JDA Software is a private American software consultancy firm founded in 1985 by Fredrick M. Pakis and James Donald Armstrong. With its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, the business entity offers its services to various industries including the transportation, manufacturing, distribution, retail and services industries. JDA Software has since then developed from a mid-range software provider to one of the most reputable companies, working with international brands like DHL, DELPHI, Asian Paints, Unilever, Vineyard Vines and Walgreens among others.
Going by the slogan “plan to deliver” the company offers its products to more than 4,000 clients worldwide. Additionally, it has some subsidiary companies under it. Some of these are i2 Technologies, RedPrairie, Intactix, E3, and Arthur.
JDA started as a mid-range software provider in Calgary, Alberta. He later sold the business and joined forces with Fredrick M. Pakis to form JDA Software Inc. based in Ohio, U.S. In 1987, JDA Software signed a contract with an Arizona-based automotive retailer, prompting the need for all eight employees to shift to Arizona. The company operated as a private business for more than ten years, before registering to become a corporation in March 1996. They went on to re-purchase the original JDA Company in Canada. The year 1998 marked the successful completion of JDA’s first acquisition of Arthur Retailers, a dealer of planning and allocation software.
Two years late, JDA Software announced the completion of an acquisition contract with Intactix, a software provider, supplier and manufacturer of retail management with more than 3,000 clients. JDA later acquire E3 Corporation, gaining a further 500 customers and a wholesale-distribution stretch to more than twenty countries. In July 2006, JDA Software acquired Manugistics, which enabled them to expand their product line with supply, demand management & pricing as well as transport and logistics applications. In late 2009, the company further expressed its intent to acquire i2 Technologies, which was successful by the end of January 2010. Six months later, Dillard’s Department Stores won a $246 million case against i2 Technologies, demanding damages for the misuse of two supply chain store management systems. JDA Software tried to appeal this judgment contesting that the Complainant had been using the said system to the said date for more than ten years.
RedPrairie, a privately owned supply chain workforce later bought JDA Software for $1.9 billion on December 21, 2012. The company’s release of JDA 8 was announced in April 2013. This was a cloud-based version of the supply-chain software flagship product. The company claimed that this was the only platform that could connect the critical supply chain functioning from transportation to forecasting, with inbuilt business analytics. The slogan “Plan to deliver” was thus unveiled in the following year on October 28.
As at May 2016, JDA Software had idled three software solutions, JDA CRM, JDA Store and JDA Win/DSS. Veras Retail, therefore, resolved to acquire all three entities and renaming the CRM to Veras Reach. JDA late opted to sell the company to Honeywell International Inc., but The Blackstone Group chose to challenge Honeywell’s exploration on August 16, 2016. They felt it wise to offer JDA Software a financing plan as an alternative.