JDA Portfolio: For The Retail Industry Part Two: JDA Portfolio 2004.1 Components

JDA Portfolio 2004.1 Components

JDA Software Group Inc. (NASDAQ: JDAS), a prominent global provider of integrated software and professional services for the retail demand chain and over 4,600 customers, plans to build upon the collective JDA Portfolio to enable its customers to achieve a new level of operational excellence. The vendor plans to establish this capability as a defining and differentiating characteristic of its next generation PortfolioEnabled solutions over the coming months and years. JDA Portfolio 2004.1 software and service offerings will include the following:

1. Portfolio Merchandise Management
2. Portfolio Allocation and Replenishment
3. Portfolio Planning and Forecasting
4. Portfolio Store Systems
5. Portfolio Customer Management
6. Portfolio Revenue Management
7. Portfolio Advanced Optimization
8. Portfolio Business Intelligence (BI)
9. Portfolio Infrastructure
10. Portfolio Collaborative Solution

This is Part Two of a six-part note.

Part One presented the event summary.

Parts Two through Four detailed the components of JDA Portfolio 2004.1.

Part Five will analyze the market impact.

Part Six will look at ERP vendors and the retail market and make user recommendations.

1. Portfolio Merchandise Management

Portfolio Merchandise Management corporate HQ/host transaction systems are typically utilized by retailers and provide solutions for enterprise management of inventory throughout the retail demand chain. To that end, the latest JDA Portfolio offering exhibits improved scalability and configurability to meet the challenges of more retail formats, now including grocery and convenience stores, whereas the JDA Portfolio Merchandise Management (PMM) product has been successfully meeting the needs of "softlines" and "hardlines" retailers for years.

Namely, PMM 2004.1 will deliver specialized recipe management, meat-cut test and transformation management, random weight, direct-store-deliveries (DSD), and other capabilities. PMM is an open/client server merchandise management system that is designed to operate with Oracle relational database management systems (RDBMS) running on the most popular UNIX platforms and with Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP. The product, which consists of functional modules that can be selected and configured to fit multiple processing requirements, has long provided retailers with applications for core inventory control, cost and price management, purchase order management, promotional planning, automated replenishment, expert pricing, vendor submissions, rebate management, and a business process level on-line help system. It also supports the information requirements of international and multi-format retail organizations including multiple, concurrent languages and currencies, user-specific terminology, and user-defined data structures. PMM has also long included functionality specific to the inventory management requirements of the grocery industry for perishable products and prepared foods.

Additionally, JDA has a strategic alliance with Manhattan Associates under which it has and will work with mutual and prospective customers to develop, maintain, and support a standard toolset to ensure ease of integration between PMM and Manhattan Associates' PkMS warehouse management application, which might enable JDA to more effectively pursue larger customers that require an advanced warehouse management system (WMS) and extended supply chain execution (SCE) solution.

Another product in the merchandise management group is the mature Portfolio Merchandise Management System-i (MMS), which is a merchandising management system designed for the IBM iSeries environment and is one of the most installed merchandise management systems in the world. MMS consists of functional modules, similar to those offered for PMM, which too can be selected by a retailer and configured to fit their unique requirements. MMS also features enhanced functionality for apparel clients and international retailers, and a Java-based graphical user interface (GUI) that incorporates technology licensed from third parties. To ensure growth for retail stores that carry premium merchandise, retailers often opt for the product in order to obtain greater margins by gaining better control of their out-of-stocks, and through the more intelligent management of their promotional and regular pricing, as well as customer preferences.

2. Portfolio Allocation and Replenishment

Portfolio Allocation and Replenishment, sometimes also referred to as Demand Chain Solutions, provide management and optimization of inventory from finished goods at the CPG manufacturer through the demand chain to the end consumer, including computer assisted ordering, forecasting, replenishment, inventory optimization, and allocation. By significantly investing in the expansion and enhancement of its well-known line-up of E3 products to address user driven requirements, JDA was ready to demonstrate new and improved forecasting, replenishment, and allocation functionality, while the vendor also previewed the next generation of its SCM solutions to be released later in 2004.

Portfolio Advanced Replenishment Solutions by E3 is an inventory optimization suite that utilizes sophisticated algorithms to enable warehouses, distribution centers (DCs), and retailers to more effectively forecast and replenish inventory, and manage the movement of goods from supplier to store. It includes Advanced Warehouse Replenishment by E3 (AWR), a warehouse and distribution center forecasting and replenishment solution; Advanced Store Replenishment by E3 (ASR), a store-level forecasting and replenishment solution; Network Optimization by E3, an application that automatically synchronizes and analyzes inventory data between stores; and DCs, and Vendor Managed Inventory by E3 (VMI), a collaborative solution that facilitates joint management of forecasting and ordering by providing trading partners with access and visibility to a retailer's orders and forecasts. A product that is sometimes associated with the allocation and replenishment portfolio is Advanced Allocation by Arthur, an application for product and store allocation decision-making that runs both on UNIX/Oracle and Windows 98/2000/NT platforms.

3. Portfolio Planning and Forecasting

Portfolio Planning and Forecasting solutions provide retailers and their suppliers the ability to plan and project demand and ensure that customer service levels are optimized through strategic, financial, assortment, space and floor planning and category management solutions. To that end, the conference attendees were able to view the latest innovations within the Arthur and Intactix suites, in terms of delivering advanced business process level integration, improved scalability and broad strategic merchandise management capabilities. In addition, JDA presented its new Web Publisher that offers a robust, flexible solution enabling users to save time and costs by distributing so-called planogram and floor plan data via the Internet.

Advanced Planning Solutions by Arthur is a set of integrated decision support three-tier applications that are currently available for user client applications on Microsoft Windows 95/98 or NT/2000; for application servers on NT/2000; and for database servers on NT/2000, AIX, HP UX, and Sun Solaris. The suite is comprised of five core components:

1. Merchandise Planning by Arthur, an application for strategic and channel merchandise planning;
   
   
2. Advanced Allocation by Arthur, the above-mentioned application for product and store allocation decision making;
   
   
3. Assortment Planning by Arthur, a product assortment planning application for seasonal merchandise (typically own brand);
   
   
4. Arthur Knowledge Base (AKB), a database that allows for central organization of data and applications; and
   
   
5. Performance Analysis by Arthur, a web based analytical tool designed to support the analysis of planning and actual performance information using the AKB operating on Unix/Oracle.

According to many JDA's customers, these solutions offer neat features that provide more flexibility when handling multiple allocations at the same time, better support for new store openings, and more accurate allocation of their new season fashion products, with often cited benefits being improved gross margins and overall profitability through better assortments, faster turns, and reduced markdowns.

The planning and forecasting portfolio of solutions also includes RAPID Packages by Arthur, a deployment template that provides retailers with the industry's best practice implementation methodology.

Finally, Advanced Space Management Solutions by Intactix is a set of space management applications, which enables retailers to collaborate with their suppliers to ensure optimal product mix and shelf positioning. It is comprised of four core components:

1. Space Planning by Intactix, a "planogramming" solution used by both retailers and their suppliers, that allows users to build, analyze, and distribute graphical diagrams for space management, store layout planning and shelf assortment analysis;
   
   
2. Floor Planning by Intactix, a floor planning tool that enables retailers and their suppliers to merge store design efforts with category and space planning;
   
   
3. Efficient Item Assortment by Intactix (EIA), a tool providing product assortment planning for branded merchandise; and
   
   
4. Intactix Knowledge Base, an enterprise level relational database supporting the space planning and floor planning applications, as well as all product and fixture information for an entire store system.

The portfolio for space management also includes applications for streamlining day-to-day space management business processes including the above-mentioned Web Publisher by Intactix that enables retailers and manufacturers to distribute planograms and floor plan data via the Internet; Space Automation by Intactix that utilizes a business-level scripting tool to automate day-to-day activities performed within the space planning, floor planning and Intactix knowledge base applications; and Planogram Converter by Intactix that facilitates the conversion and migration of planogram data available on competing systems.

This concludes Part Two of a six-part note.

Part One presented the event summary.

Parts Two through Four detailed the components of JDA Portfolio 2004.1.

Part Five will analyze the market impact.

Part Six will look at ERP vendors and the retail market and make user recommendations.