Based in Leeds and Nottingham, Proximity has over 40 IBM i specialists who develop, support and maintain solutions and applications for a diverse range of businesses in the logistics, manufacturing, retail and finance sectors.

As part of the new partnership, Proximity will promote and distribute Remain Software change and workflow management products, TD/OMS and Gravity.

Dave Pickburn, director at Proximity said:

“We are delighted and excited to become a partner for Remain Software in the UK and Ireland and be able to offer new and existing customers additional IBM i products within our already extensive portfolio of IBM i modernization and development products. TD/OMS and Gravity provide software development teams, like ours, with the tools necessary to produce higher quality software applications faster with fewer bugs.”

"Partnering with Remain Software further strengthens our existing relationships in the IBM i marketplace, including Fresche Solutions, Zend, Shield HA, and for Infor LX and Infor BPCS ERP Software”-added Pickburn.

TD/OMS is integrated with Fresche‘s IBM i application documentation and code analysis tool, X-Analysis and Fresche View, to provide organizations with a unified software change management (SCM) product for the IBM i.

IBM i developers can also control software changes and deploy more stable PHP and RPG web applications on the IBM i through TD/OMS integration with WebSmart PHP and ILE, which are also both from Fresche.

Marco Kok, the managing director at Remain Software commented:

“Remain Software are constantly looking at ways to deliver excellence to our customers, both through our software innovations and through our partners. I’m delighted to welcome Proximity to the Remain Software global partner network. Proximity’s knowledge and expertise in the IBM i marketplace combined with Remain’s change a project management tools will provide added value to new and existing customers business-critical IBM i application development needs.”

Now, I get a headache thinking about this so what I do is I try to break it down to a level that is no longer complex. To understand this problem, I imagine the engine of a car. This is also a very complex system (at least it is complex to me). Now I try to imagine what would happen if I randomly punch holes in some engine pipes, or if I remove several fasteners.

Will something happen?  Probably... But what exactly will happen depends on the relationships between the pipes or the fasteners with other parts of the engine. If the punctured pipe is in the supply chain of my windshield wiper fluid, then I will probably survive.  If the loosened fastener is attached to an important part of the engine, then that gentle twist of my fingers can result in serious engine damage.

Comparing complex dynamic systems like the weather to an engine is like comparing apples to oranges, but I think it paints a good picture.

The key to this issue is the necessity to know how the parts of your engine are related… just as it is necessary to know about how the pieces of your software application are related. If you change one component, you need to know which other components are impacted by this change. 

Given a solid software configuration database we can undertake a proper impact analysis like the one shown in the diagrams. With such concise information we can ensure proper planning and execution of the change no matter how complicated the component relationships are. 

Contact us now if you'd like to learn more about the pleasures of owning an SCCM system backed by a software configuration database and an Impact Analysis module.