CRM 2.0 from J. D. Edwards. (Technology Highlights).

J.D. Edwards & Company has released CRM 2.0, the latest version of its customer relationship management offering. Karl Johnson, vice president of CRM Product Management at J.D. Edwards, said the focus of CRM 2.0 from a functional perspective is on customer service and sales automation, and that the company worked hard on integration with other J.D. Edwards suites to provide better business knowledge integration. Johnson said flexibility is a big element of J.D. Edward's offerings and they worked diligently on adapting to the processes of their customers, expanding on the work done in developing J.D. Edwards 5.0, the company's collaborative enterprise solutions suite, which focuses on specific vertical industries.

The integration of CRM 2.0 with J.D. Edwards Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is enabled by a combination of the company's XPI (eXtended Process Integration) technology and its Data Model Inheritance capabilities. This combination is designed to facilitate rapid integration during deployment and compatibility with emerging technologies. J.D. Edwards CRM 2.0 includes integration to the company's Demand Consensus supply chain application, Mobile Sales functionality and a comprehensive Service Management solution.

J.D. Edwards Demand Consensus incorporates human projections into the forecasting process, increasing collaborative forecasting capabilities. CRM 2.0 captures forward-looking sales information and feeds it into Demand Consensus for a mote precise forecast.

CRM 2.0's mobile sales capabilities allow customers to rapidly configure and deploy a pre-packaged mobile sales solution. Technology provided through a partnership with Synchrologic enables salespeople using J.D. Edwards CRM to access information and use business applications while they are "disconnected." Johnson said synchronization is down to the field level so that when salespeople synchronize with the company's core systems when they are back online, other employees can access new information from the sales team while the sales team can be updated on developments entered by other employees.

CRM 2.0's Service Management solution combines Contact Center and Field Service applications, allowing a company to track equipment service history and manage the flow of service work being performed. Contact center capabilities provide a broader view of the customer by directing questions or service requests to specific service groups based on specified product characteristics; defining workflow definition for each level of service priority and level of escalation; and preparing customer service staff with access to past history of customer issues and recurring problems. www.jdedwards.com