Denver March 7, 2002 Business appears to be percolating at software provider J.D. Edwards & Co., which recently reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and this week issued a raft of product, partner and customer news.
J.D Edwards reported at the end of February that it had beat analysts' pro forma earnings expectations for the company, racking up a pro forma profit of 3 cents a share, despite a decline in revenues from $218 million in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year to $201 million for the just-ended fiscal first quarter. Industry-watchers attributed the company's good fortune to tight cost controls and the introduction of J.D Edwards' own customer relationship management software and a new procurement solution.
This week, J.D Edwards reported that it would license an object database management system from Versant Corp., a provider of middleware infrastructure technology, for J.D Edwards' consensus forecasting application, Demand Consensus. J.D Edwards said that Demand Consensus reconciles multi-forecasting models for one-number planning, creating an enterprise-wide forecast using both quantitative and qualitative measures. Andy Carlson, director of supply chain product marketing at J.D. Edwards, said the Versant system provided the performance and scalability required for a complex, real-time application like Demand Consensus.
In other news, Datasweep, a provider of Web-based integrated plant systems, recently announced the completion of certification requirements for the integration of its Advantage software suite to J.D. Edwards OneWorld Xe collaborative business software. Datasweep said the integrated solution would leverage critical information from manufacturing operations and enhance the overall J.D. Edwards solution with such added functionality as increased visibility and control of manufacturing operations and improved supply chain efficiencies and product lifecycle management.
Meanwhile, J.D. Edwards' recent customer announcements including AmerUs Group Company, a federal savings institution in Iowa; Dayton Superior, an Ohio producer of steel wire and related products; Potomac Corp., a provider of converted paper products based in Illinois; and R.R. Donnelley & Sons, a commercial printing company also in Illinois.
