J.D.Edwards Talks Up Latest Software Release

J.D. Edwards

Thousands of participants were expected here for the conference, which kicked off Monday as the acrid smoke from several raging forest fires dissipated in the sky over Denver.

Partners said that J.D. Edwards 5, which lets customers implement components of an ERP solution rather than an entire monolithic system, should be well received by their clients.

"Folks aren't biting off the whole [project now," said Steve Hamilton, vice president at Experio, a solution provider and Hitachi subsidiary. "Two to four years ago, they would have tackled the entire thing at once."

In a session with reporters, J.D. Edwards CEO Bob Dutkowsky said that fewer than 10 percent of the company's customers have advanced planning or CRM systems in place. With the J.D. Edwards 5 approach, partners will be able to sell only functions the client needs, he said.

Components of the J.D. Edwards 5 suite handle CRM, supplier-relationship management, business intelligence and advanced planning.

Alan Heger, vice president of information systems at teddy-bear manufacturer Russ Berrie, Oakland, N.J., said at the conference Monday that his company is working with Kurt Salmon Associates to overhaul its entire supply chain, which spans plants and sales offices on multiple continents.

The first phase of the 18-month rollout, an application for procuring the raw materials needed to make the toys, goes live in July, Heger said. In this step, the company will link vendors in Asia with warehouses in New Jersey and California.

"Then we'll sit back and watch how things work," Heger said, who's already mapped several more scheduled dates for subsequent steps in the rollout in his calendar.

A warehouse management piece from Manhattan Associates also figures in the Russ Berrie solution, Heger said. The J.D. Edwards software will be integrated with it.