Blue Yonder represents so much more than a business bought by supply chain provider JDA Software – it is the future. As part of an effort to reposition itself as a cloud-based leader with predictive AI capacities, JDA Software will be rebranding itself under the name ‘Blue Yonder’.
Already a global player in supply chain management software, CEO Girish Rishi understood that his industry was changing. "Major digital transformation of supply chains is underway, and the ability to quickly access intelligent, actionable data and insights will determine the future winners and losers,” Rishi said.
Rishi believes the Blue Yonder name change will show the world that the 35-year-old business is more than its history – it’s a transformation. With $1 billion in estimated annual revenue, he thinks that the name change will reflect JDA’s pivot to become a cloud and predictive analytics firm.
The firm closed out a banner 2019 year with SaaS ARR increasing by 83 percent year-over-year and 51 percent growth SaaS bookings for that period. As the CEO explains, there was an extraordinary uptake of the Luminate platform, and the company's go-to-market exposure has never been better. Net retention is sitting at 120 percent and the firm added 158 new customers.
JDL already offers end-to-end solutions for logistics and retail businesses, but the addition of Blue Yonder’s Luminate platform brings new data science capabilities to its service offerings. “[These] will enable customers to deliver more autonomous, profitable business decisions throughout their extended supply chains, unlocking the full potential of the business impact of intelligent data.”
The Luminate platform processes data using artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to automate complex decisions that produce both higher profits and greater value to customers. JDL’s ControlTower innovation gathers data from many disparate sources and delivers greater visibility across a customer's extensive supply chain.
The Demand Forecast & Replenishment and Price Optimization solutions bring together the information needed to improve pricing, promotions, markdowns, and replacement capabilities. Finally, the software streamlines the management of fast and short lifecycle products – ensuring that customers with fresh food businesses experience less waste and enhanced sustainability. A recent example comes from Ikea Food, who wanted to overhaul its food division with support from JDA Software. Its new digital supply chain management changed the way the company sourced, ordered, and prepared the food and monitored things like peak times and worker waste.
When Blue Yonder merged with JDA in 2019, over 100 data scientists joined the firm, and that number continues to grow. The AI-driven algorithms power the company's ability to predict disruptions to supply chains and offer alternative strategies for managing the situation in real-time. Rishi believes that building up a team of analytics professionals will keep them moving closer to a fully Autonomous Supply Chain product.
Blue Yonder currently serves 3,300 of the world's leading manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies.
