J.D. Edwards Taps IGS, Deloitte & Touche For Life Sciences Push

At this week's Focus user conference here, Les Wyatt, J.D. Edwards' chief marketing officer, said that IBM Business Consulting Services and Deloitte & Touche will "jointly deliver and build out solutions" for J.D. Edwards' users in the life sciences arena.

J.D. Edwards has some 600 customers in life sciences, Wyatt said.

The latest enhancements to J.D. Edwards 5, due to be available next quarter, are designed to help life-sciences customers improve research and development, manufacturing, distribution, selling and marketing processes.

One example of an enhancement aimed squarely at the life-sciences market is the "enhanced lot control" feature of J.D. Edwards 5, which will let manufacturers and distributors better comply with regulations issued by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory bodies. The feature will let life-sciences companies track and ship inventory by "effective date," lot expiration date," "sell-by date" and other variables.

"Deloitte & Touche and IBM have deep competence and experience in the life-sciences area," Wyatt said.

Michael Madden, J.D. Edwards' CTO, will oversee the project and lead the individuals from all three companies who will be dedicated to it.