JDA’s new release aimed at helping shipper omni-channel profitability

Suite of supply chain tools focuses on how shippers can plan further upstream to manage inventory to support better decisions on inventory deployment and fulfillment.    The supply chain solutions provider JDA Software on Thursday released a new update of its suite designed to allow shippers to better understand how to fulfill more efficiently and profitably in an increasingly complex omni-channel sales environment.
   JDA’s 9.0 release includes capabilities for retailers to better determine the “true source of demand versus from where the demand was fulfilled, therefore locating current and future inventory in the most optimal location within the supply chain,” the company said.
   The new software also helps retailers make cost-to-serve aware offers and commitment and better plan and assort inventory to optimize order fulfillment across channels.
   “Most businesses have made significant investments in manufacturing facilities, distribution networks and technology systems to serve this complex market demand,” said Kelly Thomas, chief product officer at JDA. “However, too often, these disparate resources fail to work together, toward the shared goal of profitability.”
   JDA has been focused on a strategy of helping customers ensure they are serving their customers profitable through the customers’ channel of preference.
   “Companies are frequently forced to make trade-offs between service level and profit margin,” said JDA. “JDA’s latest release helps manufacturers, retailers, third-party logistics providers and wholesale distributors make optimal fulfillment decisions that protect margins by strategically planning and executing the storage and movement of inventory across facilities to minimize transportation costs, maximize service and meet the unique needs of individual customers.”
   Fab Brasca, JDA vice president of solutions strategy, told American Shipper in a briefing that it’s more about an overarching strategy than merely integrating a transportation management system with a warehousing management system.
   “It’s a strategy, not a solution,” said Brasca. “This is the high level vision we’re driving towards. Granular workflows change by industry and sometimes by sub-industry. That’s why we’re framing the releases the way we are. The first couple releases were around the core TMS and WMS solutions. Next phase it tying in to e-commerce. And the next phase is working our way upstream. That’s going to escalate, because the more you start to tie this to upstream planning, the harder it is.”
   Brasca said that more than integration between solutions, “what is unique is the depth within those components. When we look to hook WMS and TMS together, it’s not just the transactional hook up. It’s how do I look to create something that’s net new.”
   Adeel Najmi, chief science officer at JDA, told American Shipper that most shippers have focused on understanding the e-commerce side of the equation.
   “This is about the other side of the coin – once you have that, how do you position inventory to meet that,” Najmi said. “It’s the plumbing in the back. How do you execute that well together? Even if you’re leveraging a slice of this, the fact that JDA is looking at this end-to-end, that end-to-end vision we have translates to value in terms of matching supply to demand and positioning inventory.”
   Najmi said it’s comparable to think of the impact this strategy will have on inventory planning and product flow as what crowd-sourced GPS tools like Waze have done for traffic management.
   “I think of it terms of GPS,” he said. “If you’re driving to a destination, as you get detours in the road, it dynamically adjusts to you. You don’t want to talk about planning and execution by themselves. With this release, were starting to release capabilities that break down those silos. That end vision, you’re going to have a very different outcome than ‘I can integrate X to Y.’ This release is an annual release – it’s not a big rip and release, but there is sufficient critical mass that our vision is starting to be tangible.”
   Paula Natoli, vice president for product development at JDA, said the goal is get companies thinking about where they need to be as their fulfillment and inventory needs evolve.
   “We’re setting the stage for companies to go on their own maturity curves,” she said. “It’s not just the here and now. But if they are not thinking about how they’re going to evolve and mature, they’re going to miss that boat. We’re trying to give these companies a path to move and evolve their way forward.”
   Much of the release is aimed at helping companies manage flow whether the orders come digitally or in a physical store.
   “The way we see this is it’s going to be imperative for inventory to be staged correctly,” Natoli said. “Up to this stage, retailers have poured tons of money in order capture, but as that order comes through, there’s a lot of basic knowledge around how to source, and what is the proximity of the inventory. But in the end, it doesn’t mean it’s profitable.
   “When you’re planning out your inventory in the network, you want to leverage where that customer wants to pick it up. (The new JDA release) can account for that type of situation, it can account for click-and-collect (where a customer orders online but picks up in store).”
   Privately-held JDA serves thousands of customers across the retail, manufacturing and third party logistics provider industries.