JDA and IBM partner on omni-channel planning and fulfillment initiative

Companies will combine JDA’s fulfillment and labor management solutions with IBM’s commerce and order-management systems.    JDA Software and IBM on Wednesday announced an initiative to provide integrated omni-channel supply chain solutions focused around processing and fulfilling product orders in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible.
   The new initiative aims to synchronize order capture and order management with retail planning, efficient labor productivity and fulfillment, drawing from JDA’s Intelligent Fulfillment and Labor Productivity solutions, and IBM’s Commerce and Order Management solutions. The companies said the joint solution “will reveal the true cost of fulfilling an order — including inventory and labor costs — so that businesses can more responsively adjust inventory and resource allocations, and execute decisions that meet and exceed customer expectations while also serving their bottom line.”
   The solution can be delivered on premise or in the cloud via SoftLayer, an IBM company, and is expected to be available by late spring 2015.
   The integrated solutions are designed to help retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers navigate the challenges presented by “empowered consumers who demand the right product when they want it at the best price through their channel of choice.”
   The companies added that “as more and more consumers demand advanced delivery methods such as ‘buy online and pick-up in store,’ businesses are under increasing pressure to offer these flexible options across more channels in order to meet their customer’s expectations. Without a dynamic view into their complete supply chain picture, businesses are forced to make snap decisions based on static information resulting in inefficient fulfillment processes, shipping methods and inventory positions.”
   As an example, when a customer purchases an outfit online from a clothing retailer, there are several dynamic factors at play that can affect the profitability of the transaction: whether the customer wants the outfit delivered to a home or to a store for pick up; whether the item is in stock at that store or needs to be fulfilled from an alternate location; and whether warehouse or store labor is available to fulfill the order in a timely manner.
   The combined IBM-JDA solutions are designed to resolve those issues in the background in real-time by applying knowledge of the retailer’s inventory planning and allocation during the order processing.
   “The JDA and IBM initiative fills a massive void in the marketplace,” said Wayne Usie, senior vice president of retail at JDA Software. “Retailers need to become much more sophisticated and intelligent about how they source product for omni-channel fulfillment. Today there is far too much guess work, too many static policies, and no intelligence applied to the process. This landmark initiative cracks the code on intelligent sourcing, simultaneously allowing our customers to factor in supply chain planning and execution status, planned events like promotions and markdowns, and labor availability at the point of sale to maximize profits and customer satisfaction.”
   Robin Bornkamp , Lowe’s vice president of inventory and demand planning, said, “By partnering to deliver this joint offering, JDA and IBM are enabling Lowe’s to deliver exceptional omni-channel fulfillment services, which gives our customers more flexible options to shop with us.”