“We’ve modernized our green screens—now what?”
This question echoes through the halls of countless IBM i shops that have taken their first steps toward transformation. While traditional modernization approaches focus on transforming legacy interfaces into sleek web UIs, this delivers only immediate visual impact. It often leaves the underlying architecture untouched—like repainting a house while ignoring the foundation, plumbing, and electrical systems.
The most successful IBM i organizations understand that true futurization—not just modernization—extends far beyond cosmetic changes. While many vendors focus solely on UI modernization, transforming green screens into web interfaces is merely the beginning. To properly future-proof your IBM i systems, you need a holistic approach that addresses all layers of your application architecture. Profound Logic takes you further with a comprehensive futurization strategy that transforms every layer of the application stack to meet today’s demands for integration, intelligence, and innovation—going beyond what typical modernization vendors offer.
This is where Profound Logic stands apart from other IBM i partners. While others stop at modernization, we deliver complete futurization through a unique integrated approach. By leveraging Profound AppDev, Profound API, and Profound AI together, businesses can implement a comprehensive futurization strategy that goes well beyond the UI layer, ensuring their IBM i systems remain valuable, competitive, and ready for the challenges of tomorrow.
The Limitations of Modernization-Only Approaches
Many IBM i transformation initiatives begin—and unfortunately end—with surface-level modernization of the user interface. It’s easy to understand why: UI updates deliver visible results quickly, making them an attractive first step. Business leaders see immediate improvements in user satisfaction and productivity, creating a quick win. But this approach, offered by most IBM i modernization vendors, addresses only the surface of a much deeper transformation challenge.
Basic modernization is like building a modern dashboard for an old car—it improves the driver experience but doesn’t enhance the engine, transmission, or fuel efficiency. True futurization goes much further.
- Siloed Data and Functionality: Even with a modern UI, applications remain isolated if they can’t easily share data and functionality with other systems.
- Integration Challenges: As businesses adopt cloud services, IoT devices, and third-party applications, the inability to integrate effectively becomes a significant bottleneck.
- Limited Innovation: Without access to modern development methods and technologies, businesses struggle to implement new features and capabilities.
- Rising User Expectations: Today’s users expect not just attractive interfaces but intelligent, proactive systems that anticipate their needs and streamline their workflows.
- Aging Workforce: As experienced RPG developers retire, organizations need solutions that bridge the gap between legacy skills and modern development practices.
A comprehensive futurization strategy—not just basic modernization—must address all these challenges. While other vendors might solve one or two of these problems, only our integrated approach with Profound AppDev, Profound API, and Profound AI delivers the complete solution.
Profound AppDev: The Foundation for IBM i Futurization
Profound AppDev provides the foundation for IBM i futurization through its comprehensive suite of development tools designed to implement a coexistence environment.
This suite includes:
Atrium: Unifying the User Experience
Atrium provides a centralized, web-based portal that delivers a consistent user experience across all applications, regardless of their transformation status.
This streamlined navigation system offers:
- Role-based access control for enhanced security
- Customizable layouts and themes to match your brand
- Search functionality for quick access to applications
- Favorites for personalized user experience
Genie: Rapid UI Transformation
Genie offers an immediate futurization win by transforming green screens into modern web interfaces without requiring changes to underlying application code.
This allows organizations to:
- Instantly improve user experience with minimal risk
- Apply customizable themes to align with brand guidelines
- Add graphical elements like charts and graphs
- Support function key mapping for familiar workflows
Profound UI: Comprehensive UI Development
For more extensive UI futurization, Profound UI provides a full-featured development environment with:
- Elimination of green screens and their limitation
- Rich set of UI components and widgets
- Visual designer for creating modern interfaces
- Integration with RPG and other backend technologies
- Support for responsive design and mobile applications
Profound.js: Modern Application Logic
Profound.js enables the development of new application logic using modern Node.js technology:
- Visual development environment reduces the learning curve
- Simple to use low-code system for developing business logic
- Integration with existing IBM i resources
- Support for both web and API development
The power of Profound AppDev lies in its coexistence approach, allowing organizations to futurize at their own pace while maintaining seamless integration between systems at different stages of futurization.
Profound API: Breaking Down Silos with Seamless Integration
While Profound AppDev transforms the user experience and application logic, Profound API addresses the critical need for integration. This low-code/no-code platform revolutionizes how businesses create, manage, and consume APIs, enabling seamless connectivity between IBM i systems and the broader digital ecosystem.
Key Features of Profound API
- Low-Code Development Environment
Profound API’s visual workflow designer dramatically accelerates API development, allowing developers to create sophisticated APIs with minimal coding. This democratizes API creation, enabling both experienced developers and citizen developers to contribute to integration initiatives.
- Native IBM i Integration
With direct Db2 access, RPG program integration, and ILE procedure support, Profound API makes it easy to expose existing IBM i functionality as modern RESTful APIs. This preserves your investment in valuable business logic while making it accessible to modern applications.
- Multi-Database Support
Profound API extends beyond IBM i, offering support for various database systems including MySQL, MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle. This versatility breaks down data silos and creates a unified view of your business information.
- Automatic OpenAPI Documentation
One of the most time-consuming aspects of API development is creating and maintaining documentation. Profound API solves this by automatically generating comprehensive OpenAPI (Swagger) documentation, making it easier for developers to discover and use your APIs.
Real-World Impact of Profound API
The business value of Profound API goes well beyond technical integration. Organizations leveraging Profound API have experienced:
- Dramatically Accelerated Service Creation: A large bank reduced their service creation time from 8 weeks to just 45 minutes, enabling rapid innovation and competitive response.
- Futurizing Fashion Logistics Operations: A major fashion brand integrated high-tech automated sorting systems, enabling real-time inventory tracking, streamlined delivery processes, and rapid client onboarding in their fashion logistics operations.
By enabling API-driven integration, Profound API breaks down the barriers between your IBM i systems and the broader digital ecosystem, opening up new possibilities for innovation and collaboration.
Profound AI: Infusing Intelligence into Your Applications
The final piece of the comprehensive futurization puzzle is Profound AI, which brings the power of artificial intelligence to your IBM i applications. This revolutionary platform enables businesses to create AI agents without requiring deep technical knowledge or coding expertise.
Key Capabilities of Profound AI
- No-Code AI Agent Creation
Build AI agents using natural language instructions and Profound AI’s intuitive interface. This democratizes AI development, allowing businesses to leverage AI without significant investment in specialized personnel.
- Multi-LLM Support
Profound AI connects to leading commercial and open-source large language models (LLMs), including those from OpenAI, Azure, Google, Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral. This flexibility ensures you can choose the most suitable model for your specific needs and easily switch between models as technologies evolve.
- Diverse Data Source Integration
Analyze and summarize data from various sources, including PDFs, spreadsheets, Word documents, CSVs, and databases like IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle. This comprehensive data integration ensures your AI agents have access to all relevant information.
- Real-Time Data Access
Unlike many AI solutions that require data synchronization, Profound AI provides direct access to your live business data. This ensures that AI-driven insights and recommendations are based on the most current information, enhancing decision-making and operational efficiency.
- Low-Code Routines for Advanced Functionality
Extend AI capabilities with low-code routines that can send emails, call existing IBM i programs or procedures, call APIs, run custom Node.js code, and update database tables. This expands the scope of AI applications beyond simple question-answering to complex workflow automation.
The Transformative Impact of Profound AI
The integration of AI into your IBM i applications drives significant business value:
- Enhanced Decision-Making: Leverage data-driven insights from across your organization for more informed business decisions.
- Operational Efficiency: Automate routine tasks and optimize business processes through AI-driven analysis.
- Improved Customer Experience: Provide personalized interactions and proactive service through intelligent AI assistants.
- Cost Reduction: Decrease operational costs through AI-driven efficiencies and optimized resource allocation.
By bringing AI capabilities to your IBM i systems, Profound AI ensures your applications not only meet current expectations but are positioned to lead in the era of intelligent automation.
The Power of Integration: A Unified Approach to Futurization
While each solution — Profound AppDev, Profound API, and Profound AI — delivers significant value individually, their true power emerges when they work together in a unified approach to IBM i futurization.
Consider how these solutions support each stage of a comprehensive journey:
- Initial Web Enablement
- Use Genie from the Profound AppDev suite to quickly transform green screens into web interfaces
- Implement Atrium to provide a unified portal for accessing all applications
- API-Driven Integration
- Deploy Profound API to expose critical IBM i functionality as RESTful APIs
- Connect your IBM i systems with other applications, cloud services, and partner systems
- Modern Application Development
- Leverage Profound UI to create sophisticated user interfaces for key applications
- Use Profound.js to develop new features and applications using modern Node.js technology
- AI Enhancement
- Implement Profound AI to add intelligence to both legacy and modern applications
- Create AI assistants that provide insights, automation, and natural language interactions
This integrated journey allows organizations to futurize at their own pace while ensuring seamless coexistence between systems at different stages of futurization.
Benefits of the Integrated Approach
By combining Profound AppDev, Profound API, and Profound AI, organizations unlock a synergy that delivers far more value than implementing each solution individually. This integrated approach enables comprehensive futurization that addresses all layers of your application architecture—from UI to integration to intelligence—ensuring no aspect is overlooked or siloed.
The integrated strategy supports phased implementation, allowing you to futurize at your own pace and focus on high-impact areas first. This incremental approach lets you test and validate futurization efforts along the way, significantly reducing risk while demonstrating ongoing value to stakeholders.
Perhaps most importantly, this approach preserves your existing investments in IBM i systems and business logic. Rather than replacing proven applications, you extend their lifespan and enhance their capabilities by layering modern technologies on your existing foundation. Your decades of business logic refinement remain intact while gaining modern interfaces, integration capabilities, and intelligent features.
The combination of these three solutions delivers true future-proofing for your IBM i systems. You build a flexible, adaptable application ecosystem that can easily incorporate new technologies as they emerge. This prepares your organization for ongoing evolution rather than facing disruptive, periodic major overhauls every few years.
Finally, this integrated approach optimizes skill utilization across your IT team. It enables both experienced RPG developers and modern web developers to contribute effectively, providing a bridge for legacy skills while attracting new talent with cutting-edge tools. This balanced approach helps address the skills gap many IBM i shops face as experienced developers retire.
A Strategic Vision for IBM i Futurization
While other IBM i partners offer basic modernization that merely updates interfaces, truly future-proofing IBM i systems requires going beyond modernization to implement a comprehensive futurization approach that encompasses modern development, seamless integration, and intelligent automation.
We stand alone in offering this complete transformation through the powerful combination of Profound AppDev, Profound API, and Profound AI — a unified solution that addresses all aspects of futurization while preserving your valuable IBM i investments.
By embracing this integrated approach, organizations can transform their IBM i systems from merely modernized applications into truly futurized, agile, and intelligent platforms that drive business innovation and competitive advantage. They can progress at their own pace, focusing on high-impact areas while ensuring seamless coexistence between systems at different stages of the futurization journey.
The result is not just modernized applications but a future-ready IT ecosystem that can adapt to changing business needs, incorporate emerging technologies, and deliver exceptional user experiences. This is the true promise of IBM i futurization—going far beyond what typical modernization vendors offer—and it’s achievable today only with Profound Logic’s comprehensive solution suite.
Are you ready to move beyond basic modernization and embrace a holistic approach to futurization? Reach out to our team at Futurization@ProfoundLogic.com to learn how our integrated solutions can transform your IBM i applications into modern, connected, and intelligent systems that drive your business forward.
