Denver January 29, 2003 Integration was the theme of the day this week as enterprise software giant J.D. Edwards & Co. launched version 2.0 of its customer relationship management solution by highlighting its links to the provider's supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.
CRM 2.0 comes with 175-plus enhancements, according to J.D. Edwards, but the provider's announcement of the new version primarily focused on the solution's integration with J.D. Edwards' SCM and ERP applications, touting those links as a way of reducing the total cost of ownership of the CRM solution.
"Buyers of CRM solutions, especially mid-market to mid-cap enterprises, want to embrace CRM but demand a lower total cost of ownership than that offered by typical enterprise-class CRM vendors," asserted Les Wyatt, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at J.D. Edwards, in a company statement. "CRM 2.0 leverages our software and services expertise, providing a strong set of features and functions within a flexible application framework."
The provider said its CRM application takes advantage of the company's eXtended Process Integration (XPI) technology and its data model inheritance capabilities to enable the tight integration with the SCM and ERP solutions. "This combination facilitates rapid integration during deployment and compatibility with emerging technologies," the company said in its statement.
J.D. Edwards also touted CRM 2.0's integration with the company's Demand Consensus supply chain application, as well as improved functionality for mobile salespeople and the applications service management capabilities.
Demand Consensus is a supply chain planning application intended to improve forecasting accuracy. CRM 2.0 captures forward-looking sales information and feeds it into Demand Consensus with the goal of creating a more precise forecast.
The mobile functionality, enabled with technology from Synchrologic, allows mobile salespeople using CRM to access information and use business applications while they are "disconnected," such as when they are at a customer site. Salespeople then synchronize with the company's core systems when they get back online.
The service management module combines contact center and field service applications, allowing a company to track equipment service history and manage the flow of service work being performed, according to the provider.
