As the great and good of the System i world get ready to convene at the COMMON Europe Congress (CEC) in London in May, the user group has announced that it is to repeat its Top Concerns survey at the conference.

The survey gives delegates a chance to highlight the issues that keep them awake at night to IBM’s System i top brass, including worldwide general manager Mark Shearer. Shearer will also be digging a little deeper into such issues as he is attending the conference to meet delegates for one-to-one meetings.

The survey is split in two, with delegates asked to rank both their top short-term and long-term concerns. When the survey was conducted last year at the CEC in Stockholm, the top short-term concern cited by delegates was securing information technology against hackers, viruses and internal attacks. The second was that old bugbear of convincing management that “System i is not old, it is the applications that are old”. At the bottom of the list, ranked sixteenth, was installing customer relationship software.

Topping the list of long-term concerns was securing business systems and security and assuring business continuity. Third was attracting a younger generation to the platform. Given IBM’s relentless marketing message on the subject, it is interesting to note that server consolidation came last.

Voting for the Top Concerns survey takes place at the opening session of the conference on Sunday, May 20. As an incentive, all those who complete their forms are entered into a raffle where there are three iPod Nanos up for grabs.

The COMMON Europe Congress runs from May 19-22 at the Tower Hotel in London and there is still time to take advantage of an early bird booking discount for the event. More details at http://www.ibm-cua.org.uk

Seamus Quinn, editor.