How Modernization Lab thinks.
A reference for the consulting framework, the four-layer architecture, and the three investment tiers. Use this as a mental model when chatting with any agent.
Not the symptom. Not the tech. The actual business outcome at risk.
Order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, plan-to-produce — map the touch points.
Files, programs, service programs, queues, APIs, menus — every object that matters.
Tribal knowledge, data integrity, integration coupling, regulatory, reversibility.
Always three: Minimum, Moderate, Strategic. Cost, risk, value compared.
IBM i — DB2 for i, journals, RPG service programs.
- DB2 for i tables
- Journals as event source
- RPG / SQL services
Web, mobile, partner integrations on governed APIs.
- Web & mobile apps
- Customer / partner portals
- B2B integrations
AI agents, analytics, behavioral monitoring.
- Agentic workflows
- Anomaly detection
- Process intelligence
APIs, workflows, automation — governed actuation.
- Governed write APIs
- Human-in-the-loop
- Workflow engines
Preserve. Instrument. Add visibility without disturbing production.
- →Turn on journaling broadly
- →Add observability and logging
- →Lightweight reporting / BI exposure
- →Document tribal knowledge
API-enable. Extract service programs. Modernize selectively.
- →Service program extraction (ILE)
- →REST / event API enablement
- →Selective free-format RPG refactor
- →Integration with modern UX layer
Agentic, event-driven, transformative — without ERP replacement.
- →Event-driven core via journal CDC
- →AI agents with governed boundaries
- →New systems of engagement
- →Behavior-ledger-driven analytics
Journals are not just audit logs.
They are a behavior ledger.
IBM i journals contain a complete history of business behavior — orders placed, prices changed, inventory adjusted, customers updated. Modernization Lab treats journals as a strategic asset:
- Journaling, event capture, and change tracking by default.
- Audit trails for security, compliance, and forensic RCA.
- Behavioral analytics for revenue, churn, and operations.
- Transformation of legacy transactions into reusable business events.