ERP Software

JD Edwards ERP software review, Part II

Experts agree there were architectural innovations that hugely contributed to the success of JD Edwards ERP Software at the time. First of all were the Processing Options. Processing Options are runtime switches configured as part of the implementation process. A single program like Sales Order Entry has dozens of processing options that alter the appearance and functionality of the program making one single program able to handle various different business situations, and reducing the number of programs which would otherwise be required thereby lessening the development load. Secondly, were the User Defined Codes. A User Defined Code, or UDC, is a soft-coded way of categorizing customers, items, business units, G/L accounts, and almost any other master data used by businesses for reporting and inquiry purposes. And, thirdly, were the Vocabulary Overrides. This was a term coined by JDE to talk about the ability to rename field labels on screens and reports that allows a business unit field to be called BU or Business Unit in the accounting modules, and WH or Warehouse in the Distribution/Manufacturing modules. Vocabulary Overrides is also the way in which the software is easily translated into multiple languages, since every screen and every report contains a distinctive set of overrides for each language.

Nowadays it would be impossible to market an ERP software solution that did not contain all three of the above capabilities, but it is important to remember that at the time JD Edwards introduced these innovations no other vendor had them as part of their ERP product lines. Today, although JD Edwards’ ERP software is used by some Fortune 100 companies with very sophisticated needs, it is nonetheless considered a best fit for manufacturing or distribution companies with annual revenue in the two-hundred million to eight-hundred million dollar range.

PeopleSoft, Inc. purchased JD Edwards in 2003. Not much later, in 2005, PeopleSoft itself was bought by Oracle Corporation. Nevertheless, to this day, Oracle Corporation continues to market and support the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World  ERP software line, which speaks to the excellence of the products.

Oracle, definitely one of the giants of ERP software industry with millions of customers all over the world, improved the versatility of the company in terms of providing solutions to the organizations after its acquisition of JD Edwards. Since Oracle has owned JD Edwards, in fact, they have broadened their reach with new integrations to best-in-class Oracle products like CRMOD, VCP, Primavera and Agile PLM, as well as completed twelve separate releases, and developed eighteen new modules, not to mention the thousands of enhancements which have been presented. In addition, more than one thousand customers have joined the team globally. New customers continue to be added every quarter, even though JD Edwards customer retention is excellent. In fact, over seventy percent of JD Edwards customers are still involved with current releases today, leading to revenue growth that is very similar to both pre-PeopleSoft and pre-Oracle levels.

In January 2010, JD Edwards sealed a contract with Tradex to resell its business-to-business e-commerce software.  Tradex is a company that makes software matching large numbers of buyers and sellers online. Under the terms of the deal with Tradex, J.D. Edwards said it is licensed to resell the Tradex Commerce Center outline in the United States. In addition, the deal gives JD Edwards the licensing rights to use the Tradex digital marketplace software in developing its own online trading communities, targeting areas such as manufacturing, high technology, and non-production goods and services.

Written by :

Amy Cruz