Event
Summary
Logility has announced a global relationship with IBM to deploy its supply
chain management solutions on the AS/400e server platform. The two partners
will jointly offer Logility Voyager Solutions for B2B collaborative commerce,
business process consulting and implementation services for users who
run their enterprises on AS/400e.
Most of the development work on the AS/400e deployment will be conducted
by IBM and does not entail a code rewrite. Under a separate agreement,
IBM Global Financing will provide financing to companies for IBM hardware,
software, and services components as well as Logility's Voyager application
software. Logility products are currently available for the IBM Netfinity
and RS/6000 servers.
Market
Impact
The move is a good one for Atlanta-based Logility, which derives the vast
majority of its revenues from NT-based solutions. Though Logility still
offers its applications for Unix, it concedes that very little demand
exists for Unix among its chiefly mid-market customers. The deal should
give Logility a foothold within IBM's substantial mid-market AS/400 customer
base.
Of
course, IBM seems to be helping just about everyone in the supply chain
management space. It recently announced a similar AS/400 partnership with
i2 Technologies, Logility's main rival. i2 offers a broad slate of supply
chain management products, but primarily targets large Fortune 500 clients
that have proportionally large IT budgets.
Logility
is more popular among mid-market companies due to its more structured,
out-of-the-box functionality that can be implemented faster than i2's
more flexible suite. IBM may also have been attracted to Logility's vision
for CPFR (Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment), one that
i2 has yet to support. CPFR is just beginning to build momentum among
retailers but is expected to expand into other segments as more software
vendors begin to support it (ERP giant SAP now offers CPFR-compliant software
as part of mySAP.com collaborative applications).
i2
prefers instead to focus on its growing portfolio of vertical B2B marketplaces,
through which it will offer planning and optimization capabilities. In
addition to CPFR, Logility brings to IBM a mature distribution requirements
planning (DRP) product for the consumer packaged goods industry.
User
Recommendations
The Logility solution for the AS/400e server is expected to be available
during the fall of 2000. Mid-market companies should benefit from the
IBM financing option as it can streamline the acquisition of Logility
by allowing them to avoid a lengthy capital approval process. Users should
inquire about what parts of the acquisition are included by the financing.
For
the mid-market, Voyager solution licenses usually run between $200,000
to $300,000 (USD) and implementation services offered by Logility are
normally one-fifth of the license cost. Typically, services of a systems
integration firm will be required for larger implementations and its fees
will not be covered by IBM financing.