green-screen subfile programming inside-out, how to organize and process any business data, and how to build complex business applications by calling programs from menus. But moving to the web can be daunting for anyone. There’s a whole new programming paradigm to learn, not to mention different languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.

Presto 2 Improves Screen Rendering and Design Flexibility

April 5, 2010 - Chris Smith , MCPress

I guess it's a guy thing, but we just love tools. It doesn't matter whether it's a cool new circular saw or a great computer development tool-it's a tool, we can get a lot accomplished with it, and that's what counts. Guys are expected to get a lot accomplished in little time. It means we're powerful, more potent. Well, a cool tool just got better, and you'll love how much you can get accomplished with it.

Old Code Meets New Ideas in Latest App Modernization Projects

March 2010 - Dan Burger, ITJungle

The heat is on. For all the talk about IT integration and innovation, words that get casually tossed around as if saying them was doing something, there is progress being made in the area of application modernization. The time for talk is turning into the time for action in the IBM AS/400 community, which IBM has renamed the iSeries, the System i, and now just IBM i. The lower case i, IBM used to be fond of saying, is for integration and innovation.

iManifest Gets Boost from BCD. Software vendor chides IBM for allowing a marketing vacuum to develop around the IBM i platform.

November 16, 2009 - Chris Smith, MCPress

The iManifest movement received a high-energy drink in one gulp last week as Business Computer Design (BCD) and its outspoken director of sales and marketing gave the organization a cash donation and committed to promoting the young organization's logo on all future marketing materials.

BCD gave iManifest its complete support in a move designed to counter what it perceives as a vacuum in leadership by IBM in marketing the IBM i platform. "I'm not down on IBM. I'm just disappointed," says Eric Figura, director of sales and marketing at BCD. "They have lost their marketing way with IBM i."

Figura says that ISVs and Business Partners with whom he keeps in regular contact all agree that IBM has failed to take advantage of the marketing opportunities for the IBM i platform and that IBM's emphasis solely on the converged Power Systems hardware platform has caused "a lot of angst and a lot of concern" in the marketplace.

iManifest U.S. Adds BCD to List of ISV Supporters

November 9, 2009 - Dan Burger, ITJungle

A good start is great, but it's follow through that buys the bacon. When Business Computer Design, better known simply as BCD, joined the iManifest U.S. membership last week, I asked Eric Figura, director of sales and marketing at BCD, how iManifest compares to programs IBM has attempted in the past.

BCD Joins iManifest

November 9, 2009 - Chris Maxcer

"I always knew we were going to do it," he says, noting that it's just a matter of getting everything lined up and together. For instance, BCD is currently working with its business partners in Europe in an effort to get them involved in iManifest EMEA. While BCD solutions are available around the world, it just makes sense to have the business partners who are working more directly with local customers to show support for iManifest EMEA, he notes.

Redesigned Reporting Infrastructure Pays Off in Inventory Reduction

September 22, 2009 - ITJungle

Ellis says his company has benefited in many ways. For one thing, information is presented to management in an easy to assimilate graphical format, and this allows them to save money though better control of raw materials inventory and other costs. It also helps to shorten the overall build cycle and allows Key City to better serve all of the furniture stores that sell their products nationwide. And from the perspective of an IT director, Ellis says they can do more with fewer resources.

COMMON interviews BCD's Eric Figura, Sales & Marketing Director

August 2009, COMMON Connect Magazine

COMMON recently caught up with Eric Figura, Director of Sales and Marketing at Business Computer Design Int’l, Inc., a long-time exhibitor, advertiser and sponsor of COMMON, to get their unique perspective on their involvement with COMMON and how it has benefited their company, and what they’ve done to maximize and retain customers in today’s economy.

Companies Put PHP to Work With BCD's WebSmart

June 23, 2009 - ITJungle

The benefits of Web-based applications for purposes such as online shopping and order entry can reduce personnel costs and other bottlenecks when working with suppliers and customers. In IBM i shops, the interest in PHP has been surprisingly vigorous. Two companies that recently went live with IBM i PHP applications are Midwest Fuel Injection (MWFI) and American Foods Groups (AFG), both of which chose WebSmart PHP from Business Computer Design.

Query/400 Alternative from BCD Enhances BI Capabilities

May 12, 2009 - Dan Burger, ITJungle

Want to see your stock rise? Just design some real-time Web reports, queries, and executive dashboards. Delivering IBM i information to the people who want it--when they want it and in the format they want it--could be very profitable for your career.