Event
Summary
Logility recently announced an OEM agreement with ERP vendor Great Plains
Software in which some of its products will be branded and sold as Great
Plains' Supply Chain Series. The first modules to be offered are Logility's
warehouse management system, WarehousePRO and its logistics execution
application, Transportation Management. Great Plains plans to incorporate
more applications in the future, including Logility's collaborative planning
products, Voyager XPS and Voyager XES. The deal brings together two companies
with complementary strengths and only a small potential for conflict.
Market
Impact
Great Plains has made a prudent decision in partnering with Logility.
Logility offers a broad range of applications in all the important areas
of supply chain management as well as state-of-the-art B2B collaborative
planning solutions that allow multi-channel supplier/customer relationships
to be managed effectively. In addition, Logility and Great Plains have
participated together in several implementations for mid market brick-and-mortar
and Internet-based retailers. The most recent of these was at Smarterkids.com,
where reportedly WarehousePRO was installed in just 90 days.
We
see excellent potential for the partnership and little chance of conflict
as Great Plains does not currently offer its own supply chain planning
products. In contrast, both Oracle and SAP have alienated past partners
by developing SCM applications to compete directly with those of their
partners. Possibly the only potential pitfall, Great Plains plans to offer
Logility applications standalone and at a discount, which can lead to
channel conflict if not handled carefully.
Of
course, Logility receives a portion of the revenue generated from Great
Plain's sales of its products and the risk of conflict is offset considerably
by the sales opportunities afforded by the vast indirect channel that
Logility gains in Great Plains. Great Plains has established very strong
branding and penetration within the Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SME)
segment of the ERP market and enjoys an extensive partner channel with
over 1,600 experienced partners.
User
Recommendations
Current users of Great Plains eEnterprise with additional warehousing
or transportation management requirements will benefit from acquiring
the GP-branded supply chain execution products as these are available
at a lower license cost than the same products purchased directly from
Logility.
In
the short term, these users should be prepared for some bumpy ground since
Great Plains and Logility still need time in which to polish their collaboration
on delivering technical support for the products. As GP staff becomes
familiar with Logility's products and the OEM partnership solidifies,
these problems are likely to diminish. Prospective mid market buyers of
enterprise software should look favorably on the deal and increase their
rating of Great Plains in any ongoing or future evaluations.