AS/400 Skills and Staffing Challenges
There is an ongoing debate on the relevance of IBM’s AS/400 system. In one of our latest articles, Why is the IBMi (AS/400) in Today’s Digital Economy?, we concluded that the system is far from obsolete. However, it is not without its challenges.?
Over 100,000 companies still use AS/400 technology. According to Microstrat, almost half of companies that use AS/400 are concerned about skills depletion. Many IBM professionals are reaching the age of retirement, and hiring new employees can be a lengthy process.
The skills and knowledge required to operate an AS/400 system differ from those necessary to operate more modern systems and servers. While some skills are universal in the tech world, some you can only learn by working with a system for years.
Successful operation of AS/400 requires knowledge of programming languages such as RPG, RPGLE, CL, CLLE, COBOL, and JCL, whereas more modern systems use languages such as ILE C++, ILE RPG, PHP, and Python.
Other necessary skills include general knowledge of how the AS/400 system works, the ability to create, utilize, and transfer files, and the ability to operate databases within the system. While the tasks may sound simple, it takes time to learn how to do each one on a different system.
Some companies who use AS/400 have resorted to outsourcing their IT personnel. When a business is looking to hire someone to operate an AS/400 system, it wants someone with experience. Training and onboarding a new employee on an older system often doesn’t make sense.?
There are also guides created to help businesses continue to succeed when their AS/400 talent retires, such as one by helpsystems.com. These can aid companies in determining solutions to staffing challenges.
One of the best ways to prevent staffing challenges is to have the more experienced IT personnel share their knowledge and skill set with other employees at the company who have IT experience and plan to stick around at the company longer. Increasing familiarity with a system throughout the company can help the system to remain understood.
While AS/400 systems will eventually become outdated, there will be an ongoing attempt to maintain the workforce necessary to operate the AS/400 systems at the 100,000 companies that still rely on the product.