Why Chose JD Edwards Enterprise One (JDE vs. SAP)

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Why Chose JD Edwards Enterprise One
(JDE vs. SAP)
By
Jon Steel

1. JDE has core functionality in Financials, Distribution and Manufacturing. Payroll and HR do exist, although they really didn't become stable until after Peoplesoft had purchased JDE (i.e., from 8.9 onwards) - and realistically most of the stability is in the 8.11 and 8.12 product in these areas. If you're running any version prior to that, then I agree, it’s not a very stable product. Note, therefore, that the product HAS been revamped - many times - over the past five years.

2. JDE is an object-orientated architecture. Data and Logic are treated as indeterminate objects, and can be moved around "magically" in the enterprise architecture to improve scalability and performance. The standalone "demo" of JDE is not a cut-down version for example, it’s the entire product with everything mapped locally. SAP on the other hand is very much host-centric, requires a huge hardware investment - and cannot be solely run on a single workstation.

3. JDE is platform independent. No other ERP system can truly state this. Even in the midst of production, it is possible to add additional logic servers, database servers and "map" logic and data onto these servers - even custom logic - without the users being impacted. A migration from AS/400 to SQL server or Oracle, for example, can be done with the simplest of ease - taking no more than a couple of days of testing and migration to achieve. Try doing that on SAP. Not only that, but support of a new database or platform is easy for JDE - the proprietary middleware is adaptable and is separated from the business logic. Supporting Solaris, for example, took 4 weeks; same with UDB. If there is demand for Apple OS-X as a platform, it would take 4 weeks for the company to support the platform. It’s a future secure product.

4. The code is adaptable, AT RUNTIME. In effect, you have the ability to change process flows, workflow and adapt the business AT WILL. Changes to how a program should be used can be deployed with NO impact to production - additional business units; chart of accounts can all be modified live in a production environment if wished (obviously its important to test these changes first). Everything can be adapted to suit the business requirements first and foremost. SAP requires yet another "implementation" to do this.

5. Change the software to match the business. While SAP requires that the business changes to its "default" models - this is not necessary under JDE. In effect, this means that the software is totally adaptable to any company’s process flow - no matter how horrible it might be! Of course, it’s preferable to adapt certain models when a company implements - and JDE might not have been proficient in the past for providing such models - but EnterpriseOne can match ANY company’s requirements.

6. You get the SAME toolset as the software company - together with ALL the source code for all business logic. Obviously the code is proprietary, and I couldn't post the source code to Sales Order Entry here, for example - but if you own JDE, you own the source. You can modify the code at will or create your own code with exactly the same toolset. SAP and other ERP solutions provide different tools for different tasks - but it’s not possible to change the default functionality easily. I could, if I wanted to, delete ALL my functional code and create my very own ERP functionality just using the toolset!

7. JDE code is 100% deployed to the web. Now, this is an interesting one. If you take a look at how the toolset works, you'll see there is a "form design aid" for example. In here, you'll develop your form and the logic behind the form - and when you deploy that form - it will instantly deploy both to a windows client and to a web server. The functionality is identical, just the interface is different. If JDE wanted to support a new type of GUI (for example, python) - then they change the "transmogrifier" and instantly add another GUI to their support. SAP has to come out with an entire release to support a different GUI.

8. Upgradeability. Because the business objects are written in a form that is version independent - upgrading to a new version is fast and relatively easy. In fact, the "tool" release (the code that customers DON'T get the source for - the middleware and presentation-generating logic) takes less than a day to adapt to. New databases, for example, can be supported in a very minor upgrade. Again, an entire release and a very lengthy "upgrade" are required with SAP and other products. In fact, customers can "pick and choose" what "flavor" of the product to which they want to upgrade; a very powerful option for the customer (but not great to try and support!).

Those are the points on top of my head. Its very VERY rare you EVER hear of a customer moving successfully from JDE to another ERP system. Once they get JDE, they stick to it. On the other hand, I've been involved (as you are currently) in many companies that have migrated FROM another ERP system (such as SAP) to JDE.

EnterpriseOne is technically the most advanced ERP system out there. Certainly the functionality might have had issues in certain areas - but over the past few years, this has been improved to the point where I see customers applying very few customizations to go live.

JDE is revamped EVERY DAY. There are improvements to functionality in the system - bug fixes, performance improvements - that are released, literally, EVERY day. Today, for example, more than 30 changes have been released for certain products. Whether a company needs to implement those changes is another matter.

Jon Steel
EnterpriseOne Technical Specialist
erpSOURCING LLC
http://www.erpsourcing.com
cto@spla.sh
(904) 382 5701