JDA Software announces expanded, integrated product roadmap

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With a focus on enabling the customer-driven value chain, allowing companies to rapidly respond to market realities and delivering improved visibility and productivity to users, JDA Software Group, Inc. The Supply Chain Company, has announced the release of its latest product roadmap. Since its acquisition of i2 Technologies, Inc. on 28 January 2010, JDA has been focused on bringing together the two companies manufacturing, supply chain, merchandising and transportation solutions. The result is a product roadmap that supports the integration and ongoing development of those solutions to provide customers with comprehensive, integrated solutions offering that spans the entire supply chain, from raw materials to the end consumer.  
 
We are proud to announce a product roadmap that demonstrates the breadth, depth and future direction of our powerful suite of supply chain planning, optimisation and execution solutions, said JDA President and Chief Executive Officer Hamish Brewer. Our focus throughout the process was to put the customer first by providing a solutions offering that is easy to implement, maintain and upgrade, delivers innovation with a rapid return on investment and has a powerful impact on their bottom line. The company adds that the convergence of the solutions offerings will not come at the expense of its customers. JDA intends to continue supporting all products and will offer customers the opportunity to move to new solutions on their own timelines within a normal upgrade cycle, for example.
 
JDAs roadmap is less about how the different product sets will be converged, or which products will get a greater share of development dollars, than it is a set of principles and a framework that sets out a sensible approach to achieving products that will make customers happy both now and into the future, said Steve Banker, director, supply chain management, ARC Research.
 
JDA Product Roadmap Objectives
JDAs product management group conducted the solution integration process with an approach that went far beyond a replacement strategy. Instead, the group focused on creating superior solutions that are supersets of the combined product functionality. Furthermore, JDAs product roadmap objectives include:
 
Enabling the consumer-driven supply chain to help companies realize one view of demand, use customer insight to drive timely decisions and enable integrated decision making across planning, optimization and execution.
 
Rapidly responding to market realities by enabling companies to sense and profitably react to real-time conditions, shape demand to match supply and proactively monitor operations with recommended actions.
 
Improving visibility and productivity through the use of dashboards, workflows and guided analytics, as well as combining master-data management with easy-to-use solutions that increase planner productivity.
 
The JDA product roadmap focuses on the development, delivery and support of world-class solutions in 22 product areas. These product areas include demand management; sales and operations planning;  price and promotion optimisation; trade funds management; execution, collaboration and visibility; Web commerce; supplier relationship management; network design; inventory optimisation; supply chain master planning; factory planning; scheduling; contract manufacturing; space and category management; enterprise planning; assortment management; allocation; replenishment; transportation management; store systems; merchandise operations; and revenue management.
 
Rich Heritage of Innovation Supports Integrated Roadmap Development
With the addition of i2 to the JDA family, the company now offers the patented technology, industry knowledge and proven best practices gained by the combined companies more than 40 years in the supply chain industry. The pioneering ways of JDA and its acquired brandsincluding i2, Manugistics, Intactix, E3, and Arthursupported the roadmap process, allowing the company to offer solutions built on an undeniably rich heritage of customer success and value delivery. The solution strategy supports the needs of JDA customers across all geographies and industries, including manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and services industries companies.
 
The knowledge transfer and collaboration that took place throughout this process among professionals from our combined companies was incredible, said Namita Dhallan, JDAs chief product officer. Tapping the deep industry and solution expertise of our respective companies has allowed us to create a product roadmap that will offer proven supply chain, merchandising and pricing solutions to meet the toughest business challenges facing our customers today.
 
Roadmap Details to Be Presented at Focus 2010
Roadmaps for all JDA products will be discussed by product managers at Focus 2010, JDAs annual user conference on 16-19 May in Las Vegas, Nevada. Discussions will take place in the 38 Special Interest Group meetings scheduled over the three-day event. These sessions will be open to maintenance-paying customers only, and will include a roadmap presentation and an interactive question-and-answer session.
 
Customers unable to attend Focus 2010 may review the integrated roadmaps on JDAs user portal, JDAUser.com. JDA is also conducting a customer outreach programme, originally launched during the companys acquisition of i2. As such, JDAs global sales and services teams are contacting customers to discuss JDAs vision and how it can deliver results that address immediate business needs.
 
For more information, contact JDA at 1.800.479.7382 (U.S.) or visit http://www.jda.com for international phone numbers and office locations.
 
About JDA Software Group, Inc.
JDA Software Group, Inc., The Supply Chain Company, is a global provider of supply chain management, merchandising and pricing excellence solutions worldwide. JDA empowers more than 6,000 companies of all sizes to make optimal decisions that improve profitability and achieve real results in the discrete and process manufacturing, wholesale distribution, transportation, retail and services industries. With an integrated solutions offering that spans the entire supply chain from materials to the consumer, JDA leverages the powerful heritage and knowledge capital of acquired market leaders including i2 Technologies,  Manugistics, E3, Intactix and Arthur. JDAs multiple service options provide customers with flexible configurations, rapid time-to-value, lower total cost of ownership and 24/7 functional and technical support and expertise. To learn more, visit http://www.jda.com or e-mail info@jda.com