ERP vendor, JD Edwards is today expected to outline its e- business strategy, unveiling a series of partnerships that it says will provide its customers with everything they need to conduct business over the internet. Under its Active E-Business initiative, the company will unveil some 60 new front end applications to provide self service functions to end-users – principally customers, employees, vendors, suppliers and managers – over the web. The applications will link into JD Edwards’ back- end ERP applications, but provide a nice walk up interface, with full encryption and authentication services, Paul Barker, director of technical marketing, told ComputerWire. The idea is to provide a company with everything it needs to set up and run an business over the web, he said.
As part of that initiative, it will unveil its ActiVera customizable business portal, which, as well as providing access to ERP applications, will also enable users to access legacy communities, logic, or any other services over the web, Barker said. The company will also integrate products from its recently- announced reseller agreements with Siebel, for customer relationship management software, and Ariba, for its web procurement solution. He said JD Edwards’ solution would have the edge over those available from rival ERP vendors as it will enable users, for example traders or brokers, to make changes to the system dynamically, on the fly. Rival ERP giant SAP AG recently unveiled its business portal strategy, MySAP, while PeopleSoft gave details of its equivalent, MyWorld, earlier this month. Meanwhile, Oracle Corp and Baan Co are both working on e- commerce portals, with details to be announced in the next few months.
