Don’t wait – act now!  Invest in DB2 before year end.
 
With 2012 rapidly drawing to a close now is the time to review unused budget funds and invest in DB2 training and services.  The Fillmore Group has our DBA on Demand support option and IBM Authorized Training classes scheduled that can be paid for in advance and used to ensure your team is prepared for a successful 2013.
 
DBA on Demand offers expert consulting services, either onsite or remote, at a discounted hourly rate.  Our “150 for 150″ offer delivers 150 hours of support at a discounted hourly rate of $150 per hour.
 
There are still seats available for the December 10th CL412/CL442 DB2 for LUW Performance Tuning and Monitoring Workshop to be delivered by DB2 Gold Consultant Frank C. Fillmore, Jr., in our Towson, Maryland classroom.  Additional TFG classes scheduled are available on the IBM Learning Services website.
 
Please feel free to contact me with any questions on how The Fillmore Group can help preserve your unused funds and help your team have a successful 2013 with DB2!

Given that so many IBM customers make their initial software purchases in the fourth quarter of the calendar year (when the IBM pricing gets really aggressive), the number of DB2 customers whose annual software license subscription and support is due each December is higher than in any other month of the year.  For this reason we’ve decided to deliver another webinar on the DB2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edition (AESE) bundle in hopes of persuading renewing DB2 customers to consider the upgrade.  AESE has provided substantial value to every upgrading customer we’ve worked with, and enabled their IT organization to better monitor, utilize, and extend the use of their database. 

Frank Fillmore will deliver the webinar on Monday, November 19th from 11am – 12pm EST.  Register HERE.

The invitation, in case you didn’t receive one directly from me (!) -

If your organization’s DB2 license Subscription and Support is scheduled to renew in December, now is the time to learn about the DB2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edition (AESE) product bundle and how you can finesse the upgrade JUST BEFORE paying IBM the annual Subscription and Support fee to make it VERY affordable. Read More…

I submitted this blog post to the IOD blog (IOD blog) as I was leaving the conference:

At this year’s Information On Demand conference I had the pleasure to catch up with three IBMers who have endorsed, supported and yes, tolerated The Fillmore Group in various ways for many years. Each of these three wonderful IBMers announced their participation in the IBM “Road to Retirement” program and shared some of their post-IBM plans. I wish them all the very best, while at the same time am saddened to see such talented and dedicated experts leave IBM.

Sandy Ovard has been working as Business Partner liaison to Lab Services and has helped us navigate the increasingly complex Lab Services partner engagement process. As we depend on Lab Services for a portion of our services business, Sandy has had the frequently unpleasant job of soliciting Business Partner feedback and addressing issues. Her patience and consistent willingness to pitch in will be missed.

Holly Hayes is one of the SVL development superstars who has worked with a number of technologies. Holly is one of the few “surf and turf” people who fully understand the most technical of technical subjects and has the communication skills to explain them to those non-techies, like me, who need analogies and pictures to understand. I am have been surprised – and amazed – on more than one occasion when I hear about a customer that struggled with a new product implementation and hear, “and then I got Holly involved,” and invariably, things smooth out.

Finally, David Tolleson. David has been the replication and federation Product Manager and a tireless promoter of these solutions. David has blogged, responded to endless emails, and enthusiastically supported a niche technology that enables some of the world’s largest IT shops to meet those 24X7 uptime SLA’s. He has worked with a team that is not only technically capable, but fun to work with.

Good luck to you all!

Use TFG Services to Close Q2 Deals

*Update*  Thanks to the IBM sellers who attended yesterday’s webinar.  The slide deck is attached – I hope it helps with your Q2 sales!

I am delivering a webcast Thursday, June 14th, targeted to IBM Information Management software sellers who may benefit from using The Fillmore Group’s services to help close software sales deals by the end of June – a big day for IBM sellers (it’s the end of the first half of their business year).  I am excited to do this as The Fillmore Group has historically taken a holistic view of the software acquisition process.  We recognize that more needs to happen AFTER customers purchase Information Management software than BEFORE.

And while figuring out the budget and how much an organization has available to spend on the software itself is important, it’s the follow-on services that make or break an implementation – consulting to help install the software and integrate it with existing systems, and training to ensure an organization’s DBA team is prepared to support it long-term. 

We offer these services and are proud of the consistently fine work performed by our consultants and trainers. 

If you sell IBM software and would like to attend the webinar, I am keeping it short and sweet (30 minutes start to finish).  Register here.

Or, if you are an IBM customer, or thinking about becoming an IBM customer, and are interested in top qualify services from a Premier Business Partner, please contact me here.

IBM introduced the DB2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edtion (AESE) in late 2010, bundling Optim tools, compression and replication for high availability and disaster recovery in with the features in DB2 Enterprise Server Edition.  Current DB2 customers are offered several upgrade options, making AESE an affordable, comprehensive database solution and an alternative to going a la carte.  

In this presentation DB2 Gold Consultant and IBM Champion Frank C. Fillmore, Jr., will explain what each of the features included in the AESE bundle is and what functionality they deliver.  Using customer examples, Frank will analyze the benefits of moving to AESE for each organization and how they evaluated the options and reached a decision.  Finally Frank will explain how to determine the upgrade path for your organization and what you can do immediately to get an accurate estimate of the cost and best time to move to AESE.    For details on the presentation click, “Read More”. 

April 5th, 12:00pm – 1:00pm EDT.    Register here.

Read More…

Frank delivered a terrific summary of the products in the Information Management portfolio at a lunch event at Baltimore’s Cinghiale restaurant earlier this month.  Unfortunately, we can’t offer everyone lunch (sorry!) but we will offer a repeat presentation via webinar on April 5th.  The invitation and registration information are below and the complete session abstract and Frank’s bio can be accessed by clicking ” Read More”.  Please share this event with anyone who may be interested in learning more about what IBM has to offer – it’s packed with great information.

Thursday, April 5, 2012, 3:00pm – 4:00pm EDT    Register here.  Read More…

Please join us for a webinar Thursday, February 23, 2012, at noon Eastern.  To register, click here. 

IBM is merging replication offerings with the announcement of the IBM InfoSphere Data Replication V10.1.2 package.  The new Data Replication package updates and consolidates InfoSphere Data Replication, InfoSphere Change Data Capture, InfoSphere Change Data Delivery, and InfoSphere Change Data Delivery for Information Server into a single offering, giving replication users considerable flexibility in making a choice of a data replication solution.   In this session Frank will explain what the consolidation means to customers evaluating a replication technology and make recommendations to ensure your organization makes the right choice to address your business needs. Read More…

IBM Information Champion Nadir Doctor successfully passed the IBM Netezza technical certification exam on his first try, without attending the bootcamp or any formal training, one handed.  OK, maybe not one handed.

Congratulations Nadir.  As one of the first IBM Business Partners to become a Netezza reseller, and one of the first to close a Netezza sale, The Fillmore Group is excited to have a team of consultants willing to independently prepare to support Netezza implementations.  Nadir is a fine example of our consulting team’s resources.  He has over ten years of DB2 database/data warehouse and tools experience including InfoSphere Federation Server and Optim Performance Manager and Query Tuner.  If your organization is in need of consulting assistance, please contact The Fillmore Group – we would be proud to introduce Nadir.

DB2 Gold Consultant Frank Fillmore will deliver the 3-day DB2 database administration intro class at The Fillmore Group in Baltimore on November 30, December 1 and 2.  TFG instructors built this class to teach DBA’s all the things they should know to support a DB2 database.  Whether you are new to DB2 or have been supporting DB2 without any formal training this class will provide you with a solid understanding of the database and help you prioritize and focus your daily support activities.  The cost of the course is $1500.  For a course outline click TFGE231 Course Outline.  To register email donna.dordai@thefillmoregroup.com.

The Fillmore Group and IBM are hosting a second session of “DB2 101” – our Information Management portfolio overview lunch and learn, on Friday, April 15th, from 11am – 2pm, at the fabulous Iron Bridge Wine Company in Columbia, Maryland, mid-way between Baltimore and Washington.  We felt local database users would benefit from gaining a better understanding of the IBM data management strategy and developed this informative presentation, which will be presented by DB2 Gold Consultant Frank Fillmore, along with Netezza’s Mickey James.  To join us, register here.