French software house Ilog SA is moving into the world of enterprise resource planning and supply chain managment, through a new deal with JD Edwards & Co, the privately held Denver, Colorado based firm that’s estimated to be the fourth business application vendor in the world. Ilog will provide planning and scheduling functions to JD Edwards’ OneWorld, network-based ERP system. JD Edwards wants to build its own advanced planning and scheduling system and will use the Ilog Solver and the Ilog Scheduler, two of the three object orientated components that make up Ilog’s range of C++ tools – now known under the name Optimization Suite. Solver is Ilog’s constraints programming engine for the modeling and solving of business problems, while the Scheduler adds scheduling and sequencing functions to the Solver engine. The third component is Ilog Planner, designed for long term planning. Ilog claims ERP and decision support vendors will be able to reduce development costs and time to market by embedding the components, at a time when people are demanding much shorter lead times. The suite is delivered as embeddable software components, and JD Edwards is the first major ERP company to use Ilog’s technology. It hopes others will follow. Meanwhile, Ilog is working on integrating technology from its recent acquisition Cplex Optimization Inc (CI No 3,219) into its Optimization Suite.