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JDA Software’s 3Q Driven By SaaS Offering

JDA Software, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based software company, had a strong showing in its third quarter and it's crediting it to triple digit software as a service growth on a year-over-year basis.

On October 30, JDA Software reported a 105% year-over-year increase in SaaS bookings and said its SaaS mix grew 25 points on a year-over-year basis to account for 48% of total product bookings for the September ending quarter. On a year-to-date basis, the company said SaaS bookings have jumped 148%.

“Q3 was the third quarter in a row when our SaaS bookings grew triple digits on a year-over-year basis. SaaS accounted for almost half of our overall product bookings. This is a milestone that conveys JDA is well on its way to be a leader in cloud-delivered supply chain solutions,” said Girish Rishi, chief executive officer of JDA in a recent press release announcing results. “Our innovation metrics have also surpassed our expectations.”

The software company saw strong demand for its supply chain and retail software offerings which are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. The software provides insights and recommendations so that clients can make business decisions that could result in more profits. During the third quarter, JDA said it closed its largest SaaS deal in its history and added 51 new customers, which is up 50% from the second quarter. Year to date the company has added 110 new customers.

JDA Software Envisions An Autonomous Supply Chain 

For some time now JDA Software has been touting its vision for an autonomous supply chain that is powered by a slew of different technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Internet of Things connected devices. In its view, the modern digital supply chain is one that is moving toward being self-learning, self-directed and autonomous. To meet that end, last month it announced Luminate Demand Edge, which relies on AI and machine learning algorithms to develop what it calls “highly accurate, probabilistic” short-term demand forecasts, that it says goes beyond traditional forecasting methods. It includes hundreds of demand factors.

More accurate forecasting of demand is something that is becoming a requirement for companies who are faced with customer expectations and competition that is increasing. It's now imperative for companies to respond as quickly as possible to market changes. It doesn’t help that increasing supply chain complexity is adding more costs into the supply chain. With Luminate Demand Edge, the company is betting customers will be able to predict demand with much more accuracy and thus improve customer services without having to bring on more inventory.

“Luminate Demand Edge improves the customer experience with cognitive ML-based demand sensing capabilities that enable organizations to calculate the true drivers of real-time demand, for the first time,” said Desikan Madhavanur, chief development officer, JDA in a press release at the time. "It will ingest large volumes of big data and will, through its differentiated scalability, provide JDA customers the ability to drive revenue and profits while reducing out-of-stock rates by up to 30 percent, helping realize forecast accuracy levels of up to 95 percent, improving planner productivity by up to 70 percent, and delivering rapid ROI in as little as six months.”