IBM, J.D. Edwards Strike Bundling Pact

Pre-integrated bundles are set to roll out in phases starting in early 2003, executives at both companies said. Financial terms of the arrangement between the longtime partners were not revealed.

Ehe move will help drive more sales in the midmarket, company executives said.

Steven Mills, IBM's senior vice president for software, said IBM does not intend to resell J.D. Edwards' applications but instead will include J.D. Edwards executives on joint sales calls.

J.D. Edwards' current partners already deploy DB2, WebSphere and other IBM middleware products, said Lenny Hensarling, J.D. Edwards' vice president of product management for tools and technologies.

J.D. Edwards software running on IBM hardware has been available for years, said Chris Gloede, managing director of business development at Capita Technologies, King of Prussia, Pa. But there is room for error in a pre-integration scenario, he said. "There are a whole bunch of settings when you install [J.D. Edwards' OneWorld," he said. "If that is [customized to each client, it should work great."