De-risk the support & maintenance of your IBM i systems
Mitigate your risk todayDo you worry about business-critical applications running on IBM i in your organisation? Do you worry that they’re being supported and maintained by a shrinking team?
What happens if those individuals move on?
Using a tried, tested and robust methodology, Proximity can provide highly skilled and experienced IBM i specialists to support and manage your IBM i applications for as long as you need them, removing the headache of having unsupported applications running key areas of your operation.
With one of the largest team of IBM i specialists in the UK, our pool of staff has deep IBM i knowledge alongside a software house background that enables Proximity to understand and support IBM i applications effectively and efficiently.
We can tailor our managed service to meet your needs with options ranging from working-hours support to 24-hour cover five or seven days a week.
Proximity can provide managed services for both bespoke and packaged IBM i applications in RPG, PHP, COBOL, Synon, Java and other languages.
Our service includes general application and user support, and can be extended to cover activities such as application modernisation, IBM i consultancy as well as supporting (and developing) interfaces between bespoke software/applications on IBM i and other operating systems including building public API’s, developing webhooks and using third party integration/mapping tools.
Is the question of who is going to support, maintain and manage your IBM i applications keeping you awake at night?
Our IBM i application managed service ensures you no longer have any operational fears for your IBM i applications.
You won’t have to try and recruit people with the required IBM i development skills from a very limited (and diminishing) IBM i talent pool.
And, as we retain and manage the knowledge in your IBM i applications for as long as you need them, there won’t be any loss of continuity.
We have extensive experience delivering IBM i application managed services using a well established and robust, methodology backed by a mutually agreed SLA.
With one of the largest teams of IBM i specialists in the UK, we are able to provide cover during ‘standard’ UK working-hours, or extend that support to cover your IBM i applications 24-hours a day five or seven days a week.
Need the capabilities of your IBM i applications extended? Want to take advantage of mobile applications or connect your application with other third parties using EDI or API? No problems.
As well as providing application support and maintenance to meet your exact business needs, we can provide application development services as part of your managed service package with a guaranteed minimum number of days per month allocated to this activity.
Our team has extensive experience supporting, maintaining and developing packaged and bespoke applications in a broad range of programming languages including RPG, ILE, CL, COBOL, Synon and PHP, JAVA, jQuery, CSS and HTML. From transforming traditional green screen into web and mobile applications to developing two-way integrations using APIs, we can ensure your IBM i applications stay relevant.
Our managed service ensures your IBM i applications are protected from cyber threats to maintain privacy and data security. We don’t just talk about IBM i security, it is also embedded into everything we do – Proximity is, for instance, Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001 accredited.
We can also protect you against downtime caused by total and partial IBM i application failures and prevent the loss of vital data with HA/DR advice, software tools, implementation and ongoing management.
IBM i celebrated its 35th anniversary in June 2023.
Which is both testament to all the good things the IBM i offers and a potential weakness in equal measure.
Due to its unrivalled longevity, the (often business-critical) applications running on IBM i are typically complex and understood by very few people within your organisation.
The pool of people who have the required skills to support, maintain and develop applications on the IBM i is shrinking.
Typically, those developers familiar with the applications have either left, retired (or are considering retirement) or deployed onto other projects.
In many cases, the application(s) running on IBM i are not part of your long-term strategy, which as Wilko Retail suggests can expose your business to significant risk:
There was a realisation at a senior level that we must mitigate a future skills gap. The IBM i still underpins many core functions within the business. Proximity’s IBM i technical knowledge and competence was beyond a doubt.
When that IBM i knowledge is gone from your business, how do you make sure those applications are supported, maintained and kept as relevant as possible until such time as they’re migrated from IBM i?
Do you train legacy IBM i skills to new staff or do you outsource your IBM i support?
According to the results from various surveys into the state of the IBM i Marketplace over the past few years, the lack of staff with IBM i development skills is ranked amongst companies top concerns.
When skilled IBM i developers move on, for what ever reason, they take their technical knowledge with them, leaving your organisation’s business-critical applications at risk.
A lack of skilled resources can also mean that critical IBM i development and modernisation projects are delayed, or in some cases, postponed or cancelled.
We have a well established – and robust – methodology for taking on and delivering IBM i application managed services .
A methodology that has been tried and tested with many clients for well over a decade.
From the initial scoping exercise through to more in-depth discovery sessions and knowledge transfer workshops, we work with you and your existing IBM i team to thoroughly understand every aspect of your IBM i applications.
As we move through a gradual and phased take-on process you can be confident that your IBM i applications are supported, maintained and fully operational for as long as you need them.
Our warehouse management system is critical to our business. Designed, developed and maintained in-house, but, like so many organisations, our in-house team has shrunk over the years. We felt that Proximity’s expertise on IBM i, their experience with warehouse applications, and a proven track record of application managed services, made them the ideal choice to mitigate any risk.
Imperial Brands
Using a tried and tested methodology, Proximity has delivered flexible IBM i application managed services for a range of customers backed by mutually agreed SLAs. Read the case studies below to learn how we’ve taken the stress out of supporting and maintaining IBM i applications to ensure they are available for as long as they are needed.
Our team of over 40 UK-based IBM i developers and specialists can provide you with flexible support & maintenance options, extend the life of your IBM i applications, mitigate risks and ensure business continuity. Contact us to learn more.
Secure the future of your IBM i today 
