JDA introduces Stratus – new out-of-the-box cloud offerings to solve complex workforce management, transportation and forecasting needs

JDA Software Group, Inc. has announced a series of new cloud service offerings that enable faster time to market, lower total cost of ownership and rapid return on investment for customers implementing JDA's supply chain and retail solutions.

JDA Stratus, a pre-packaged Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud offering, is aimed at customers that want to leverage the full power and capabilities of JDA's solutions through an economical, flexible and template-based deployment scope. JDA Stratus complements JDA's existing cloud service offerings, and includes support, including 24/7 service levels.

JDA Stratus falls in line with JDA's mission of giving customers flexible choices for the type of cloud deployment that will work best for their business needs.

"With customer-centricity and flexibility as its key cornerstones, JDA Stratus combines all the benefits of JDA's reliable and powerful solutions with the speed, time-to-value and cost savings gained through out-of-the-box cloud deployments," said Joe Stone, group vice president, cloud services, JDA. "JDA Stratus is a unique pre-packaged SaaS solution that leverages JDA's 30 years of best practices and templates specific to our customers' industries. Using JDA Stratus, our customers can get up and running with JDA quickly, while counting on a best-in-class, reliable cloud environment and 'always on' support. And since JDA Stratus supports standard software from JDA, customers will always have access to the full range of upgrade, education, support and consulting options available from JDA and its partners."

JDA Stratus is available in three pre-packaged offerings:

• JDA Stratus for Workforce Management: Includes JDA Workforce Management and JDA Task Management modules as well as mobility options to swiftly tackle the needs of today's complex workforce environment.
• JDA Stratus for Transportation: Includes JDA Transportation Management and JDA Transportation Planner modules helping companies realise transportation savings quicker while still meeting customer delivery windows.
• JDA Stratus for Forecast and Replenishment: Includes JDA Fulfilment and JDA Demand ensuring inventory is located properly across fulfilment nodes throughout the supply chain based on shifting demand.

"The cost of a SaaS-delivered system's monthly subscription and the time it takes to deploy the solution can be key barriers impeding organizations from moving to the cloud," said Brent Skinner, principal analyst, Nucleus Research. "JDA Stratus eliminates these major stumbling blocks, which can be especially constraining for small- and medium-size businesses. JDA Stratus opens the gates to organisations that would benefit from JDA's flexible and robust solutions in workforce management for retail, for instance. These employers don't need any and all possible functionality from JDA, just the streamlined iteration of what JDA offers. This helps them to control their costs and get up and running in short order."

JDA Stratus is the latest innovation within the company's cloud business, which has grown to over $100 million in revenue. In total, JDA now has more than 350 Cloud customers and more than two million users using its cloud solutions.