Denver June 13, 2003 First things first: This is not an article about the Oracle-PeopleSoft-J.D. Edwards brouhaha. You can find an update on that situation elsewhere on iSourceonline.
As it happens, while all the hubbub was drawing the spotlight this week, J.D. Edwards was hosting some 7,000 of its current and potential customers at its annual users' conference in Denver, and in conjunction with that event, the solution provider issued a series of announcements around upgrades to its applications.
For those of you unable to attend this week's show, here's a rundown of this week's news from the Mile High provider, based on J.D. Edwards' own press releases:
J.D. Edwards Delivers More Than 400 New Products and Enhancements
J.D. Edwards kicked off its annual user group conference by unveiling more than 400 new products and product enhancements delivered into the marketplace as part of the J.D. Edwards 5 family. The company is in the midst of delivering on its promise made at last year's user conference to introduce more functionality in 24 months than any other two-year period in the company's history.
Enhancements have been made to each of the following product lines within J.D. Edwards 5:
The competitive business strategy outlined by J.D. Edwards' executives leverages its vertical industry expertise and ability to forge relationships with its customers to grow its position in serving the needs of the enterprise. Executives underscored the company's commitment to provide "predictable value in unpredictable times" to its customers and to make them stronger by enabling them to "start anywhere and go anywhere" with integrated J.D. Edwards 5 software and services solutions built to address their specific business needs.
"At last year's user conference, J.D. Edwards renewed its commitment to listen to its customers, create innovative solutions and deliver products that will make customers stronger," said Bob Dutkowsky, chairman, president and chief executive officer, J.D. Edwards. "We will spend this week showing our customers that we have in fact delivered on our promise to deliver business solutions that provide them predictable value at a time when they require technology investments that return value quickly.
"We are harnessing the power of 26 years of deep knowledge in our customers' industries and applying that knowledge to the way we develop and deliver software and services. More than ever before, our solutions are helping our customers to streamline their business operations and enable them to capture value from collaborative commerce," said Dutkowsky.
New Products and Enhancements by Product Line
SCM
A large number of the new product enhancements are featured in the J.D. Edwards 5 SCM product line. Designed to optimize information sharing between buyers and suppliers, J.D. Edwards 5 SCM now includes new functionality for planning, order management, manufacturing, distribution and logistics.
The new enhancements provide greater visibility into and control of supply chains, thereby helping companies maintain leaner inventories and lower working capital, increase profits and productivity and better service their customers.
ERP
J.D. Edwards continued to enhance its proven ERP product line with software that supports greater visibility and management of business performance and profitability.
The company unveiled enhancements to its Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) offering, which will now include Equipment Failure Analysis and streamline the ability to track components changed out of complex machinery. Additionally, new features in Material Planning within EAM will provide both seasoned and occasional users with greater efficiency in searching for parts and will easily generate accurate work orders and purchase orders. EAM is a highly appropriate tool for the tighter budgets in this slowing economy as companies are under more pressure to get the most out of their current equipment.
In addition, the company released Advanced Cost Accounting, designed to provide more accurate profitability measurement of business activities, products and customers. The company also made available its Expense Management product that enables data integration with credit card providers, as well as offline expense report creation.
Business Intelligence and Performance Management
In meeting the growing demand for business performance reporting and analysis, J.D. Edwards augmented its Business Intelligence and Performance Management product line with new industry-specific analytical applications for construction, life sciences, consumer and asset-intensive firms, as well as spend analytics for users of SRM.
In addition to the analytic applications, J.D. Edwards bolstered its offering with Web-based report design and online analytics services that provide faster multi-dimensional analysis.
CRM
In the J.D. Edwards 5 CRM product line, the company is delivering essential functionality, including a series of tools designed to help customers more accurately target promotions and up-sell to their existing customers, while creating a detailed and intricate commissions system to track new sales.
Additionally, new portlets, or mini-portals, enable customers' sales representatives to personalize their CRM matrix portal page to fit their specific needs. These portlets provide deeper, richer views of vital customer and operations data in real-time using a simple Web browser. (See "J.D. Edwards Announces Key Enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 Customer Relationship Management Software" for more details on release of major CRM functionality.)
SRM
Two major developments were unveiled in the J.D. Edwards 5 SRM line.
First, J.D. Edwards' unique Configured Item Assembly capability provides businesses unprecedented flexibility in managing any manufacturing process involving configured assemblies, whether manufactured in-house, by an OEM, or a combination of both. Configured Item Assembly strengthens the "virtual enterprise" concept, as well as the process of direct shipping, by automating the process of managing subassemblies all the way to the shipment of the final product to the customer. Customers will benefit from reduced lead times, and managers get the same flexibility and ease of stocking, receiving and shipping items configured across assembly partners that they would enjoy if manufacturing were done entirely under their own roof.
J.D. Edwards also released Inbound Advanced Ship Notice functionality, a unique Web-based application designed for SMBs that enables partners across a supply chain to check on the shipping status of orders placed among each other via a portal.
Collaboration and Integration
J.D. Edwards continued to evolve its collaboration and integration solutions so that they better meet specific customer needs. The company now offers two methods for delivering Web services, and has updated its Content Management tool to allow for enhanced multi-format delivery.
J.D. Edwards Web services options include: (1) eXtended Business Processes (XBPs) used in conjunction with the company's XPI (eXtended Process Integration) middleware, which are designed for J.D. Edwards' larger customers or those customers who have a broader or less predictable range of interface requirements and (2) Service-Oriented Interfaces (SOIs), which are designed for customers who have simpler and more predictable integration requirements.
Technology
Among the technological enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 is the arrival of Unicode, or Universal Codeset. This universal character encoding scheme solves the problem of handling multiple languages simultaneously for multinational organizations. For instance, an enterprise utilizing Japanese and Western European languages previously could not access the same database. With Unicode, J.D. Edwards 5 customers can now consolidate multiple instances of their software and/or database down to one. The result is less complexity, lower cost and a consolidated view of global operations.
J.D. Edwards also announced the completion of Technology Foundation, an open standards-based software infrastructure required to run J.D. Edwards software. This cohesive infrastructure is pre-integrated with J.D. Edwards 5 applications and contains leading IBM technology, including IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM DB2 Universal Database, the J.D. Edwards Collaborative Portal (based on WebSphere Portal) and IBM security. The J.D. Edwards Technology Foundation runs on all hardware, operating systems and databases that J.D. Edwards supports today. J.D. Edwards' commitment to open standards helps customers make IT investments based on their needs.
Customers Continue to Demand World-Class Services
J.D. Edwards Consulting introduced enhanced capabilities to deliver a full range of solution delivery options, including offshore resources and management services for implementation projects and ongoing application support. J.D. Edwards also announced its innovative Rapid Start implementation service that supports a streamlined process by which small- and medium-sized enterprises implement and manage J.D. Edwards 5 collaborative enterprise solutions. Finally, J.D. Edwards, in concert with leading audit firms, is providing solutions to help customers comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act while leveraging their existing J.D. Edwards software investment. The service offerings help customers meet short-term Sarbanes-Oxley remediation efforts, while preparing for the need for more effective corporate governance and business performance management in the long term.
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J.D. Edwards Links Hundreds of Business Processes with Latest Release of J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Software
Enhancements in J.D. Edwards 5 Lead to Increased Productivity and Facilitate Greater Collaboration along the Supply Chain
Addressing global customer demand for technology that enables more responsive and efficient supply chains, J.D. Edwards announced a record-setting number of enhancements to its J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Management (SCM) solution that are specifically targeted to manufacturers and distributors. The enhancements include new, modular functionality for planning, order management, multi-mode manufacturing, distribution and logistics, and encompass the largest release of supply chain functionality in J.D. Edwards' history.
"SCM has become even more potent in this challenging economy as enterprises focus on cutting costs, improving asset use and increasing profitability," said Jeff Woods, principal analyst at Gartner.
Leah Hansen, application manager at Canwel, a J.D. Edwards customer, said, "The new Advanced Pricing capabilities available in J.D. Edwards 5 SCM will allow much greater flexibility in modeling our pricing system. The ability to, for example, offer volume up-sells or discounts based on sliding rates could be very useful to us. The enhancements to tracking rebates on both the customer and supplier side is important both for reconciliation purposes, as well as to capture the true margin of every sale at time of order entry. We purchased J.D. Edwards software in 1997 and as our business needs have evolved, we've continued to make use of additional functionality."
Complemented by industry-specific implementation and support services, the J.D. Edwards 5 enhancements will be available by the end of the third quarter. Key enhancements include:
Andrew Carlson, J.D. Edwards director of supply chain product marketing, said, "With this release, we've effectively turned the supply chain into a competitive weapon that addresses complete business processes rather than isolated functions as many best-of-breed products do. These new enhancements were built with one thing in mind slash costs from our customers' supply chains. That means increasing productivity, decreasing inventory planning cycles and offering better access to supply chain information in real-time and doing all of this quickly and at a low cost of ownership."
New supply chain enhancements in J.D. Edwards 5 address the needs of targeted industries, including consumer goods, industrial manufacturing, electronics, wholesale distribution, life sciences and asset-intensive sectors. Select J.D. Edwards 5 SCM applications are also available with earlier J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware and OneWorld product families and are designed to easily share information with software products provided by other vendors.
"Simplifying integration is critical as customers are increasingly collaborating with partners to further streamline processes and wring additional savings out of their supply chains," said Carlson. "We are committed to providing customers with the tools and technology they need to make their supply chains as efficient and responsive as possible."
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J. D. Edwards Announces Key Enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5
New Pre-integrated Analytics, Configured Item Support and Wireless CRM Functionality Enables Customers to Achieve Greater Efficiencies and Business Effectiveness
J.D. Edwards announced three major product enhancements to its J.D. Edwards 5 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software:
Like all J.D. Edwards 5 CRM modules, these new functions are built on open, standards-based technologies so they adapt to existing legacy applications without forcing customers to change their business processes. They can also be used with multiple databases, thus reducing the time it takes to implement the software and the cost of maintaining it in the long term. Moreover, experienced and specialized J.D. Edwards 5 Consulting teams handle all CRM implementations to ensure that J.D. Edwards meets the individual needs of each customer.
Configured Item Support Enables Profitable Mass Customization of Products
More and more companies are offering customized products via the Web. However, companies in manufacturing and distribution, asset-intensive and project-oriented industries often have difficulty keeping track of the number of possible combinations of features available in their products. Thus, the potential for errors in the ordering process are high. These errors can damage customer satisfaction, cause operational delays and negatively impact a company's bottom line.
The ability to support product configuration via both Advanced Order Configurator (AOC) in J.D. Edwards 5 CRM and the base configurator in J.D. Edwards 5 ERP, improves profit margins for selling and manufacturing configured products by simplifying accurate order entry so products can be built or shipped correctly the first time. This improves asset utilization, reduces inventory levels, decreases order lead times and promotes customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, the connection to Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Partner Relationship Management (PRM) ensures that sales representatives are offering a product that is in stock and available. With accuracy ensured, sales representatives can close deals faster, and customer satisfaction and loyalty improve when their requirements are met.
"We expect Advanced Order Configurator to result in a drastic reduction in fulfillment time for our configured product orders because our salespeople will be able to submit orders accurately and price accordingly," said John Salaski, manager of application development, Hoffman Enclosures. "Configured Item Support's pre-integration of AOC with SFA will expedite a sales cycle, thereby improving this business process even further."
CRM Analytics Enable Companies to Identify Sales and Marketing Effectiveness
Sorting through an overwhelming amount of unorganized customer data can be a cumbersome process for enterprises. New J.D. Edwards 5 Business Intelligence CRM analytical applications remedy this institutional problem by pre-packaging more than 20 key performance indicators and 50 other CRM metrics in the form of out-of-the-box graphical models, measures and reports. These on-demand statistics provide high-level results information for users or managers at any level to identify bright spots and troubling issues within front line operations. Users can then access thousands of queries and filters in the easily configurable CRM analytic application and drill down on specific areas of interest for further analysis. Key CRM analytical reports help:
Unlike analytics products from standalone CRM vendors and niche analytics providers, J.D. Edwards can readily leverage data from ERP, supply chain management systems, third party and legacy systems to provide a unified picture of the enterprise. For example, sales management can more precisely predict forecasted-to-close sales revenues based on account balance tables typically maintained within the ERP system.
"The full value of CRM analytics lies not just in the ability to access data from CRM applications," said Gareth Herschel, research director, Gartner. "CRM analytics are most powerful when they leverage information from multiple data sources. This provides companies with a single, comprehensive view of their customers."
Sales Representatives Get More Nimble with Wireless CRM
By adding access to J.D. Edwards 5 CRM through Pocket PCs, J.D. Edwards extended its lead in enabling sales representatives to be as informed in the field as they are in the office. In January, J.D. Edwards unveiled Mobile Sales functionality that enables sales representatives to access critical data in disconnected mode through their laptop.
"Offering CRM through leading wireless devices builds on our already unique Mobile Sales capability," said Joel Reed, J.D. Edwards' director of CRM product marketing. "In this economy, traveling sales representatives need to have access to all critical information about customers and prospects to provide the best service in an increasingly competitive environment. We feel J.D. Edwards has a lead in empowering sales representatives on the road."
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J.D. Edwards to Help Customers Use Their Existing IT Investments to Achieve Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
New Sarbanes-Oxley Advisory Service Pairs Premier Financial Consulting Partners with J.D. Edwards Software and Consulting Experts to Meet Compliance Issues
J.D. Edwards launched its Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service to help existing J.D. Edwards customers better prepare for compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
"We look at compliance with the act's internal control assessment and reporting requirements as an opportunity for customers to improve not only their compliance with controls, but also their insight into achieving consistent, predictable, competitive performance," said Jim Anderson, group vice president of the Americas Consulting Services, J.D. Edwards. "It's always smart for businesses to periodically assess whether or not they are maximizing the capabilities and value of their existing software investment. Because our customers often tend to focus on their day-to-day operations, it's possible that they are not aware that their existing J.D. Edwards software may already provide much of what they need to help them comply with the act."
The new J.D. Edwards Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service is designed to help the company's existing customers gain insights into how their software can enable control remediation using more than 900 checkpoints within the software. At the same time, the service also provides customers with a vision of how to leverage J.D. Edwards software to achieve insight into opportunities to improve operational performance.
J.D. Edwards has chosen to take the additional step of conducting a review across multiple applications because, more and more, customers are engaged in collaborative commerce using front and back-office applications in concert, rather than as stove-piped applications. While initial interpretations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act focus on financials, some experts expect requirements to extend to other business processes. In the April 3, 2003, AMR Research Alert titled, "Five Things IT Needs to Know about Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance," AMR Vice President John Hagerty says, "[Sarbanes-Oxley] will reach beyond financial processes financial reporting is just the beginning. It assumes the business transactions recorded in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other operational systems are not subject to unintentional lapses in process control. A broad-based review of business practices especially in decentralized firms could reach back into the bowels of business operations."
Financial Consulting Partners Enhance Offering
To deliver the Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service, J.D. Edwards Consulting Services has assembled a world-class team of risk management and internal controls advisors and J.D. Edwards software experts to assess customers' business processes with respect to their new reporting requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young and Jefferson Wells International will be teaming with J.D. Edwards on this advisory service. These firms will drive the business compliance risk and control assessments while J.D. Edwards leverages its deep software knowledge to help customers develop pragmatic approaches and solutions to their compliance and performance management challenges.
"We have assembled a comprehensive list of compliance control opportunities and combined that list with our leading-edge performance analysis tools to help our customers leverage the software they already have," said Glenn Erickson, vice president, Consulting Services, J.D. Edwards. "Our software was built with compliance and control requirements in mind. We include more than 900 different opportunities to control access; monitor risks and performance; and provide integrated views to the use of the system, accuracy of reporting, and consistency and predictability of performance powerful tools to establish the right controls environment."
Whether using J.D. Edwards ERP, Supply Chain Management or CRM, customers can maximize the control points in the software they are already using, such as workflow design, procedural documentation and automated controls enforcement bringing customers closer to their goals for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Together with J.D. Edwards Business Intelligence, customers can achieve even greater visibility into the span of their enterprise operations so they can proactively enhance business performance with real-time analysis and reporting.
"J.D. Edwards' new Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service provides customers with more than just a way to address short-term compliance needs," Anderson said. "It also helps customers take a fresh look at their business processes so they can improve their corporate performance."
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J.D. Edwards Benchmark Surpasses 14,000 Web-based Users
Enhanced Scalability and On-Demand Capabilities Enable Customers
J.D. Edwards announced that its flagship business solution J.D. Edwards 5 has achieved 14,148 concurrent Web-based users on IBM eServer iSeries running a mixed workload of financials, distribution and manufacturing, with sub-second response time. This is the first time that J.D. Edwards 5 has scaled past the 10,000 user mark on any server platform.
The on-demand computing capabilities of J.D. Edwards 5 running on IBM iSeries servers with its On/Off Capacity on Demand, coupled with J.D. Edwards Technology Foundation, will enable customers to increase the number of concurrent users as business needs dictate. In addition, customers can simplify their computing environment by combining applications and data management on a single server or separate these functions according to what best suits their business needs.
"J.D. Edwards 5 combined with IBM eServer iSeries and its on-demand capabilities delivers unprecedented business value to make customers stronger," said Michael Madden, chief technology officer, J.D. Edwards. "This solution provides our customers with the flexibility, scale and manageability they need to excel across the entire supply chain."
"The iSeries' on-demand capability along with J.D Edwards software enables customers to flexibly manage their computing assets in support of unpredictable changes in business needs," said, Al Zollar, general manager, IBM eServer iSeries. "As evidenced by the tremendous benchmark results, iSeries' ability to balance the demands of multiple workloads on a single server helps companies raise data center asset utilization rates. That cost-efficiency goes directly to the bottom line."
Highlights of the J.D. Edwards Enterprise Software on IBM eServer iSeries benchmark include:
IBM eServer iSeries provides robust performance and flexibility, with the capability to run J.D. Edwards 5 business solutions in configurations that suite a variety of business needs. The J.D. Edwards on iSeries benchmarks were achieved based on realistic user processes running on IBM's POWER4 64-bit microprocessors. The project was accomplished by a joint team of J.D. Edwards and IBM iSeries consulting and integration specialists.
"In today's risk-averse market, IT and line of business executives require that software vendors' solutions can deliver return on value within the fiscal year, as well as have the ability to scale, both up and down, to meet changing business requirements. Moreover, these executives insist that on-demand capabilities can solve their most important business challenges with the lowest total cost of ownership," said Maria DeGiglio, principal analyst for the Robert Frances Group.
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Industrial Manufacturers and Distributors to Reduce Production Costs and Maximize Profits Using J.D. Edwards 5 Enhancements
New J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Financial, Customer and Supplier Relationship Management Capabilities Help Companies Around the Globe Accelerate Order-to-Cash Cycles, Reduce Inventories and Optimize Assets
Leveraging more than a quarter century-old heritage of providing software and services that deliver predictable value to industrial manufacturers and distributors around the globe, J.D. Edwards detailed a record-setting number of enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software tailored to meet the specific needs of these customers. The enhanced J.D. Edwards 5 solutions are complemented by industry-specific implementation and support services, and will help industrial customers achieve economies of scale related to sourcing, manufacturing and distribution.
"Industry-oriented functionality was a leading criteria when we originally selected J.D. Edwards," said Todd Inlander, CIO of Fleetwood Enterprises, a leading U.S. manufacturer of recreational vehicles and manufactured homes. "With its most recent release of J.D. Edwards 5, the company is delivering new functionality to enhance its customers' ability to manage cycle times, reduce inventories, and improve the management and tracking of assets across an entire supply chain. Improvements in these business processes can deliver fast and substantial savings to the bottom line, which is critical in today's challenging economy."
The following J.D. Edwards enhancements will be available by the end of the third quarter 2003 to deliver predictable value to industrial manufacturers and distributors while helping them maintain profitability and adapt to economic conditions:
"Industrial manufacturers and distributors comprise nearly 40 percent of J.D. Edwards' customer base," said Les Wyatt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at J.D. Edwards. "With the planned enhancements, we will offer industrial companies unparalleled industry-specific functionality. We are committed to continuously improving our software as this dynamic industry's business requirements change to ensure we can provide them predictable value from our software and services and make their businesses stronger."
Delivering Predictable Value
More than 2,400 industrial manufacturing and distribution companies in approximately 75 countries are powered by J.D. Edwards solutions.
J.D. Edwards enables these companies to optimize business performance, providing event-driven insight into the supply chain from procurement and inventory management to manufacturing. The result is a competitive advantage for industrial customers through the use of J.D. Edwards solutions, such as ERP, Business Intelligence, Supply Chain Management, Preventative Maintenance Management, Enterprise Asset Management, Workforce Management and Customer Relationship Management.
"In light of flat or declining demand, industrial manufacturers are adopting a tighter focus on working-capital efficiency and cost-cutting initiatives through supply chain and asset optimization programs as well as through business intelligence analysis," said Chuck Carroll, J.D. Edwards vice president of consulting services, Midwest. "J.D. Edwards provides 26 years of successful implementation know-how to solve these issues and improve business processes for industrial, manufacturing and distribution companies."
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Consumer Goods Companies to Leverage New J.D. Edwards 5 Software Enhancements to Help Increase Profits
Supply Chain and Enterprise Resource Planning Functionality Helps Companies Improve Sales, Marketing, Production and Logistics Coordination
Demonstrating J.D. Edwards' commitment to provide industry-specific business software and services that deliver predictable value, the company announced it will roll out significant enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 for consumer goods companies. The company's newest release of J.D. Edwards 5 will include enhanced and new Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functionality for pricing and promotion management, inventory and order management, enhanced lot control, cross docking and profit management capabilities. The enhancements are targeted at helping consumer goods companies worldwide achieve economies of scale related to planning, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, selling and marketing.
"We are a leading fruit juice manufacturer in Australia and chose to work with J.D. Edwards because they are developing new functionality to suit the business needs of companies in the consumer market," said Ross Bradley, information services director at Berri Limited. "J.D. Edwards listens to our needs and understands that consumer companies require predictable value from their information technology with a focus on being able to improve profit margins while enhancing our brands."
The J.D. Edwards 5 SCM and ERP enhancements will be available by the third quarter of this year and will help deliver increased value to consumer companies while enabling them to maintain profitability and adapt to market trends. Consumer goods focused enhancements will include:
"We have worked closely with our customers and partners to deliver new functionality that specifically benefits consumer goods manufacturers and distributors," said Les Wyatt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at J.D. Edwards. "Our goal is to make our customers stronger, and these extensive Supply Chain and Enterprise Resource Planning enhancements will help them achieve their business objectives in the ever-changing consumer goods industry."
Delivering Predictable Value
Global market trends are putting pressure on companies across the consumer product supply chain. Suppliers, manufacturers and distributors are contending with retailer and distributor consolidation, low growth, SKU proliferation and private label growth. And, larger retailers wield considerable market power over the manufacturers that supply branded and private-label products.
"As manufacturers strive to create new products and brand extensions, the entire supply chain has to accommodate an increasing number of product SKUs and complexity, putting greater pressure on optimizing business performance to be successful," said Tom Snapp, vice president of consulting services at J.D. Edwards. "We leverage 26 years of successful implementation know-how, combined with innovative collaborative software to solve these issues and improve business processes for consumer goods manufacturers and distributors."
J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Business Intelligence, Preventative Maintenance Management, Enterprise Asset Management, Workforce Management and Customer Relationship Management applications improve consumer companies' business processes and help them meet the ongoing challenge to deliver new product innovations and more responsive customer service with ever-shrinking profit margins.
More than 1,000 consumer goods companies around the world are powered by J.D. Edwards' enterprise solutions. The company's consumer client base spans from global Fortune 500 companies, to national and regional suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, and includes such companies as AMF Bowling, Bonlac Foods Limited, Johnson Outdoor Inc., Lindt & Sprungli, Richmond Limited NZ and Tiffany & Co.
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J.D. Edwards and IBM Team Up to Deliver Integrated Solutions to Small and Medium Businesses (SMB)
"Global Business Value" Team Lowers Costs for SMB Customers Through Industry-Specific Solutions, Based on J.D. Edwards 5 and IBM e-business on demand Solutions
In order to help small and medium sized businesses (SMB) operate in a more responsive, flexible and efficient way, J.D. Edwards and IBM announced two new offerings created by the companies combined Global Business Value team.
The Global Business Value team is a set of dedicated professional resources from both companies who will define, launch and direct the implementation of integrated, low total cost of ownership solutions that address the unique challenges facing customers in the SMB market. This team will deliver integrated consulting and industry templates, software and hardware, hosting, utility capabilities and other options, such as financing to minimize the upfront costs of entry.
SMB customers are feeling the pressure grow revenue, reduce inventory levels and to take costs out of their supply chain. To address these business needs the first solutions from this joint effort include Automotive for SMB and J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware Conversion for SMB. These solutions are built around J.D. Edwards 5 applications that leverage IBM's open standards-based on demand operating environment.
"Small and medium sized businesses need more than plain vanilla applications that fail to address specific business and industry needs," said Les Wyatt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of J.D. Edwards. "The Global Business Value team combines the strengths of J.D. Edwards software and consulting services with IBM Business Consulting Services and IBM's on demand architecture to deliver the right solutions at the right price point for this market."
"IBM is pleased to be teaming with J.D. Edwards to deliver solutions that will help SMB customers become on demand business," said Marc Lautenbach, general manager of Global Small and Medium Business, IBM. "Our companies have both devoted a significant amount of time talking with SMB customers to understand their unique needs. These solutions will allow these enterprises to be more responsive, flexible and resilient; all attributes they told us were important for them."
The first two integrated offerings from the Global Business Value team are:
Additional key markets, offerings and programs are scheduled to be announced in the coming months.
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Leading Businesses Continue to Select J.D. Edwards 5 for Software and Services That Provide Predictable Value
United Technologies, Pioneer Road Services, Alta Genetics and Others Choose J.D. Edwards for Industry-Specific Software and Services to Improve Their Businesses
J.D. Edwards gained significant momentum during its second quarter fiscal year 2003 in key vertical industries. Leveraging its 26 years of deep industry knowledge from listening to customers and innovating on their behalf, J.D. Edwards continues to deliver industry-specific software and services to companies seeking predictable value from their IT investments.
J.D. Edwards' customer wins across numerous industries worldwide included Kidde PLC, Alta Genetics, Charter Communications, Organon and Bogasari Flour Mills, among others. By choosing J.D. Edwards 5, companies can speed business processes, realize more accurate reporting, and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) to ultimately achieve improved and more profitable business performance.
"J.D. Edwards' continued success with customers demonstrates our unique ability to more precisely map our software and solutions to their business needs, based on unparalleled depth of knowledge and insights about their industries," said J.D. Edwards chairman, president and CEO, Bob Dutkowsky. "Our long-lasting relationships with more than 6,700 customers over the last 26 years prove our commitment to make customers stronger by aligning our technology with their business strategies."
At its annual user group conference, Quest Global Conference 2003, J.D. Edwards revealed significant strides in the following industries:
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As it happens, while all the hubbub was drawing the spotlight this week, J.D. Edwards was hosting some 7,000 of its current and potential customers at its annual users' conference in Denver, and in conjunction with that event, the solution provider issued a series of announcements around upgrades to its applications.
For those of you unable to attend this week's show, here's a rundown of this week's news from the Mile High provider, based on J.D. Edwards' own press releases:
- J.D. Edwards Delivers More Than 400 New Products and Enhancements
- J.D. Edwards Links Hundreds of Business Processes with Latest Release of J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Software
- J. D. Edwards Announces Key Enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5
- J.D. Edwards to Help Customers Use Their Existing IT Investments to Achieve Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
- J.D. Edwards Benchmark Surpasses 14,000 Web-based Users
- Industrial Manufacturers and Distributors to Reduce Production Costs and Maximize Profits Using J.D. Edwards 5 Enhancements
- Consumer Goods Companies to Leverage New J.D. Edwards 5 Software Enhancements to Help Increase Profits
- J.D. Edwards and IBM Team Up to Deliver Integrated Solutions to Small and Medium Businesses (SMB)
- Leading Businesses Continue to Select J.D. Edwards 5 for Software and Services That Provide Predictable Value
J.D. Edwards Delivers More Than 400 New Products and Enhancements
J.D. Edwards kicked off its annual user group conference by unveiling more than 400 new products and product enhancements delivered into the marketplace as part of the J.D. Edwards 5 family. The company is in the midst of delivering on its promise made at last year's user conference to introduce more functionality in 24 months than any other two-year period in the company's history.
Enhancements have been made to each of the following product lines within J.D. Edwards 5:
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Supply Chain Management (SCM)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)
- Business Intelligence and Performance Management
- Collaboration and Integration
- Technology
The competitive business strategy outlined by J.D. Edwards' executives leverages its vertical industry expertise and ability to forge relationships with its customers to grow its position in serving the needs of the enterprise. Executives underscored the company's commitment to provide "predictable value in unpredictable times" to its customers and to make them stronger by enabling them to "start anywhere and go anywhere" with integrated J.D. Edwards 5 software and services solutions built to address their specific business needs.
"At last year's user conference, J.D. Edwards renewed its commitment to listen to its customers, create innovative solutions and deliver products that will make customers stronger," said Bob Dutkowsky, chairman, president and chief executive officer, J.D. Edwards. "We will spend this week showing our customers that we have in fact delivered on our promise to deliver business solutions that provide them predictable value at a time when they require technology investments that return value quickly.
"We are harnessing the power of 26 years of deep knowledge in our customers' industries and applying that knowledge to the way we develop and deliver software and services. More than ever before, our solutions are helping our customers to streamline their business operations and enable them to capture value from collaborative commerce," said Dutkowsky.
New Products and Enhancements by Product Line
SCM
A large number of the new product enhancements are featured in the J.D. Edwards 5 SCM product line. Designed to optimize information sharing between buyers and suppliers, J.D. Edwards 5 SCM now includes new functionality for planning, order management, manufacturing, distribution and logistics.
The new enhancements provide greater visibility into and control of supply chains, thereby helping companies maintain leaner inventories and lower working capital, increase profits and productivity and better service their customers.
ERP
J.D. Edwards continued to enhance its proven ERP product line with software that supports greater visibility and management of business performance and profitability.
The company unveiled enhancements to its Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) offering, which will now include Equipment Failure Analysis and streamline the ability to track components changed out of complex machinery. Additionally, new features in Material Planning within EAM will provide both seasoned and occasional users with greater efficiency in searching for parts and will easily generate accurate work orders and purchase orders. EAM is a highly appropriate tool for the tighter budgets in this slowing economy as companies are under more pressure to get the most out of their current equipment.
In addition, the company released Advanced Cost Accounting, designed to provide more accurate profitability measurement of business activities, products and customers. The company also made available its Expense Management product that enables data integration with credit card providers, as well as offline expense report creation.
Business Intelligence and Performance Management
In meeting the growing demand for business performance reporting and analysis, J.D. Edwards augmented its Business Intelligence and Performance Management product line with new industry-specific analytical applications for construction, life sciences, consumer and asset-intensive firms, as well as spend analytics for users of SRM.
In addition to the analytic applications, J.D. Edwards bolstered its offering with Web-based report design and online analytics services that provide faster multi-dimensional analysis.
CRM
In the J.D. Edwards 5 CRM product line, the company is delivering essential functionality, including a series of tools designed to help customers more accurately target promotions and up-sell to their existing customers, while creating a detailed and intricate commissions system to track new sales.
Additionally, new portlets, or mini-portals, enable customers' sales representatives to personalize their CRM matrix portal page to fit their specific needs. These portlets provide deeper, richer views of vital customer and operations data in real-time using a simple Web browser. (See "J.D. Edwards Announces Key Enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 Customer Relationship Management Software" for more details on release of major CRM functionality.)
SRM
Two major developments were unveiled in the J.D. Edwards 5 SRM line.
First, J.D. Edwards' unique Configured Item Assembly capability provides businesses unprecedented flexibility in managing any manufacturing process involving configured assemblies, whether manufactured in-house, by an OEM, or a combination of both. Configured Item Assembly strengthens the "virtual enterprise" concept, as well as the process of direct shipping, by automating the process of managing subassemblies all the way to the shipment of the final product to the customer. Customers will benefit from reduced lead times, and managers get the same flexibility and ease of stocking, receiving and shipping items configured across assembly partners that they would enjoy if manufacturing were done entirely under their own roof.
J.D. Edwards also released Inbound Advanced Ship Notice functionality, a unique Web-based application designed for SMBs that enables partners across a supply chain to check on the shipping status of orders placed among each other via a portal.
Collaboration and Integration
J.D. Edwards continued to evolve its collaboration and integration solutions so that they better meet specific customer needs. The company now offers two methods for delivering Web services, and has updated its Content Management tool to allow for enhanced multi-format delivery.
J.D. Edwards Web services options include: (1) eXtended Business Processes (XBPs) used in conjunction with the company's XPI (eXtended Process Integration) middleware, which are designed for J.D. Edwards' larger customers or those customers who have a broader or less predictable range of interface requirements and (2) Service-Oriented Interfaces (SOIs), which are designed for customers who have simpler and more predictable integration requirements.
Technology
Among the technological enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 is the arrival of Unicode, or Universal Codeset. This universal character encoding scheme solves the problem of handling multiple languages simultaneously for multinational organizations. For instance, an enterprise utilizing Japanese and Western European languages previously could not access the same database. With Unicode, J.D. Edwards 5 customers can now consolidate multiple instances of their software and/or database down to one. The result is less complexity, lower cost and a consolidated view of global operations.
J.D. Edwards also announced the completion of Technology Foundation, an open standards-based software infrastructure required to run J.D. Edwards software. This cohesive infrastructure is pre-integrated with J.D. Edwards 5 applications and contains leading IBM technology, including IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM DB2 Universal Database, the J.D. Edwards Collaborative Portal (based on WebSphere Portal) and IBM security. The J.D. Edwards Technology Foundation runs on all hardware, operating systems and databases that J.D. Edwards supports today. J.D. Edwards' commitment to open standards helps customers make IT investments based on their needs.
Customers Continue to Demand World-Class Services
J.D. Edwards Consulting introduced enhanced capabilities to deliver a full range of solution delivery options, including offshore resources and management services for implementation projects and ongoing application support. J.D. Edwards also announced its innovative Rapid Start implementation service that supports a streamlined process by which small- and medium-sized enterprises implement and manage J.D. Edwards 5 collaborative enterprise solutions. Finally, J.D. Edwards, in concert with leading audit firms, is providing solutions to help customers comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act while leveraging their existing J.D. Edwards software investment. The service offerings help customers meet short-term Sarbanes-Oxley remediation efforts, while preparing for the need for more effective corporate governance and business performance management in the long term.
J.D. Edwards Links Hundreds of Business Processes with Latest Release of J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Software
Enhancements in J.D. Edwards 5 Lead to Increased Productivity and Facilitate Greater Collaboration along the Supply Chain
Addressing global customer demand for technology that enables more responsive and efficient supply chains, J.D. Edwards announced a record-setting number of enhancements to its J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Management (SCM) solution that are specifically targeted to manufacturers and distributors. The enhancements include new, modular functionality for planning, order management, multi-mode manufacturing, distribution and logistics, and encompass the largest release of supply chain functionality in J.D. Edwards' history.
"SCM has become even more potent in this challenging economy as enterprises focus on cutting costs, improving asset use and increasing profitability," said Jeff Woods, principal analyst at Gartner.
Leah Hansen, application manager at Canwel, a J.D. Edwards customer, said, "The new Advanced Pricing capabilities available in J.D. Edwards 5 SCM will allow much greater flexibility in modeling our pricing system. The ability to, for example, offer volume up-sells or discounts based on sliding rates could be very useful to us. The enhancements to tracking rebates on both the customer and supplier side is important both for reconciliation purposes, as well as to capture the true margin of every sale at time of order entry. We purchased J.D. Edwards software in 1997 and as our business needs have evolved, we've continued to make use of additional functionality."
Complemented by industry-specific implementation and support services, the J.D. Edwards 5 enhancements will be available by the end of the third quarter. Key enhancements include:
- More than 20 enhancements to Pricing and Promotions software for the execution of innovative pricing approaches. These enhancements were made with extensive input from European customers and industry consultants. For example, Gross Profit Margin Pricing functionality will allow companies to better control margins by setting minimum and maximum profit targets for specific product and customer combinations.
- A new feature for contractually reserving capacity and materials in the Order Promising module that enables guaranteed service levels based on forward-looking allocation of an item or a specific resource (such as 10 hours per week of a machine) to be promised to a customer.
- Integration of J.D. Edwards Demand Consensus and Sales Force Automation software that makes it possible for companies to create more precise sales forecasts. By integrating real-time sales information into the collaborative forecasting process, J.D. Edwards' customers can improve customer service and reduce inventories.
- A new Product Variants software module that allows companies to better manage inventory and cross-sell throughout a multi-attribute product range. Such products are commonly found in the apparel, footwear and sporting goods industries.
- New Engineering Project Management functionality in J.D. Edwards Multi-mode Manufacturing application that helps industrial manufacturing companies engineer products to specific customer specifications, while delivering them on time and on budget to maximize operating profits. Engineered products are now tightly linked to configure-to-order or assemble-to-order manufacturing. Contract manufacturing customers will also benefit from this enhancement because they can plan, procure and manufacture products by customer contract.
- A fast, in-memory supply planning enhancement in Production and Distribution Planning that synchronizes the entire in-bound materials flow with company resources, production capacity and process requirements. Intelligent material forecasts are critical in order to minimize working capital in the industrial assembly and high-tech industries.
- Enhanced Lot Control functionality that offers multiple pre-defined and user-definable date fields that are active across the supply chain. This new functionality enables companies to manage lots, or product groupings, with more granularity including sell-by dates and best-before dates. This is particularly important to food and beverage companies, as well as pharmaceutical companies, which are facing increasing health safety and regulatory requirements worldwide.
Andrew Carlson, J.D. Edwards director of supply chain product marketing, said, "With this release, we've effectively turned the supply chain into a competitive weapon that addresses complete business processes rather than isolated functions as many best-of-breed products do. These new enhancements were built with one thing in mind slash costs from our customers' supply chains. That means increasing productivity, decreasing inventory planning cycles and offering better access to supply chain information in real-time and doing all of this quickly and at a low cost of ownership."
New supply chain enhancements in J.D. Edwards 5 address the needs of targeted industries, including consumer goods, industrial manufacturing, electronics, wholesale distribution, life sciences and asset-intensive sectors. Select J.D. Edwards 5 SCM applications are also available with earlier J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware and OneWorld product families and are designed to easily share information with software products provided by other vendors.
"Simplifying integration is critical as customers are increasingly collaborating with partners to further streamline processes and wring additional savings out of their supply chains," said Carlson. "We are committed to providing customers with the tools and technology they need to make their supply chains as efficient and responsive as possible."
J. D. Edwards Announces Key Enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5
New Pre-integrated Analytics, Configured Item Support and Wireless CRM Functionality Enables Customers to Achieve Greater Efficiencies and Business Effectiveness
J.D. Edwards announced three major product enhancements to its J.D. Edwards 5 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software:
- Configured item support for CRM applications, streamlining the process of configuring products specific to customer needs and facilitating mass customization
- Additional deep analytics capabilities that will enable a wide variety of users, from top executives to project managers, to access deeper and richer views of its CRM and ERP data to gain a better understanding of their sales and marketing operations and identify opportunities to improve their business
- Expanded Mobile Sales functionality through new wireless CRM support for the Pocket PC, enabling the mobile professional to access real-time critical information in the field.
Like all J.D. Edwards 5 CRM modules, these new functions are built on open, standards-based technologies so they adapt to existing legacy applications without forcing customers to change their business processes. They can also be used with multiple databases, thus reducing the time it takes to implement the software and the cost of maintaining it in the long term. Moreover, experienced and specialized J.D. Edwards 5 Consulting teams handle all CRM implementations to ensure that J.D. Edwards meets the individual needs of each customer.
Configured Item Support Enables Profitable Mass Customization of Products
More and more companies are offering customized products via the Web. However, companies in manufacturing and distribution, asset-intensive and project-oriented industries often have difficulty keeping track of the number of possible combinations of features available in their products. Thus, the potential for errors in the ordering process are high. These errors can damage customer satisfaction, cause operational delays and negatively impact a company's bottom line.
The ability to support product configuration via both Advanced Order Configurator (AOC) in J.D. Edwards 5 CRM and the base configurator in J.D. Edwards 5 ERP, improves profit margins for selling and manufacturing configured products by simplifying accurate order entry so products can be built or shipped correctly the first time. This improves asset utilization, reduces inventory levels, decreases order lead times and promotes customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, the connection to Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Partner Relationship Management (PRM) ensures that sales representatives are offering a product that is in stock and available. With accuracy ensured, sales representatives can close deals faster, and customer satisfaction and loyalty improve when their requirements are met.
"We expect Advanced Order Configurator to result in a drastic reduction in fulfillment time for our configured product orders because our salespeople will be able to submit orders accurately and price accordingly," said John Salaski, manager of application development, Hoffman Enclosures. "Configured Item Support's pre-integration of AOC with SFA will expedite a sales cycle, thereby improving this business process even further."
CRM Analytics Enable Companies to Identify Sales and Marketing Effectiveness
Sorting through an overwhelming amount of unorganized customer data can be a cumbersome process for enterprises. New J.D. Edwards 5 Business Intelligence CRM analytical applications remedy this institutional problem by pre-packaging more than 20 key performance indicators and 50 other CRM metrics in the form of out-of-the-box graphical models, measures and reports. These on-demand statistics provide high-level results information for users or managers at any level to identify bright spots and troubling issues within front line operations. Users can then access thousands of queries and filters in the easily configurable CRM analytic application and drill down on specific areas of interest for further analysis. Key CRM analytical reports help:
- Segment customers by business value, whether measured by overall revenue, frequency of orders, profitability or loyalty
- Uncover customers with untapped revenue potential and develop targeted sales strategies
- Retain the best customers and build loyalty by ensuring they receive appropriate service levels and
- Measure the return on investment of all marketing activities.
Unlike analytics products from standalone CRM vendors and niche analytics providers, J.D. Edwards can readily leverage data from ERP, supply chain management systems, third party and legacy systems to provide a unified picture of the enterprise. For example, sales management can more precisely predict forecasted-to-close sales revenues based on account balance tables typically maintained within the ERP system.
"The full value of CRM analytics lies not just in the ability to access data from CRM applications," said Gareth Herschel, research director, Gartner. "CRM analytics are most powerful when they leverage information from multiple data sources. This provides companies with a single, comprehensive view of their customers."
Sales Representatives Get More Nimble with Wireless CRM
By adding access to J.D. Edwards 5 CRM through Pocket PCs, J.D. Edwards extended its lead in enabling sales representatives to be as informed in the field as they are in the office. In January, J.D. Edwards unveiled Mobile Sales functionality that enables sales representatives to access critical data in disconnected mode through their laptop.
"Offering CRM through leading wireless devices builds on our already unique Mobile Sales capability," said Joel Reed, J.D. Edwards' director of CRM product marketing. "In this economy, traveling sales representatives need to have access to all critical information about customers and prospects to provide the best service in an increasingly competitive environment. We feel J.D. Edwards has a lead in empowering sales representatives on the road."
J.D. Edwards to Help Customers Use Their Existing IT Investments to Achieve Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
New Sarbanes-Oxley Advisory Service Pairs Premier Financial Consulting Partners with J.D. Edwards Software and Consulting Experts to Meet Compliance Issues
J.D. Edwards launched its Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service to help existing J.D. Edwards customers better prepare for compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
"We look at compliance with the act's internal control assessment and reporting requirements as an opportunity for customers to improve not only their compliance with controls, but also their insight into achieving consistent, predictable, competitive performance," said Jim Anderson, group vice president of the Americas Consulting Services, J.D. Edwards. "It's always smart for businesses to periodically assess whether or not they are maximizing the capabilities and value of their existing software investment. Because our customers often tend to focus on their day-to-day operations, it's possible that they are not aware that their existing J.D. Edwards software may already provide much of what they need to help them comply with the act."
The new J.D. Edwards Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service is designed to help the company's existing customers gain insights into how their software can enable control remediation using more than 900 checkpoints within the software. At the same time, the service also provides customers with a vision of how to leverage J.D. Edwards software to achieve insight into opportunities to improve operational performance.
J.D. Edwards has chosen to take the additional step of conducting a review across multiple applications because, more and more, customers are engaged in collaborative commerce using front and back-office applications in concert, rather than as stove-piped applications. While initial interpretations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act focus on financials, some experts expect requirements to extend to other business processes. In the April 3, 2003, AMR Research Alert titled, "Five Things IT Needs to Know about Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance," AMR Vice President John Hagerty says, "[Sarbanes-Oxley] will reach beyond financial processes financial reporting is just the beginning. It assumes the business transactions recorded in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other operational systems are not subject to unintentional lapses in process control. A broad-based review of business practices especially in decentralized firms could reach back into the bowels of business operations."
Financial Consulting Partners Enhance Offering
To deliver the Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service, J.D. Edwards Consulting Services has assembled a world-class team of risk management and internal controls advisors and J.D. Edwards software experts to assess customers' business processes with respect to their new reporting requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young and Jefferson Wells International will be teaming with J.D. Edwards on this advisory service. These firms will drive the business compliance risk and control assessments while J.D. Edwards leverages its deep software knowledge to help customers develop pragmatic approaches and solutions to their compliance and performance management challenges.
"We have assembled a comprehensive list of compliance control opportunities and combined that list with our leading-edge performance analysis tools to help our customers leverage the software they already have," said Glenn Erickson, vice president, Consulting Services, J.D. Edwards. "Our software was built with compliance and control requirements in mind. We include more than 900 different opportunities to control access; monitor risks and performance; and provide integrated views to the use of the system, accuracy of reporting, and consistency and predictability of performance powerful tools to establish the right controls environment."
Whether using J.D. Edwards ERP, Supply Chain Management or CRM, customers can maximize the control points in the software they are already using, such as workflow design, procedural documentation and automated controls enforcement bringing customers closer to their goals for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Together with J.D. Edwards Business Intelligence, customers can achieve even greater visibility into the span of their enterprise operations so they can proactively enhance business performance with real-time analysis and reporting.
"J.D. Edwards' new Sarbanes-Oxley advisory service provides customers with more than just a way to address short-term compliance needs," Anderson said. "It also helps customers take a fresh look at their business processes so they can improve their corporate performance."
J.D. Edwards Benchmark Surpasses 14,000 Web-based Users
Enhanced Scalability and On-Demand Capabilities Enable Customers
J.D. Edwards announced that its flagship business solution J.D. Edwards 5 has achieved 14,148 concurrent Web-based users on IBM eServer iSeries running a mixed workload of financials, distribution and manufacturing, with sub-second response time. This is the first time that J.D. Edwards 5 has scaled past the 10,000 user mark on any server platform.
The on-demand computing capabilities of J.D. Edwards 5 running on IBM iSeries servers with its On/Off Capacity on Demand, coupled with J.D. Edwards Technology Foundation, will enable customers to increase the number of concurrent users as business needs dictate. In addition, customers can simplify their computing environment by combining applications and data management on a single server or separate these functions according to what best suits their business needs.
"J.D. Edwards 5 combined with IBM eServer iSeries and its on-demand capabilities delivers unprecedented business value to make customers stronger," said Michael Madden, chief technology officer, J.D. Edwards. "This solution provides our customers with the flexibility, scale and manageability they need to excel across the entire supply chain."
"The iSeries' on-demand capability along with J.D Edwards software enables customers to flexibly manage their computing assets in support of unpredictable changes in business needs," said, Al Zollar, general manager, IBM eServer iSeries. "As evidenced by the tremendous benchmark results, iSeries' ability to balance the demands of multiple workloads on a single server helps companies raise data center asset utilization rates. That cost-efficiency goes directly to the bottom line."
Highlights of the J.D. Edwards Enterprise Software on IBM eServer iSeries benchmark include:
- Supports 14,148 concurrent Web users with an average user response time of 0.55 seconds
- Allows for on-demand computer processing power added within minutes with no business disruption through iSeries Capacity Upgrade on Demand
- Lowers Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) enabling businesses to achieve "more for less"
Exploits IBM's Power4 architecture for scalable performance
IBM eServer iSeries provides robust performance and flexibility, with the capability to run J.D. Edwards 5 business solutions in configurations that suite a variety of business needs. The J.D. Edwards on iSeries benchmarks were achieved based on realistic user processes running on IBM's POWER4 64-bit microprocessors. The project was accomplished by a joint team of J.D. Edwards and IBM iSeries consulting and integration specialists.
"In today's risk-averse market, IT and line of business executives require that software vendors' solutions can deliver return on value within the fiscal year, as well as have the ability to scale, both up and down, to meet changing business requirements. Moreover, these executives insist that on-demand capabilities can solve their most important business challenges with the lowest total cost of ownership," said Maria DeGiglio, principal analyst for the Robert Frances Group.
Industrial Manufacturers and Distributors to Reduce Production Costs and Maximize Profits Using J.D. Edwards 5 Enhancements
New J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Financial, Customer and Supplier Relationship Management Capabilities Help Companies Around the Globe Accelerate Order-to-Cash Cycles, Reduce Inventories and Optimize Assets
Leveraging more than a quarter century-old heritage of providing software and services that deliver predictable value to industrial manufacturers and distributors around the globe, J.D. Edwards detailed a record-setting number of enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software tailored to meet the specific needs of these customers. The enhanced J.D. Edwards 5 solutions are complemented by industry-specific implementation and support services, and will help industrial customers achieve economies of scale related to sourcing, manufacturing and distribution.
"Industry-oriented functionality was a leading criteria when we originally selected J.D. Edwards," said Todd Inlander, CIO of Fleetwood Enterprises, a leading U.S. manufacturer of recreational vehicles and manufactured homes. "With its most recent release of J.D. Edwards 5, the company is delivering new functionality to enhance its customers' ability to manage cycle times, reduce inventories, and improve the management and tracking of assets across an entire supply chain. Improvements in these business processes can deliver fast and substantial savings to the bottom line, which is critical in today's challenging economy."
The following J.D. Edwards enhancements will be available by the end of the third quarter 2003 to deliver predictable value to industrial manufacturers and distributors while helping them maintain profitability and adapt to economic conditions:
- Engineering Project Management (EPM) enhancements in J.D. Edwards 5 Multi-Mode Manufacturing will enable coordination of engineer-to-order projects associated with manufacturing, including estimating, quoting, planning, scheduling and centralizing visibility of the project. Contract manufacturers will also benefit from this enhancement with planning, procurement and inventory tracking by customer contract. EPM adds to already robust functionality for configure-to-order, make-to-stock and lean/flow/demand pull manufacturing strategies.
- Configuration Management enhancements will address several major industry trends, including outsourced or contract manufacturing, Internet-based ordering, order management cycle-time reduction, demonstration or loaner products and purchase of configured products. With this enhancement, product configuration details are maintained at every step in the supply chain process, enabling unprecedented flexibility, improved inventory accuracy and better customer service.
- Production and Distribution Planning incorporates a fast, in-memory, supply planning algorithm that synchronizes the entire in-bound materials flow with company resources, production capacity, and process requirements. Intelligent material forecasts minimize inventory and improve profitability while eliminating industrial manufacturers' long-standing dependence on inaccurate, unconstrained MRP.
- A new Demand Forecasting module has been tailored specifically to the needs of industrial manufacturers and distributors. Traditionally these companies have not relied on statistical forecasting because of to-order manufacturing strategies and short product lifecycles. Demand Forecasting provides a highly accurate and easy-to-use statistical capability that integrates into J.D. Edwards' unique consensus-based collaborative forecasting approach. The statistical input is weighted based on historical accuracy and blended with collaborative inputs from marketing, sales, distributors and customers.
- A new Product Variants module will help industrial manufacturers more effectively manage raw materials, component parts or finished goods that are available in several different variations. The Product Variants module manages multiple attributes, which enables tracing and tracking of raw material, WIP (work-in-process inventory) or finished goods inventory by dimensional factors or a myriad of other item characteristics.
- Enhanced Cross Docking functionality in Logistics Management will eliminate the time it takes to process an inbound order, then subsequently turn around and ship the same product to a different customer. The J.D. Edwards software will alert the warehouse to an inbound order and allow them to tag the item for immediate outbound shipment.
- Advanced Cost Accounting enhancements, in combination with J.D. Edwards Business Intelligence applications, will allow manufacturing executives to track product profitability to the item level. With every manufacturing and shipping process incorporated into the software's calculations, companies can now base their decisions on easily accessible, facts-based data rather than guesswork.
"Industrial manufacturers and distributors comprise nearly 40 percent of J.D. Edwards' customer base," said Les Wyatt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at J.D. Edwards. "With the planned enhancements, we will offer industrial companies unparalleled industry-specific functionality. We are committed to continuously improving our software as this dynamic industry's business requirements change to ensure we can provide them predictable value from our software and services and make their businesses stronger."
Delivering Predictable Value
More than 2,400 industrial manufacturing and distribution companies in approximately 75 countries are powered by J.D. Edwards solutions.
J.D. Edwards enables these companies to optimize business performance, providing event-driven insight into the supply chain from procurement and inventory management to manufacturing. The result is a competitive advantage for industrial customers through the use of J.D. Edwards solutions, such as ERP, Business Intelligence, Supply Chain Management, Preventative Maintenance Management, Enterprise Asset Management, Workforce Management and Customer Relationship Management.
"In light of flat or declining demand, industrial manufacturers are adopting a tighter focus on working-capital efficiency and cost-cutting initiatives through supply chain and asset optimization programs as well as through business intelligence analysis," said Chuck Carroll, J.D. Edwards vice president of consulting services, Midwest. "J.D. Edwards provides 26 years of successful implementation know-how to solve these issues and improve business processes for industrial, manufacturing and distribution companies."
Consumer Goods Companies to Leverage New J.D. Edwards 5 Software Enhancements to Help Increase Profits
Supply Chain and Enterprise Resource Planning Functionality Helps Companies Improve Sales, Marketing, Production and Logistics Coordination
Demonstrating J.D. Edwards' commitment to provide industry-specific business software and services that deliver predictable value, the company announced it will roll out significant enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5 for consumer goods companies. The company's newest release of J.D. Edwards 5 will include enhanced and new Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functionality for pricing and promotion management, inventory and order management, enhanced lot control, cross docking and profit management capabilities. The enhancements are targeted at helping consumer goods companies worldwide achieve economies of scale related to planning, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, selling and marketing.
"We are a leading fruit juice manufacturer in Australia and chose to work with J.D. Edwards because they are developing new functionality to suit the business needs of companies in the consumer market," said Ross Bradley, information services director at Berri Limited. "J.D. Edwards listens to our needs and understands that consumer companies require predictable value from their information technology with a focus on being able to improve profit margins while enhancing our brands."
The J.D. Edwards 5 SCM and ERP enhancements will be available by the third quarter of this year and will help deliver increased value to consumer companies while enabling them to maintain profitability and adapt to market trends. Consumer goods focused enhancements will include:
- More than 20 pricing and promotions enhancements including Buying Structures, an application that enables consumer goods companies that sell into complex distribution and retail networks to easily manage multi-echelon pricing strategies, thereby improving margins and profitability. Other enhancements enable innovative up-selling and margin-control strategies while reducing administration requirements and shortening the order-to-cash cycle.
- Enhanced Lot Control functionality with multiple pre-defined and user-definable date fields active across the supply chain. Food and beverage companies are facing increasing health safety and regulatory requirements worldwide. This new functionality enables companies to manage lots with more granularity including sell-by dates and best-before dates.
- Enhanced Cross Docking functionality that speeds the process of fulfilling customer orders while reducing material handling costs and inventory levels. Orders can now be planned to go directly from receipt to shipment, meeting consumer goods companies' volume distribution needs.
- A new module called Product Variants that simplifies inventory and order management for companies that distribute and manage items with multiple attributes such as sizes, colors or styles. Multi-attribute products are commonly found in the apparel, footwear and sporting goods industries.
- Enhancements to track profitability at the SKU level that have been added to the Advanced Cost Accounting module. Detailed indirect cost allocation capabilities combined with J.D. Edwards Business Intelligence applications will now help companies base decisions on factual data about which products add value and which do not.
"We have worked closely with our customers and partners to deliver new functionality that specifically benefits consumer goods manufacturers and distributors," said Les Wyatt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at J.D. Edwards. "Our goal is to make our customers stronger, and these extensive Supply Chain and Enterprise Resource Planning enhancements will help them achieve their business objectives in the ever-changing consumer goods industry."
Delivering Predictable Value
Global market trends are putting pressure on companies across the consumer product supply chain. Suppliers, manufacturers and distributors are contending with retailer and distributor consolidation, low growth, SKU proliferation and private label growth. And, larger retailers wield considerable market power over the manufacturers that supply branded and private-label products.
"As manufacturers strive to create new products and brand extensions, the entire supply chain has to accommodate an increasing number of product SKUs and complexity, putting greater pressure on optimizing business performance to be successful," said Tom Snapp, vice president of consulting services at J.D. Edwards. "We leverage 26 years of successful implementation know-how, combined with innovative collaborative software to solve these issues and improve business processes for consumer goods manufacturers and distributors."
J.D. Edwards 5 Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Business Intelligence, Preventative Maintenance Management, Enterprise Asset Management, Workforce Management and Customer Relationship Management applications improve consumer companies' business processes and help them meet the ongoing challenge to deliver new product innovations and more responsive customer service with ever-shrinking profit margins.
More than 1,000 consumer goods companies around the world are powered by J.D. Edwards' enterprise solutions. The company's consumer client base spans from global Fortune 500 companies, to national and regional suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, and includes such companies as AMF Bowling, Bonlac Foods Limited, Johnson Outdoor Inc., Lindt & Sprungli, Richmond Limited NZ and Tiffany & Co.
J.D. Edwards and IBM Team Up to Deliver Integrated Solutions to Small and Medium Businesses (SMB)
"Global Business Value" Team Lowers Costs for SMB Customers Through Industry-Specific Solutions, Based on J.D. Edwards 5 and IBM e-business on demand Solutions
In order to help small and medium sized businesses (SMB) operate in a more responsive, flexible and efficient way, J.D. Edwards and IBM announced two new offerings created by the companies combined Global Business Value team.
The Global Business Value team is a set of dedicated professional resources from both companies who will define, launch and direct the implementation of integrated, low total cost of ownership solutions that address the unique challenges facing customers in the SMB market. This team will deliver integrated consulting and industry templates, software and hardware, hosting, utility capabilities and other options, such as financing to minimize the upfront costs of entry.
SMB customers are feeling the pressure grow revenue, reduce inventory levels and to take costs out of their supply chain. To address these business needs the first solutions from this joint effort include Automotive for SMB and J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware Conversion for SMB. These solutions are built around J.D. Edwards 5 applications that leverage IBM's open standards-based on demand operating environment.
"Small and medium sized businesses need more than plain vanilla applications that fail to address specific business and industry needs," said Les Wyatt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of J.D. Edwards. "The Global Business Value team combines the strengths of J.D. Edwards software and consulting services with IBM Business Consulting Services and IBM's on demand architecture to deliver the right solutions at the right price point for this market."
"IBM is pleased to be teaming with J.D. Edwards to deliver solutions that will help SMB customers become on demand business," said Marc Lautenbach, general manager of Global Small and Medium Business, IBM. "Our companies have both devoted a significant amount of time talking with SMB customers to understand their unique needs. These solutions will allow these enterprises to be more responsive, flexible and resilient; all attributes they told us were important for them."
The first two integrated offerings from the Global Business Value team are:
- Automotive for SMB
To help mid-sized auto parts suppliers be more responsive to their customer's demands and show they can be an efficient part of the supply chain, IBM and J.D Edwards have created a fully hosted solution which makes standardized automotive business processes available in an affordable hosted model.
The solution enables flexible supplier collaboration and improved cost management. Built on J.D Edwards 5 ERP applications it will be hosted by IBM in one of its secure datacenters. IBM Business Consulting Services will provide customers with implementation assistance.
The solution will be available in 4Q03 to customers in North and South America. - J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware Conversion for SMB
J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware customers have been waiting for industry solutions that provide compelling value propositions based on J.D. Edwards 5 ERP applications. Transition costs, new technologies and conversions risks have all dampened the benefits of moving forward to J.D. Edwards' newest software suites.
For existing WorldSoftware customers, the Global Business Value team will help companies convert to the rich functionality in J.D. Edwards 5 ERP while minimizing conversion costs with a pre-configured offering. This offering will include options for hostingfrom IBM, and J.D. Edwards conversion toolkits to reduce transition risks and costs. The pre-configured offering saves installation time and setup for customers while ensuring that installation is done correctly. Alternatively, customers will be able to leverage integrated technical platform solutions to reduce solution deployment and development should hosting not be a viable alternative.
Additional key markets, offerings and programs are scheduled to be announced in the coming months.
Leading Businesses Continue to Select J.D. Edwards 5 for Software and Services That Provide Predictable Value
United Technologies, Pioneer Road Services, Alta Genetics and Others Choose J.D. Edwards for Industry-Specific Software and Services to Improve Their Businesses
J.D. Edwards gained significant momentum during its second quarter fiscal year 2003 in key vertical industries. Leveraging its 26 years of deep industry knowledge from listening to customers and innovating on their behalf, J.D. Edwards continues to deliver industry-specific software and services to companies seeking predictable value from their IT investments.
J.D. Edwards' customer wins across numerous industries worldwide included Kidde PLC, Alta Genetics, Charter Communications, Organon and Bogasari Flour Mills, among others. By choosing J.D. Edwards 5, companies can speed business processes, realize more accurate reporting, and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) to ultimately achieve improved and more profitable business performance.
"J.D. Edwards' continued success with customers demonstrates our unique ability to more precisely map our software and solutions to their business needs, based on unparalleled depth of knowledge and insights about their industries," said J.D. Edwards chairman, president and CEO, Bob Dutkowsky. "Our long-lasting relationships with more than 6,700 customers over the last 26 years prove our commitment to make customers stronger by aligning our technology with their business strategies."
At its annual user group conference, Quest Global Conference 2003, J.D. Edwards revealed significant strides in the following industries:
- Industrial Manufacturing
J.D. Edwards gained considerable momentum in the industrial manufacturing vertical with several wins, including: Kidde PLC; Hadrian Manufacturing; United Technologies, among others.
Kidde plc, a $1.4 billion world leader in fire and safety products, systems and service, chose J.D. Edwards for its collaborative enterprise software to power up global processes and global visibility, as well as enhance customer service, reduce costs and improve efficiency. Kidde purchased J.D. Edwards 5, Tools and Technology, and Training. In addition, the company invested in Team J.D. Edwards (IBM and J.D. Edwards) in order to speed implementation and to ensure the support and deep knowledge of J.D. Edwards' experts.
"J.D. Edwards was a natural fit for us - its culture seemed to mesh well with ours, and most importantly, we felt that we could really depend on J.D. Edwards," says Brian Sullivan, Group CIO of Kidde. "J.D. Edwards' expertise and experience in both hardware and application software and business knowledge were among the deciding factors. These, coupled with J.D. Edwards' functionality and reasonable cost, made for a very easy decision." - Asset-Intensive
J.D. Edwards' experience with asset-intensive industries industries in which multiple business assets must be deployed, tracked and monitored led to new opportunities with key companies, including Pioneer Road Services Pty Ltd, Charter Communications Inc. and Rand Refinery Limited.
Pioneer Road Services, operating in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Shanghai, China, offers pavement construction, maintenance and rehabilitation, and applies leading technology and innovation in order to deliver outstanding pavement solutions to its customers. Already an existing customer, Pioneer Road Services realized J.D. Edwards' breadth and depth of expertise in the industry. This drove its decision to engage with J.D. Edwards for an effective ERP solution, including Foundation, Manufacturing Management, Advanced Pricing, HR and Payroll components, among others. J.D. Edwards Services will lead the implementation process, but will also engage other partners.
"J.D. Edwards has proven to be reliable, dependable and trustworthy, and we know they are committed to understanding the unique nature of our business," said chief financial officer, Bill Condon, of Pioneer Road Services. "Based on our individual needs, J.D. Edwards is working with us to develop a made-to-order solution for Pioneer Road Services that will ultimately help us improve our business and deliver quality services to our customers in a timely fashion." - Life Sciences
Businesses in the life sciences industry continue to select J.D. Edwards for its easy-to-use and cost-effective business software and services. J.D. Edwards' recent large wins in the life sciences arena, include Alta Genetics, Pharmavite, Pharmaceutical Resources and Organon.
Already an established ERP customer, Alta Genetics, a major $80 million livestock genetic improvement resource, decided to expand its business with J.D. Edwards and recently selected its Business Intelligence/Performance Management solution implemented by J.D. Edwards Consulting Services. Alta Genetics' primary driving force was to achieve better visibility and deliver strategic reporting on key performance indicators.
"With J.D. Edwards Business Intelligence employees and management will gain instant access and greater visibility to critical sales information," said Kim Croisdale, IT manager at Alta Genetics. "And the rapid two-week implementation means that we can quickly start receiving benefits from our integrated solution." - Consumer
J.D. Edwards offers tailored, integrated business software and services solutions to a broad array of consumer-oriented businesses. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) businesses, such as Royal Numico, Lancaster Colony and Bogasari Flour Mills, have recently selected J.D. Edwards to create new value in their businesses quickly with minimal time between purchase, deployment and value attainment.
