J.D. Edwards: Channel Relations Are Solid

Several solution providers echo that claim. At Born, a longtime J.D. Edwards partner based in Minnetonka, Minn., national practice director Cindy Jorgensen said the company recently signed several deals resulting from leads it received from J.D. Edwards. These include Harvest State Foods, which came on board in March, and Liberty Diversified Industries, which became a customer last September, Jorgensen said.

In the past couple of quarters, "we have grown our expertise in [J.D. Edwards' key verticals," Jorgensen said. What's more, Born consultants are working with customers and prospects earlier in the process, sometimes even before a sale has occurred.

Since its last conference, J.D. Edwards has reduced its partner ranks by close to 300 to about 700. Vukan Ruzic, president and CEO of solution provider Profit Concepts International (PCI), based in Long Beach, Calif., said the move has benefited those like PCI that remain a partner.

"By paring away some of the partners, J.D. Edwards has been making the necessary strategic adjustments to improve their partner channels," Ruzic said. "Most of the proposed changes we have seen thus far will benefit the service partners who remain in the program."

J.D. Edwards CEO Bob Dutkowsky said the company only plans to cut underperforming partners. "The bulk of our partners [now see more business with better margins" as a result of the reduction, he told CRN. "If you get too much channel capacity, it weakens the whole channel."

Still, Carrie Manion, senior director of strategic alliances and channels at J.D. Edwards, said new partners will be named this week.

When conflict between existing partners and the company's direct-sales representatives arises, "we sit down and talk," she said. "The lines of communication are really open. I had one partner come forward and tell me, 'I don't think the program we are in today is going to work for us.' So now they are focusing less on selling and more on services."

Since 2001, partners in J.D. Edwards' Genesis program have been selling to companies with $130 million or less in revenue. Discussions about whether to adjust that ceiling are under way, said Manion.

This week at the conference, aside from showing off the 5.0 version of its platform, J.D. Edwards plans to provide details of its OneMethodology framework, a set of guidelines and best practices for implementing its products. Under OneMethodology, J.D. Edwards may bundle services and product licenses together for one price.

Sometimes in-house consultants will provide those services, and sometimes partners will contribute them, said Dutkowsky, who estimates that the aftermarket for services on J.D. Edwards' products is roughly $2 billion in size.