JDA, Baan to create joint venture

In an effort to find and expand new market opportunities, JDA Software and Baan have unveiled plans to form a new joint venture to bring enterprise application products and services to the global retail market. The 50/50 venture, Baan-JDA Retail, combines JDA's strengths in retail software with Baan's ERP expertise.

The new organization will offer a combined suite of software to address the entire supply chain management (SCM) process, including point-of-sale, in-store back office management, merchandising, distribution, warehousing, E-commerce, wholesale, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain management, ERP, data warehousing, human resources, and financials. Featured technology components will include transaction processing, information access, decision support and management reporting. The new company will target companies with their own wholesale or retail operations, retailers with SCM branding and consumer response needs, and companies with catalogue, mail order or E-commerce requirements.

"The combined capabilities of JDA and Baan Company will enable us to quickly deliver to the market a comprehensive and mature offering for global retail operations," said Baan chairman, president and CEO Tom Tinsley. "Together, we will aggressively pursue the expanded market opportunity created by offering compelling best-in-class functionality in a cost-effective and open, integrated solution." JDA CEO Brent Lippman added that the venture's mission is to offer "an open, flexible solution that integrates and leverages the strength of our combined capabilities for retailers."