In this issue's round-up, LANSA expands the scope of its aXes offering, Symtrax aims to help SAP users and Lawson offers M3 customers a try-and-buy trial.

LANSA has launched aXes Mobile, a new tool that converts 5250 data into HTML to communicate with mobile devices via web browser. The application doesn't need installation on a mobile device or a new web server or hardware. axes Mobile automatically converts the user interface of existing RPG, Cobol and DDS programs.

LANSA says that a service repair app would be a good example of a service that can be written in RPG to communicate with a variety of mobile wireless devices via its new solution. A user can use RPG or Cobol to design and write the program as usual, but take a much smaller screen into account. Using aXes eXtensions GUI design tools, controls can be added like drop-downs, check-boxes and calendars. Buttons can be added with scripts that control what happens when they are clicked.

There might not be a huge number of SAP users running on the i in the UK, but, according to Symtrax, SAP users face many of the same difficulties that i users can when it comes to getting meaningful reports outputted in simple formats like Excel. To that end, the output management specialist recently published a white paper on the subject, "Getting the Most from Your SAP Production Reports" that you can read on its website.

Lawson Software has embarked on a new marketing programme aimed at moving users to the latest 10.1 version of its Power i-based M3 ERP solution. The company says that its Lawson Pure programme is available for a limited time and includes a "try before you buy" option, whereby customers can to migrate their data to a hosted test environment before making a decision on upgrading.

It says that the trial means users can experience new functionality, including Lawson Smart Office and Enterprise Search, helping them identify business improvement opportunities, eliminate modifications and strengthen the business case for upgrading. Lawson says that it has upgraded more than 140 M3 customers in last two years.