Oracle Updates JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, World

September 30, 2008 Alex Woodie

Oracle last week made several announcements surrounding its JD Edwards ERP systems at its OpenWorld user conference. Version 9 of the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne application was updated with a new accounting module, as well as enhancements to existing financial management, supply chain management, and human resources modules. The i OS-based World ERP system, meanwhile, was enhanced with a new plug-in for Oracle’s Demantra supply chain planning software and new user productivity kits designed to boost the training and upgrade processes.

Implementations of Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ERP system, which runs on i OS, Unix, and Windows operating systems, are divided into two main components. EnterpriseOne Tools provides the technological foundation and user interfaces for accessing the ERP system, while the application component (referred to simply as EnterpriseOne) contains the business logic and functionality that is at the heart of the system.

Both the EnterpriseOne Tools and application components were updated last week. With the new EnterpriseOne Tools version 8.98, Oracle delivered a new user interface that looks like all the other Oracle ERP interfaces. The release also brings support for technologies like Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) and Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP), and new batch management and report processing systems. The new tools release supports EnterpriseOne applications 8.10, 8.11, 8.11 SP1, 8.12 and 9.0.

On the application front, EnterpriseOne 9.0 delivers an entirely new module, called Project and Government Contract Accounting, which should help government contractors as well as project-oriented firms, such as engineering and construction firms. The new module helps organizations meet government reporting standards, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the U.S. Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), and other agency-specific rules.

Other enhancements in EnterpriseOne 9.0 include a new “data relationship” functionality that’s designed to prevent inconsistencies, abbreviations, and incorrect spellings from creeping into production systems. The feature uses customer-defined rules to reduce the chance that users enter bad information.

Several industry-specific enhancements were also added, including support for harvest and blend operations for food and beverage producers; new “expense participation” features for commercial real estate investors and managers; and support for national purchasing functionality for homebuilders.

“With Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 and Tools 8.98, we are delivering hundreds of new enhancements providing business value and driving ownership costs down,” says Lenley Hensarling, Oracle’s group vice president and general manager of the JD Edwards business.

On the JD Edwards World front, the biggest enhancement is support for Demantra, Oracle’s advanced supply chain planning software that helps companies forecast demand, determine profitability of products, and manage complex global supply chains. By delivering the capability to feed demand forecasts from Demantra back into World’s demand planning system, thereby reducing the amount of inventory companies need to carry and decreasing shipping costs along the way.

Oracle acquired Demantra in 2006, and hooked JD Edwards EnterpriseOne into Demantra in July 2007. Now, World users will be able to take advantage of Demantra via hooks that Oracle has built between the two enterprise products. The integration requires JD Edwards World A9.1, the latest release of the RPG-based ERP system delivered in April 2007.

The other World announcement revolves around new user productivity kits, or UPKs. These kits include “pre-built content” that document best practices for the World ERP system, including training and documentation for end users and testing scripts to help operators and administrators make the ERP upgrade process smoother.