WUG News and Updates

Upcoming WUG Meetings

• July 12: Central Florida WUG

We Value Your Opinion!  Take our GWC Member Survey and You Could Win an American Express Gift Card
The Global WebSphere Community is looking for your feedback to ensure that the WebSphereUserGroup.org site is meeting your needs. Please click here to complete this quick survey, and you will be included in a drawing to win an American Express gift card.

July 2011 Monthly Focus: Developing Mobile Applications with WebSphere Technology

Date:  July 14, 2011
Topic:  Enterprise Development Options for Mobile Devices
Time: 11:00 AM EDT

Watch the video replay, download the presentation, and view questions from the webcast in the WebSphere and Mobile forum

Many of today’s applications must not only run on the desktop and a Web browser but, increasingly, on smart phones and tablets as well. Software developers now are faced with the challenge of adapting their apps to these mobile devices.  

This presentation looks at the many issues facing enterprise software developers and discusses the choices they face when creating mobile versions of their enterprise applications.  Explore the pros and cons of the various alternatives and get an introduction to IBM’s suggested approach.

Date:  July 28, 2011
Topic:  Overview of the WebSphere Application Server Web 2.0 and Mobile Feature Pack
Time:  11:00 AM EDT

Watch the video replay and download the presentation

The latest release of the Web 2.0 and Mobile Feature Pack contains a full spectrum of services to enable enterprise software developers to now create applications for mobile devices (smart phones and tablets).   Developers can take desktop and Web browser user interfaces and reuse their back-end connectivity to WebSphere to create mobile versions of their apps (with each version respecting the native platform’s look and feel).   The Feature Pack leverages many well-known open standards technologies for maximum developer productivity. This presentation will explore the technical features and benefits of the new Feature Pack and is designed for software developers and architects.

Save the Date: July 20, 2011 GWC Lab Chat with Graham Charters: How Can OSGi Make Your Enterprise More Agile?

 Topic: How can OSGi Make your Enterprise More Agile?

Watch the video replay , download the presentation, and view questions from the Lab Chat in the OSGi forum

As a typical application evolves, the number of components it comprises and its component interdependencies increase.  Furthermore, the Java EE packaging and deployment models promote the creation of self-contained applications.  Consequently, over time applications become large and brittle and are no longer able to adapt to meet the changing needs of the business.  Do these experiences sound familiar?  Come and share your pains and requirements and hear how IBM is using OSGi modularity and services to help customers to remain agile and avoid hitting the application brick wall.

Highlights From the June Blogs:

• I need Wcs certification material
• WAS: did you know ...
• developerWorks blog post captures the lastest in WebSphere and Mobile
• WebSphere Version 8.0
• update: WebSphere Security - Visual cookbook
• New IBM WebSphere Courses Available
• Websphere Application Server Administrator
• SSL Digital Certificates - What, Why & How
• Singapore WebSphere User Group Meeting on 10 June
• Nouveautés WebSphere Application Server v8r0
• WebSphere Performance tuning using pre-defined templates
• Running MQSC commands from batch files - Middleware News
• Running MQSC commands from text files - Middleware News
• Feature Pack for Web 2.0 and Mobile V1.1.0 is now available!
• WVE PoC - Presentation Day
• Jobs at IBM
• WVE PoC - ODR & Web Server Plugins
• Give us your feedback on the WebSphereUserGroup.org site and you could win an American Express gift card!
• WVE PoC - Health Policies
• WVE PoC - SLAs/ Service Policies
• Deploying applications using property files and monitored deployment
• WVE PoC - Fine Grain Security
• WVE PoC - Application Editioning
• WebSphere MQ Tutorial for Beginners
• WVE PoC - Dynamic Clusters
• Today is the day!
• WebSphere VE PoC - The DoU
• WebSphere Flexible Management - Working with Job Manager: part-1
• MI Problem
• SSL update
• WebSphere Blogs feed aggregator
• WebSphere Application Server - Security Configuration Report [Default settings]
• Paris Web Designers
• WebSphere and Twitter
• WebSphere Application Server Security - Visual Cookbook
• WebSphere Flexible Management
• Disabling WebSphere MQ functionality in WebSphere Application Server
• New Video: Real-Time Cloud and ERP Integration in 10 Minutes
• Chennai WUG team - Pls choose your preference for our next F2F Meeting date
• WAS 8 known's
• New quote..
• Data Privacy Concepts and Considerations for Globally Accessed Applications
• WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Proof Of Concept
• Changes

Recap: Global WebSphere Community June 2011 Monthly Focus: The Next Decade of BPM, Continued

Topic: The Next Stage – IBM Business Process Manager
 
View the replay, download the presentation , and view questions from the webcast in the IBM Business Process Manager forum

BPM has been on a long journey over the last Decade. And the journey has now been taken on a new path with the announcement of IBM Business Process Manager. Business Process Manager is IBM’s new unified BPM offering that combines highly usable rich capabilities for the business with powerful scalability and governance.

Join us on Thursday June 9, 2011 as we discuss:

• Gaining visibility and insight to manage business processes and begin the BPM journey 
• Tangible examples and use cases of projects that have achieved their goals.
• Different approaches to technology, skills, and organizational structure that enable companies to establish repeatable models for BPM success.
• Scaling a project smoothly and easily from an initial project to a full enterprise-wide program.
• Harnessing complexity in a simple environment to break down silos and better meet customer needs.

 Topic: 7 Revealing Routes to Responsive Business (using IBM Business Monitor)
 
View the replay and download the presentation, and view questions from the webcast in the IBM Business Monitor forum

The visibility into your business that ties together your core processes, essential applications, business rules, and key events is essential for adapting to change and market trends – allowing for a more responsive business.  This webcast will explain how you can:

• see what IS going on rather than read what WAS going on with timely business-oriented dashboards
• provide a company nervous system that enables management to act decisively
• add new dimensions to IBM BPM for deployment, authoring, playback, and reuse of processes
• consume, correlate, and visualize end-to-end across applications
• monitor from anywhere with mobile device dashboards and Web portals
• utilize fully integrated business intelligence for analysis and reporting
• use customizable role-based security levels and user interfaces

Recap: June GWC Lab Chat with Andy Piper, WebSphere Messaging Community Lead at IBM

 Topic: WebSphere  MQ: A Vision for Messaging 

View the replay and download the presentation

The WebSphere messaging products have been at the heart of business for over 15 years, delivering data to where it is needed reliably and securely. There are increasing needs for messaging middleware to adapt, particularly in the context of a Smarter Planet. This lab chat will start out by briefly looking at the current set of technologies in this space and explore the future. What common issues do you find when considering application messaging? What aspects of a messaging infrastructure are most key to your business? And what do you think IBM could focus on in the MQ space to help to transform the way we connect our businesses and the planet?

WebSphere News and Announcements

WebSphere DataPower Appliance Management Center is Now Available
Manage and monitor multiple WebSphere DataPower appliances with IBM WebSphere DataPower Appliance Management Center V4.0.

IBM WebSphere DataPower Edge Appliance XE82 Integrates Edge-of-Network, Traffic Gateway Functions
The DataPower Edge Appliance XE82 was announced on June 14 and was available on June 15th, 2011.

WebSphere^® DataPower^® Edge Appliance XE82 delivers:

• Traffic consolidation, monitoring, management, and acceleration for web application delivery
• An appliance-based proxy gateway for web application delivery
• An integrated edge-of-network control proxy for use with WebSphere Application Accelerator for Hybrid Networks
• An integrated edge-of-network traffic gateway for use with WebSphere Application Accelerator for Public Networks
• An appliance-based proxy gateway for external application access to Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud-based applications
• Options for Application Optimization and Tivoli® Access Manager V6.1 support included standard

IBM WebSphere Application Accelerator for Hybrid Networks V1.0
IBM WebSphere Application Accelerator for Hybrid Networks 1.0 was announced on June 14th and was available on June 15, 2011.

IBM^® WebSphere^® Application Accelerator for Hybrid Networks V1.0:

• Provides gateway service for enterprise network access to accelerated Software as a Service (SaaS) and public cloud applications
• Works with an appliance-based proxy gateway for hybrid network access
• Consolidates traffic for centralized security policy management such as application access controls, single sign on, and SSL hardware acceleration, in conjunction with the WebSphere DataPower® Edge Appliance XE82
• Enhances reliability of application availability over uncontrolled Internet channels to SaaS, cloud, and Platform as a Service (PaaS) services
• Increases performance for external application access by enterprise network users

 Gartner: IBM Simplifies Its BPM Strategy and Portfolio to Put "Business" Back in Business Transformation
IBM's radical overhaul of its portfolio of business process management products, methodologies, services and industry solutions sets a clear direction for customers, and broadens IBM's market opportunity.

Analysts who are on-board with our vision: Janelle Hill and Michele Cantara.

Please see Report Use Policy before distributing this.

WebSphere Makes Going Mobile Easier
IBM has just released the new WebSphere Application Server Web 2.0 and Mobile Feature Pack version 1.1.0, a free and optional add-on that works with the WebSphere Application Server.  With this release, software developers will now be able to use open standards such as JavaScript, CSS and HTML to build applications that can run on the desktop and on mobile devices (tablets and smart phones).

You are encouraged to visit and join the Web 2.0 and Mobile Developer Community pages,  where you will find Videos, Demos, Blog posts, and more.

New WebSphere Feature Pack Extends Apps to Mobile Devices
IBM has just released the new WebSphere Application Server Web 2.0 and Mobile Feature Pack version 1.1.0, an optional free add-on that works with the WebSphere Application Server.  It is designed to help software developers extend the reach of their WebSphere app to mobile devices (tablets and smart phones).

You are encouraged to visit the Web 2.0 and Mobile Developer Community pages,  where you will find links to Videos, Demos, Blog posts, the forums, and more.

Announcing the New Release of IBM Blueworks Live
The Blueworks Live team is excited to announce their most recent release which includes new features that allow you to organize all of your process assets better through tagging and gain even more visibility into the process apps you automate in this cloud based offering designed with the business user in mind.

Now 6 months old, Blueworks Live has seen tremendous growth with close to 300,000 processes having found a home here. The Blueworks Live BPM community of users and partners is strong and is driving much of the improvements that have been made to the offering thus far.

IBM BPM Express: The Most Affordable Full-Featured BPM Solution
IBM BPM Express allows you to start small but dream big when it comes to enterprise transformation through BPM. With the latest release in IBM BPM's portfolio, IBM Business Process Manager v7.5, IBM has introduced a solution for your medium-sized business or your initial process improvement initiative that is low cost.

IBM BPM Express allows you to start small, but dream big when it comes to enterprise transformation through BPM.

News on the Web

TM Forum Case Study with IBM and Mobitel
TM Forum, the communication industry's leading standards body, recently published a case study book highlighting the partnership between IBM and Mobitel, a European service provider. Learn more about how IBM helped Mobitel streamline its order management process and launch new services to the market faster than ever before.

eBook: IBM Smart SOA Foundation: Application Foundation from WebSphere
The eBook IBM Smart SOA Foundation: Application Foundation from WebSphere features use cases and examples for Banking, Insurance, and Telecom industries. Learn more how the WebSphere Application Foundation can help increase business agility in your organization.

Enterprise OSGi YouTube Channel
For those with an interest in OSGi, why not look at the Enterprise OSGi YouTube channel? It contains short videos of OSGi education and you should feel free to submit your own video by contacting @sjmaple.

Datasheet — IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute
Grid V8
Today’s globally integrated business environment needs smarter IT solutions that respond to changing business demands of the dramatic growth of web activity and requires cost effective business transaction processing. With rising customer expectations, businesses require 24×7 availability for OLTP processes while at the same time needing to take advantage of the cost savings available through batch processing. Traditional batch, however, suffers from the limitations of a “batch window,” which does not support the 24×7, always-on, uptime requirement of OLTP applications. To achieve the best of both worlds, IBM has introduced an integrated multifunctional and multiplatform Java batch solution that improves operational efficiency of business transaction processing, with support for batch jobs alongside online transactions. It delivers a near real-time user experience while optimizing costs.

Simple batch jobs alone may not address the challenges of the modern enterprise. Your IT team needs to repeatedly extend custom functionality to meet tactical needs. But over time, it becomes a suite of custom middleware that is expensive to maintain and draws resources away from core business objectives.

A batch solution that takes into account your requirements and uses your existing infrastructure is now available. The solution incorporates best practices and lessons learned from the emerging paradigms of High Performance Computing, GridComputing, and Utility Computing. Today’s infrastructures must easily adapt, incorporating future technologies, and the applications hosted within it need to be able to use modern tooling and programming best practices.

IBM^® WebSphere^® Extended Deployment Compute Grid V8 is a next-generation batch processing system, designed to meet the requirements of any industry and company size.

With WCG v8, your organization can:

• Optimize cycle time—provide flexibility in business processes to run bulk or real-time activities, depending on business needs
• Simplify architecture and manage costs with shared service infrastructure for batch and OLTP
• Improve time-to-market of deliverables with a standardized programming model, tools and a shared infrastructure for developing batch and OLTP services
• Experience “batch as a service,” an emerging service paradigm for using Java batch front-ended with web services
• Simplify end-to-end batch management across different execution environments such as WAS (V6, V7 and V8) and CICS
• Reduce costs by executing batch processing in Java and off loading to zAAP engines on z/OS^®

Figure 1: Customers need near real-time information and an always-on OLTP system. The IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid solution enables the interleaving of OLTP and batch workloads 24×7, as shown in this diagram (click image to enlarge).

Benefit from a proven batch architectural framework for modernization:
IBM has created an architectural framework that provides a platform for meaningful integration between OLTP and batch applications. This approach allows continuous batch execution using shared business logic on a shared infrastructure between batch and OLTP applications without impacting response time requirements for OLTP applications, providing you with a near real-time experience.

WCG is an integral part of this architectural framework for batch modernization. It offers a consistent and systematic integration strategy across multiple business components. It allows for continuous batch processing, enables SOA transformation through reuse of services, uses in-house Java skills for batch modernization projects, reduces cost through use of specialty processors and improves hardware efficiency by utilizing unused capacity during OLTP processing for batch windows.

The WCG, in combination with WebSphere Application Server (WAS), offers multiple configuration options and support for multiple business models and deployment platforms. It also supports a wide range of scenarios, from open source projects with no up-front budget, to simple administration of a single server environment, to a clustered, highly available, high-volume environment with edge-of-network services.

WCG can address a number of usage patterns:

1. Share services and reuse code between OLTP and batch
2. Reduce batch windows or compress time using the Parallel Job Manager
3. Run batch workloads in a 24x7 mode in conjunction with OLTP applications

Figure 2: WebSphere Application Server is a powerful Java execution platform. WCG extends the WebSphere Application Server to provide a managed batch execution container environment. It is designed to run on both IBM System z® and distributed platforms. (click image to enlarge).

The new version of WCG v8 provides a managed batch execution environment that enables the entry, execution and management of Java batch processing in distributed or on mainframe environments.

Figure 3. Click image to enlarge

Figure 4. Click image to enlarge

IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid v8 provides an end-to-end managed batch execution experience by combining enterprise-strength qualities of services with developer and data center productivity tools to bring time-to-value benefits into a pre-integrated framework for batch workload execution.

For more information:
To learn more about the IBM WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid v8, please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner or visit: ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/extend/computegrid/.  Additionally, financing solutions from IBM Global Financing can enable effective cash management, protection from technology obsolescence, improved total cost of ownership and return on investment. Also, Global Asset Recovery Services help address environmental concerns with new, more energy-efficient solutions. For more information on IBM Global Financing, visit: ibm.com/financing

New IBM Press Book Marks IBM's Centennial — 40% Off for GWC Members
In Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company, journalists Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm, and Jeffrey M. O'Brien mark the centennial of IBM's founding by examining this iconic company's impact on modern technology, on the global corporation, and on the way our world works. They offer fresh analysis and extensive research, including interviews with key figures, new reporting from around the world, and the presentation of rich archival material. They recount missteps as well as successes, capturing moments of high drama and surprising discovery. Most importantly, they show the impact of a set of powerful ideas — on institutions, on people's behavior, and on the culture at large. Through the lens of one company's experience, we learn where technology has been — and where it is going today; how the institution of the modern corporation is changing; and new ways to improve the complex systems that make up our increasingly interconnected planet.

GWC members receive a 40% discount on this book!. Log onto WebSphere.org and click on the IBM Press banner halfway down the page

Agility Meets Stability: Best Practices for Application Integration
Today’s companies are faced with integrating a hybrid world of cloud and on-premise applications that are distributed in managed and co-located data centers and hosted sites for Infrastructure, Platform, and Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) – which dramatically increase the complexity. Learn more about emerging trends, what to look for in an integration solution, integration best practices and pitfalls to avoid and how a large enterprise and a mid market company are solving these integration challenges.

Nucleus Research Note: IBM Cast Iron Cloud Integration
Rapid Integration Case Studies
As cloud adoption accelerates, integrating Software as a Service (SaaS) applications with existing on-premise or other cloud applications is emerging as a top priority.  Leading analyst firm Nucleus Research shares how companies use rapid integration to connect critical applications, accelerate project timelines, improve ROI and reduce costs – while improving the functionality and value of existing applications.

Discover how in these in-depth customer and partner case studies where you’ll learn how to:

• Complete projects quickly – Rapidly connect on-premise and cloud applications, public clouds and private clouds
• Avoid custom code – Leverage reusable integration templates to eliminate coding and expedite projects
• Reduce costs – Complete integrations with minimal IT support and little or no training, decrease software licenses, and automate tasks such as monitoring, testing, and upgrades
• Accelerate time to delivery to customers for SaaS Providers – Reduce custom integration work and on-going support costs so you can focus on core competencies, application development and enhancement

Introducing the IT Storage Community Sponsored by IBM
IBM has announced a new online IT Storage Community at www.storagecommunity.org .  The new site is designed to help you network with peers, share best practices, and dialogue with storage experts. Via this community, you’ll be able to learn about new developments in the Enterprise Storage Space from one single source, made up of many opinions and experts. The community is designed as a “coming together" of the world’s leading storage industry analysts and consultants, along with IBM customers and company leaders. Simply point and click to the community at: www.storagecommunity.org to learn how leading companies are transforming their data infrastructure to drive incredible efficiencies, breakthrough innovation and improved IT economics by effectively deploying data reduction, virtualization, data protection, and application integration strategies to drive business value.

BPM Quarterly E-Zine
Considering the potential benefits business process management (BPM) can provide, it's easy to take such a system for granted. But with companies still cautious from a turbulent economy and fiercely competitive market, it's more important than ever to ensure your investments are providing value.

This BPM Quarterly e-zine explores ways you can accurately gauge the progress of your BPM effort. Inside, find not only best practices and expert advice, but access to additional resources about reducing the complexity of BPM integrations and successfully combining BPM and customer relationship management (CRM).

"Quick Win Pilot for Business Process and Decision Improvement" — New Video
Get measurable business results in 10 weeks. This short video provides an overview of the value of starting small, building safely but rapidly to address the business issues you have right now. It features actual Quick Win Pilot results from the financial services, insurance and transportation industries.

Contact: Cheryl Wilson or Latricia Golden

Featured Case Study: Visa Europe
Processing payments with unprecedented agility and reliability.

Visa Europe addressed the unique nature of the European market by building a new payment platform which houses tens of thousands of business rules governing payment clearing and settlement.  An open business rules management system speeds time-to-market and gains cost efficiencies. Read more.

WorkSafe Victoria Video
Worksafe Victoria Improves Straight-Through-Processing by over 80% and Reduces Claim and Fraud Costs with WebSphere BPM and BRMS. Watch the Worksafe Victoria Video to Learn More!

Automate Hospital Operations — New Healthcare Demo
Watch this audio-visual demonstration to see how business process management software from IBM can optimize the operation of clinical, heuristic, administrative/financial, research and teaching processes in order to maximize the cost-effectiveness of healthcare, both inpatient and outpatient.

Vendor Trade Fund Management Accelerator — Retail
Learn how IBM BPM and Decision Management can help retailers save time and money by addressing the pains they face in managing their vendor trade funds process. Read the VTFM Accelerator Solution Sheet and learn more about the IBM Vendor Trade Fund Management Accelerator in iRAM (includes sales presentation and demo).

Contact: Joanne MacDonald

Just What You Want to Know: Why Should I Upgrade?
It is easier than ever to understand WebSphere technology improvements so you can take the action you need to move your business forward. Compare and contrast a WebSphere product upgrade to the features you have now.  You will find that not only are the enhancements a timely and necessary part of your IT strategy but the new functionality is available at no extra charge to current Subscription and Support participants.  Check out the WebSphere Subscription and Support site, bookmark it, and check back often.

Education and Certification

Bite-Size WebSphere Application Server Administration
Check out three new, self-paced courses that are ideal if you need a working knowledge of WebSphere Application Server V7 administration. These courses include content from a five-day administration course covering topics such as WebSphere architecture, installation and administration, and federation and workload management. Enroll today for (ZA007) IBM WebSphere Application Server V7 Architecture and (ZA008)IBM WebSphere Application Server V7 Installation and Administration. The workload course will be available soon.

View all WebSphere Application Server training.

New WebSphere Message Broker V7 Certification Validates Administrator Skills
IBM Professional Certification is the ideal way to demonstrate your WebSphere skills proficiency to your employer and clients. Set yourself apart as a certified WebSphere Message Broker Administrator. The newest intermediate version of this certification, System Administration — WebSphere Message Broker V7.0, is available for test scheduling. Get the details.

WebSphere Portal Summer Essentials
Learn the "Essentials" of Portal 7 that will provide you with the knowledge needed to administer day-to-day tasks on the WebSphere Portal Server. Learn on your own schedule during the 60-day access period; starting and stopping when it's most convenient for you to learn new skills. For WebSphere Portal 7 Essentials choose:

• WPP82 Essential WebSphere Portal 7.0 Administration skills for Developers on Windows (SPVC) or
• WPP92 Essential WebSphere Portal 7.0 Administration skills for Developers on Linux (SPVC)

WebSphere Portal Server 7 Certification
You've successfully worked with WebSphere Portal Server 7, you've taken training, now it's time to Get Certified as a Solution Developer or a System or Advanced System Administrator.

• IBM Certified Solution Developer — WebSphere Portal 7.0
• IBM Certified System Administrator — WebSphere Portal 7.0 
• IBM Certified Advanced System Administrator — WebSphere Portal 7.0

Upcoming Webcasts, Seminars, and Events

Infoboom: The Community for Midsize Business Leaders Brings You FREE Online Events
Infoboom has instances around the world: United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, BeNeLux, India, Singapore, China.

All members can access content and engage in conversations in any infoboom region.

Infoboom conducts regular online events with IBMers, business partners and experts from around the technology world. All are free to members.

Please go to the link provided here and click the links to register for an upcoming event or access the recorded archive of previous events.

OSGi in the Enterprise — An Interview with Ian Robinson
Ian Robinson is an IBM Distinguished Engineer in IBM's WebSphere development organization, chair of the OASIS Web Service Transactions technical committee, and co-author of the OSGi Transaction Service specification.

In this interview, Ian Robinson discusses modularity in general, the use of OSGi within the WebSphere application server product, and what makes OSGi a good compliment to the Java EE programming model. He also discusses the OSGi Enterprise Specification, its reference implementation Apache Aries, and Oracle's project Jigsaw which aims to bring modularity to the reference JDK.

Don't miss these upcoming and on-demand webcasts:

July 14: Register for This Webinar: IBM and WebLayers Provide Unified SOA Governance with WebSphere Service Registry and Repository and Rational Asset Manager
Join IBM and WebLayers for a one-hour webinar to learn how their combined solutions provide customers with a complete governance platform from design through deployment. With the power of enterprise-wide automation, IBM’s WebSphere and Rational technologies coupled with WebLayers transforms how developers work and collaborate across the software development lifecycle.

The webinar will focus on how you can reduce rework, accelerate reuse, and reduce business risk and software glitches with IBM’s WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR), and Rational Asset Manager (RAM) combined with WebLayers’ Automated Governance technology.

 July 20: Accelerate Your Applications — Learn How IBM WebSphere Application Acceleration Solutions can Enhance Applications Performance (Public Sector)
Are you expanding your application services through the use of Cloud Computing?  Do you reach an international web audience? Are you achieving your web application service delivery objectives?  Are your enterprise applications secure from malicious attacks? If you answered Yes to any of these questions, IBM has solutions that address these business requirements. 

Attend the July 20 Webcast at 11:00 am ET to learn how to accelerate your applications across the Internet, while providing consistent end-user response across the globe.  At the same time, you can improve your enterprise application security, improve availability, and better utilize all of the server resources.  If you are exploring or are using Software as a Service applications via Cloud connectivity, learn how IBM's acceleration solutions can improve performance, simplify cloud connectivity, and secure these external connections.  In this webinar, you will be introduced to the family of IBM Application Acceleration solutions that are available today.

July 20: Business Partner OI Webinar #1: Opportunity Identification (OI) Crash Course: Reduce Costs and Drive Higher Efficiencies in Government 
What You'll Get from the Webinar
Faced with one of the worst economic recessions in the last few decades, governments around the world are experiencing severe budget cuts. In the United Stated alone, the U.S. National Association of State Budget Officers estimates that states will likely face $230 billion in budget gaps from now through fiscal year 2011. And the outlook for the foreseeable future is no rosier. So what can governments do to continue address their budget issues? There is no shortage of ideas. The challenge, of course, is turning ideas into action.

During this one-hour webinar, we will explore concrete examples of government agencies that have improved quality of services to citizens while cutting costs. You will hear how:

• The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has saved more than US$889 million over the past five years thanks to the IBM Tax Audit and Compliance system, while processing refunds faster. 
• The security center at the City of Madrid has reduced emergency response time by 25% by combining information from various sources and improving process management.  
• Social services agencies that have streamlined eligibility determination and benefits calculation while reducing improper payments.

Join this webinar on July 20, 2011 and learn how, you too, can help clients get started on the road to Business Agility, so they can simplify and transform their infrastructures, make their organization more agile and be responsive to change in a cost-effective manner.

Who should attend?

• For IBM Partners focused on selling IBM software to government entities
• For all Channel sales/marketing/technical teams working with partners focused on selling IBM software to government entities

When/Where:
Live Webcast #1: Asia Pacific
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Time: 9:00 a.m. (Bangalore); 11:30 a.m. (Singapore, Malaysia and GCG); 1:30 p.m. (Sydney)
Register: https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=3c6ac4bc87&l=en-US
https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=3c6ac4bc87&l=en-US

 July 21: IBM TechChat Series for Monthly Online Chat with IBM Experts
The IBM TechChat Series provides IT professionals and practitioners with an opportunity to chat online “live” with IBM experts worldwide, in three different time zones.  Each TechChat is scheduled for 30 minutes monthly between April–Nov. 2011 and features built-in translation so users can chat freely and easily without a language barrier between them.  A one-time registration for one or more chats is available at www.ibm.com/smarter/techchats, where users also can submit a question to experts in advance of the TechChat.

July 26: Introduction to WebSphere Application Server V8 Part 1: Speed Delivery of New Applications and Services
The pace of business is unrelenting and it falls to developers to deliver new applications and services as quickly as possible. In this first session of a two part series, learn how the new WebSphere Application Server V8 speeds development through broad choice and support of programming models and open standards including JEE 6, IBM Java SDK 6.0 (J92.6), OSGi, SCA, XML, CEA, SIP, Java Batch and Dynamic Scripting. Learn how you can also easily extend the reach of WebSphere Application Server applications from the desktop to mobile devices with the new Web 2.0 and Mobile feature pack.

Plan to attend this Webinar on July 26 at 11:00 am ET.

July 27: Webinar: Accelerate Your Applications — Learn How IBM WebSphere Application Acceleration Solutions Can Enhance Applications Performance (Global Sector)
Learn how to accelerate your applications across the internet, while providing consistent end user response across the globe.  At the same time, you can improve your enterprise.

August 17: BP OI Webinar #2:Opportunity Identification (OI) Crash Course: Creating Insurance Processes that Maximize ROI
What You'll Get from the Webinar
Achieving operational efficiency is a common goal for many in the insurance industry. In the race to maintain profitability and secure future growth, insurance carriers must effectively address multiple challenges and requirements — from responding rapidly to changing regulations, business and competitive forces, improving risk management practices across lines of business to improving agent/customer interaction via self-service and other channels.

This interactive one-hour webcast will provide many take-away lessons with real-world examples of leading insurance carriers globally that have successfully improved their core processes and built innovative self-service portals by leveraging WebSphere technology stack including Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Rule Management (BRM) systems in a service-oriented-architecture (SOA) resulting in such gains as higher premiums and increase in new business quotes by 40%, increase in straight-through-processing by over 80%, reduction in claim and fraud costs by 30%, higher customer retention and acquisition rates as well as speed to market gains of over 50%.

Who should attend?

• For IBM Partners focused on IBM software into insurance environments
• For all Channel sales/marketing/technical teams working with partners focused on selling IBM software into insurance environments

When/Where: Live Webcast #1: Asia Pacific
Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Time: 9:00 a.m. (Bangalore); 11:30 a.m. (Singapore, Malaysia and GCG); 1:30 p.m. (Sydney)
Register: https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=3ab59995f9&l=en-US

Live Webcast #2: Americas and Europe, Middle East, Africa
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Time: 8 a.m. (San Francisco); 11 a.m. (New York); 4 p.m. (London); 5 p.m. (Paris)
Register:  https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=46e621a11c&l=en-US

September 7: BP OI Webinar #3:Opportunity Identification (OI) Crash Course: Enabling the Paradigm Shift to Event-driven BPM in Healthcare & Life Sciences
What You'll Get from the Webinar
The Healthcare and Life Sciences ecosystem (HCLS), an aggregate of enterprises from several industrial sectors, is plagued in its operations by marginal economy, efficiency and effectiveness that impede its ability to develop and deliver cost-effective health and human services in a manner that is compliant with professional and governmental standards, laws and regulations.  This situation stems from two sources:

• reliance of HCLS enterprises on outdated information technology that is batch-oriented, function-/application-based and demand-driven; and
• failure to enable intra- and inter-enterprise business processes with state-of-the-art information technology (IT)

To maximize operational economy, efficiency and effectiveness while minimizing operating costs and patient morbidity/mortality; HCLS enterprises must make a paradigm shift from batch-oriented, demand-driven and retrospective operations to IT-enabled processes that:

• are triggered and progressed by complex event processing of real-time events
• establish connectivity with legacy system files and functionality to leverage IT investments
• automate human tasks to the greatest feasible degree
• incorporate prospective as well as retrospective analytics dynamically, and
• enable and accelerate real-time growth in the medical common body of knowledge.

Join us for this one-hour webinar where you'll learn why IBM is the only global single source of required resources for complex event driven business process management, and how effecting this paradigm shift is ripe with opportunity for IBM business partners to deliver the required systems, software and services using IBM BPM solutions.

Who should attend?

• For IBM Partners focused on IBM software into healthcare and life sciences environments
• For all Channel sales/marketing/technical teams working with partners focused on selling IBM software into healthcare and life sciences environments

When/Where:
Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Time: 9:00 a.m. (Bangalore); 11:30 a.m. (Singapore, Malaysia and GCG); 1:30 p.m. (Sydney)
Register: https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=f64b46c6b5&l=en-US

Live Webcast #2: Americas and Europe, Middle East, Africa
Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Time: 8 a.m. (San Francisco); 11 a.m. (New York); 4 p.m. (London); 5 p.m. (Paris)
Register:  https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=4cb3bf28f6&l=en-US
https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=f64b46c6b5&l=en-US

On-demand: How to Pilot Your Way to Greater Business Agility and Near-Term ROI
This webcast series features five proven IT projects for greater business agility and flexibility, designed to deliver faster ROI by taking a practical and incremental approach to implementation.

Each project:

• Targets a key initiative where IT can expand its business impact as a value creator and cost cutter: process improvement; operational decision-making; business connections; cloud and virtualization; build, deploy and manage applications.
• Provides assurance of a successful initial implementation with actual business results; establishing the proper infrastructure for expansion and preventing wrong and costly redesign and changes down the line.
• Register to watch one or all 5 of the IT projects and if you miss the live date, you can watch to on demand replays.

Part 1: NACCO Increases Engineering Productivity by Managing Change Effectively in 15 days
NACCO Materials Handling Group implemented new BPM processes for Engineering Change Notice (ECN) and Product Cost Authorization, using IBM WebSphere Lombardi Edition and Lombardi Edition for Microsoft Office, because the existing platform was inefficient and manual-intensive. The new system increased the productivity of NACCO engineers by reducing their manual hand-offs and interactions with legacy systems. One process was selected for implementation before wider roll-out.

Attend this webcast to learn how the ECN was designed, developed and deployed in 15 days, and how NACCO extended this process to all ECNs (both new and existing).

Part 2: How to efficiently deploy and virtualize your application environment
Wondering if your organization can leverage cloud in the midst of flat or tightening budgets? Don't miss this webcast to learn how you can begin enjoying the cost saving benefits of efficient application deployment to private Clouds with WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance, regardless of your enterprises size, industry or internal expertise. Additionally, enhance server utilization and efficiently manage application workloads with WebSphere Virtual Enterprise. Don't miss this time and investment saving session!

Part 3: Intelligently manage your application environment and deliver rich user experiences faster with WebSphere Application Server v8
Do you struggle with the business demands for fast delivery of innovative, high performing applications and services and the concurrent need to manage costs? Learn how a strong, flexible application foundation, based on the new WebSphere Application Server v8, helps you quickly deliver on business needs while balancing key considerations such as security, scalability and manageability. Control costs and improve TCO in homogenous and mixed infrastructures, from distributed to z/OS environments. Listen to the webcast to learn more about how IBM's market leading application server can promote the agility you need for business success today.

Part 4: Decision Automation Pilot: "Improve the timing and quality of your most important operational decisions within key business processes"
Imagine being able to implement 20% of your business rules that cover 80% of your business transactions; allowing you to double the pass-through rate of all billing transactions in just 9 weeks. One major transportation company in North America did just that. With this Quick Win pilot, you start small, with meaningful business rules, deploying a subset of your business decisions to demonstrate and validate the value of the technology and implementation methodology. Through this pilot, you will directly and measurably experience how intelligent decision automation can improve your business before making a larger investment.

Part 5: Making Vital Business Connections Faster and More Effectively
Did you think you could onboard a new business partner 50% faster, or reduce the time and cost to change your IT systems by 50%? You can. 

By leveraging an incremental approach to SOA, you can begin to make faster, better, and richer connections across your business network in less than 9 months. Watch this webcast to learn how.

On-Demand: From Oracle to IBM: A Customer's Journey
Please join us for a webcast “From Oracle to IBM: A Customer's Journey” to hear from D+H, a premier integrated solutions provider to Canadian banks and financial institutions. The webcast will outline the rationale behind their decisions to migrate from Oracle/Sun technology to IBM technology within a key line of business.

With over 4500 employees in over 20 locations, D+H offers a diverse set of solutions including cheque programs, lending solutions, student loan processing, and registry services.

In this webcast, D+H will share the key differences between the IBM and Oracle solution offerings, customer experiences, and the tangible business benefits of their evolving relationship with IBM from vendor & customer to strategic partner.

On-Demand: BPO Insider Secrets: Successful Cloud
Integration Strategies
Easily Integrate Multiple Applications to Automate Business Processes

In today's competitive global business environment, Business Process Outsourcers (BPOs) strive to penetrate new markets, add new clients and onboard customers faster while delivering client satisfaction, reducing customer churn and lowering the overall cost per client. Hear a leading analyst from Saugatuck Technology share the latest trends in Business Process Outsourcing, key insights on why outsourcers are beginning to leverage cloud technology approaches and how you can gain significant improvements in your cost, performance and business agility.

Learn from IBM how new cloud integration approaches enable BPOs to onboard new clients in days – rather than weeks or months – accelerate time to revenue, improve client adoption and customer retention while opening the door to sell into new markets that have historically been just too difficult to penetrate.

Speakers:
Robert McNeill, Vice President, Research, Saugatuck Technology
Ron Wastal, VP, Business Development, IBM
Vidya Chadaga, Senior Product Manager, IBM

On-Demand: Insider Tips: Manufacturing Best Practices through Cloud Computing and Rapid Integration
As a manufacturer you are faced with the need to streamline business processes and improve supply chain and vendor management while empowering your sales team with a 360° view of customers. Industry experts from salesforce.com, Summa and IBM Cast Iron Systems will share customer case studies and their insider tips on:

• The latest trends in manufacturing
• The impact of cloud computing and cloud integration 
• How to reduce time to market 
• Best practices in channel/supply-chain/human capital management
  and operations 
• How to increase visibility, influence and sales by collaborating with
  channel partners 
• How to improve customer service and satisfaction

Speakers:
Dwight Moore, Manufacturing and Retail Industry Director, salesforce.com
Steve Lippock, VP CRM Sales and Business Development, Summa
Jaime D'Anna, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, IBM Cast Iron Systems

On-Demand: BPM: Conquering Complexity
With ever-changing customer demands, fluctuating market opportunities, global competition, and the tangled web of local, state, federal, and international laws and regulations, the business environment seems more of a challenge than ever. But companies that can see through the complexity to identify underlying opportunity stand to rise above the crowded playing field.

Available on demand, a 60-minute interactive discussion of how efficient processes help ensure that organizations can capitalize on change, rather than be overwhelmed by it.

You’ll learn:

• How business process management helps companies deliver better services faster, with fewer mistakes, and at a lower cost
• Best practices for successful BPM implementation
• The key elements any BPM solution must offer
• How new features in IBM Business Process Manager enable companies to design process applications that integrate with internal systems and manage productivity in real-time.

Register to listen to this important discussion today.

Comments from Attendees:

• Interesting concepts. Excited to discuss with others in the company
• Very valuable information which I'll be considering for the very near future
• Inclusive of all aspects of a business process
• Hum... My whole industry could use this to innovate

On-Demand: WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration
Customer Video
Michael Knibbs and Nina Pe Benito of CompWest Insurance explain how WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration brings agility and flexibility as well as assists in data quality compliance in the highly regulated insurance industry.

Speakers:
Michael Knibbs,  Vice President & CIO, CompWest Insurance
Nina Pe Benito, Accounts Receivable Supervisor, CompWest Insurance 

On-Demand: Government Series: Reduce Total Health Care Costs Through Automated Claims and Benefits Management
This two-part series will help local and state governments efficiently process health care claims and change the way they determine eligibility and calculate benefits.

On-Demand: Cap Market Series: Decision Management on
Wall Street
This two-part series focuses on how financial services firms can create business value while complying by improving the timing and quality of key opportunity- and risk-based decisions.

Don't miss these whitepapers:

Don't miss these WebSphere events:

July 12: IBM zEnterprise Virtual Event: Experience Freedom
by Design
Attend this live virtual event to hear from an executive panel on the benefits of zEnterprise hybrid computing. This virtual event features an industry analyst as well as a customer case study, plus the perspective of IBM Executives.

• Jean S. Bozman, Research VP at IDC Enterprise Servers, Reducing the Cost of Multi-tier Hybrid Computing
• David Marts, VP of Operations at Transzap, Inc,
  Strategies to Better Manage and Store Data with zEnterprise
• Tom Rosamilia, IBM General Manager of Power and z Systems  Smarter Computing Perspective
• Greg Lotko, IBM VP for System z, The Evolution of zEnterprise Hybrid Computing

July 25–29: OSCON 2011 — Portland, Oregon 
Here are some can't-miss sessions from OSCON 2011 next month:

Building Native Mobile Applications with PhoneGap
Speakers: Becky Gibson and Simon MacDonald, IBM
The PhoneGap open source mobile platform bridges the “gap” between Web and native technologies. It enables the development of mobile applications using the Web skills most organizations already have in-house. Build the application using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Access device features such as the address book, camera, accelerometer, file system and more via common JavaScript apis without having to learn a device specific language such as Objective-C or Java. Compile, test and distribute on up to 6 platforms; Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. PhoneGap is completely open source under MIT license.

PhoneGap is built using a plugin architecture so you can include only the device features you need or add additional features as necessary. Wherever possible, the PhoneGap apis to access native features follow the specifications from the Device Independence working group at the W3C. Thus, PhoneGap is working to make itself obsolete! When the mobile browsers implement these device specifications, the PhoneGap bridge will no longer be necessary but PhoneGap applications will already implement the standard, W3c apis. In addtion, PhoneGap works with JavaScript frameworks such as Sencha Touch, JQTouch, XUI and others. to provide a native UI look and feel for several platforms.

This presentation will explain the basics of PhoneGap development and then demonstrate building an running a native application on several platforms.

Becky Gibson is a Senior Technical Staff Member in IBM’s Emerging Internet Technologies Group. Her current focus is contributing to the open source PhoneGap project to enable building compelling mobile applications using Web technologies. Becky works on the iOS side of things and has enjoyed dusting off her C/C++ skills to learn Objective C! While busy with PhoneGap she hasn’t forgotten her roots in Web Accessibility and making the Web usable for all. Her goal is an inclusive mobile world with applications usable by all in any environment. She was the Accessibility Lead for the Dojo Open Source toolkit and contributed to making it the first truly accessible JavaScript toolkit. Becky has over twenty years of development experience and has worked on various Read More.

Simon MacDonald is an Advisory Software Engineer in IBM’s Emerging Internet Technologies Group. Simon has over fifteen years of development experience and has worked on a variety of projects including object oriented databases, police communication systems, speech recognition and unified messaging. His current focus is contributing to the open source PhoneGap project to enable developers to create cross platform mobile applications using Web technologies. Simon’s been building web applications since the days they were written using shell scripts and he still has nightmares about those dark days.

Debugging Mobile Web Applications with weinre
Speaker: Patrick Mueller, IBM
Web developers are no doubt familiar with debugging tools such as FireBug for FireFox and Web Inspector for WebKit-based browsers. But what about the mobile platform? How can you debug your web application running on a mobile device?

weinre is a debugging tool which provides capabilities found in desktop web debuggers for the mobile web environment. It’s a desktop application which allows you connect to your mobile web application running on a device or emulator, to view and interact with the DOM, JavaScript, and more.

The weinre project reuses the user interface code from WebKit’s Web Inspector debugger, so will be familiar to anyone who has used that tool. It can debug applications running in a mobile web browser, as well applications which embed a web browser control in their application, such as applications built with PhoneGap.

This presentation includes a demo of weinre, description of how you can install it to debug your mobile web applications, and discussion of the future of weinre.

A screencast of weinre demonstrates its capabilities, and the documentation provides additional information.

Patrick Mueller is a software developer at IBM in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. He’s been working on web software and mobile software for a long time. Don’t ask how long, unless you want to hear about how great it was to use Smalltalk for web and mobile software development.

September 19: Attend the Enterprise Cloud Workshop — Sponsored by IBM
Business leaders are asking IT to provide an environment that responds quickly to business needs. Public Clouds have demonstrated their value; now Private Clouds are beginning to emerge. Join us for a workshop where experts from the field will share their experience and help you assess the risks and benefits of moving your application to public or private clouds.  You propose an application you want to run in the cloud and you'll receive a personalized assessment by one of the facilitators...it's that easy. Register Now!

System z WorldWide Workshop Tour 2011
The IBM ITSO System z World Tour 2011 offers five one-day technical workshops to help you plan, design for and use the new features and upgrades available in IBM System z software and hardware.

ITSO System z World Tour 2011 workshops are intended for IT professionals who need to understand how to design and use the hardware and software infrastructure required to effectively run modern IBM System z solutions.

These workshops are scheduled in 6 continents and 20 cities worldwide, mid-September through December.

September 20-21: TM Forum Management World Africa
Larry Hargrove is giving a session titled "Examining how Mobitel leveraged TM Forum's Frameworx to accelerate process transformation and reduce time to market for new services" at TM Forum Management World Africa September 20-21. Here is an abstract:

• Understanding how Information Framework and Process Framework were used to accelerate the adoption of a standard-based SOA transformation by:
  • Using pre-built accelerators and a policy driven implementation of SOA to reduce the number of business processes needed to implement automated processes.
• Examining the standards-based implementation of a flexible order management solution that integrates with ISV and legacy applications
• Developing a policy driven approach to reduce the number of processes that needed to built

Speaker Larry Hargrove is IBM’s Global Solutions Executive for Telecom Industry Software. He is responsible for leading IBM’s global sales strategy for software technology that helps service providers and their partners select, create, deliver, integrate and manage revenue generating services. In his previous roles within IBM, Larry has been responsible for the development of network solutions with Canadian service providers, product management of managed e-business services and relationship management in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining IBM Larry launched, managed and sold several businesses that provided telecommunications and consulting services. Larry is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the University of New Brunswick.

October 10-14: Join Us for the 2011 European IBM WebSphere Technical Conference in Berlin, Germany
The 2011 IBM European WebSphere Technical Conference, which combines the WebSphere and Transaction & Messaging Conferences of the previous years into one  seamless agenda, is a 4.5 day event held 10-14 October 2011 in Berlin, Germany.  

This conference has earned the reputation for delivering deep technical content targeted at architects, developers, integrators and administrators by offering lectures and hands-on labs that focus on the best practices and practical skills required to run today’s enterprises.  This year will be no exception!

Attend the WebSphere Technical Conference and expand your knowledge of SOA, CICS, Messaging WebSphere Application Servers and Infrastructure, including a focus on BPM and Cloud Computing. You can also expect to gain insight into IBM’s software strategy and learn about the latest development directions for the products in the WebSphere software platform.

Conference Web site:  
www.ibm.com/training/conf/europe/ws



October 10-14: Two for the Price of One!
Join us for the IBM Exceptional Web Experience Conference, 10-14 October 2011 in Berlin, Germany

For the second time, the 2011 Exceptional Web Experience (formerly Portal Excellence Conference) and the WebSphere Technical Conference will be held at the same time. Included in the registration fee for the Web Experience Conference, attendees will also have access to the sessions of the WebSphere Technical Conference and may select from over 175 unique sessions focusing on SOA, BPM, CICS and Messaging.

For information and enrollment:  www.ibm.com/training/conf/europe/webexperience

Impact Comes To You Is Now Underway
The first ICTY event kicked off in London on May 19. Attend, or encourage your contacts to attend one of over 40 Impact Comes to You events in cities across the globe, where you can experience the transformative learning event that over 7,000 attendees enjoyed at the Impact global conference.

On-Demand: Missed the Exceptional Web Experience Conference?
Experience it now with a brand new On Demand collection of recordings from some of the best sessions presented at the 2011 Exceptional Web Experience Conference held in Orlando. See just how powerful and beneficial an Exceptional Web Experience can be, and how companies and organizations of every size are driving better business outcomes. The "Total Experience", 60 hours or conference content is now available for purchase.  View purchase details of course code WPS04.