JDA Software becomes Blue Yonder amid SaaS, autonomous supply chain push

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JDA Software is becoming Blue Yonder in a re-branding effort that will reposition the supply chain management software provider as more of a cloud player with predictive, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

Blue Yonder was acquired by JDA Software in 2018. With Blue Yonder in the fold, JDA Software set out to extend its core supply chain applications, mostly used in retailing, with Blue Yonder's Luminate platform.

Luminate automates decisions and forecasts with the aim of improving customer profits. Microsoft Azure is also a cloud partner as the two companies chase retail accounts.

CEO Girish Rishi is betting that the name change will position the 35-year old company to be more of a cloud and predictive analytics firm. Blue Yonder is estimated to have more than $1 billion in annual revenue and has grown its software as a service footprint. In warehouse management software, Blue Yonder is a leader along with Manhattan Associates, according to Gartner.

In an interview, Rishi said the acquisition of Blue Yonder set the company up for the future:

The coming together further facilitated machine learning use cases, customer value realization and an emphasis on data science. We are a global company and now with expanded presence in Germany, the coming together has further built out our innovation capabilities in the digital transformation of manufacturers, retailers and logistics providers.

JDA added 100+ data scientists with the acquisition and this number has continued to grow ever since. The data collected and analyzed by Blue Yonder's AI-infused algorithms is the fuel that drives our ability to predict disruptions in supply chains, offer prescriptive guidance and self-correct in real-time, so focusing our time and resources around building a top team of data scientists was and is paramount in moving closer to our Autonomous Supply Chain moonshot. 

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Much of the success of the Blue Yonder rebranding will ride with the uptake for the Luminate platform. Luminate is designed to integrate and synchronize forecast, warehouse, transportation and delivery systems.

The rebranding is expected to be rolled out over the next two months. Blue Yonder's SaaS revenue backlog topped $650 million and bookings were up 51% in 2019 relative to the previous year. SaaS represents 73% of total product (software and SaaS) bookings in the quarter.

In January, the company, then known as JDA Software, outlined how IKEA Food was modeling sustainable business practices and a supply chain enabled customer experience.

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