Microsoft and JDA Software Enter Multiyear Strategic Alliance For Delivering Retail Demand Chain Solutions

Microsoft to Provide Incremental Resources to Accelerate Go-To Market Plan For JDA Portfolio Solutions Leveraging Microsoft’s .NET Framework

REDMOND, Wash., and SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - April 26, 2004 - Microsoft Corp. and JDA Software Group Inc. have signed a multiyear alliance that will expand their existing relationship and accelerate the development, marketing and sales of the JDA Portfolio® suite based on the Microsoft® platform and Microsoft .NET technologies. Through the alliance, Microsoft and JDA will jointly promote JDA’s .NET-based enterprise solutions as a strategic solution for the retail industry. This solution will not only take full advantage of the Microsoft .NET Framework, it will drive sales of JDA products on the Microsoft SQL Server™ database platform. JDA and Microsoft also will be closely evaluating the use of BizTalk® Server 2004 within the Portfolio suite of NET-based applications. BizTalk Server 2004, the newest member of Microsoft Windows Server System™, will enable retailers to integrate systems, employees and trading partners through more efficient automation and orchestration of key business processes.

“As a leading provider and key Microsoft go-to-market partner in the demand chain space, JDA has shown vision and leadership in developing and delivering high-value solutions to the market,” said Brian Scott, general manager of the Retail & Hospitality Industry Solutions group at Microsoft. “We are pleased to expand our support of JDA as an important partner in the retail demand chain space to ensure that our mutual customers can benefit from our joint solutions that much faster. Our alliance is a great example of how Microsoft is continuing to work with industry leaders to help retailers and their suppliers improve how they sell and operate today and in the future.”

“JDA selected Microsoft as our strategic technology platform for our enterprise systems based upon a number of key benefits for our customers,” said Hamish Brewer, chief executive officer for JDA Software Group. “The opportunity to deliver our solutions at a substantially lower total cost of ownership combined with the capabilities to deliver sophisticated real-time enterprise solutions that can scale to the largest of our customers was extremely attractive.”

Extending the Relationship
The Microsoft-JDA alliance uniquely addresses a void in the market for demand chain applications that deliver industry-leading functionality in an integrated and real-time shared framework based on open technology standards. By taking their relationship to the next level, Microsoft and JDA will enable retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers to benefit from JDA’s next generation of enterprise solutions, PortfolioEnabled™, to be more agile in running their mission-critical operations at a lower total cost of ownership ahead of the current release schedule.

Although the original Microsoft-JDA relationship confirmed JDA’s adoption of the Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft’s commitment to JDA as a leading go-to-market partner in the retail demand-chain space, the deepening of this strategic relationship will result in Microsoft providing additional technical and product support. In addition, JDA and Microsoft are committing to a structured go-to-market program including cross-training of sales teams and global co-marketing and lead management programs to ensure the market success of the PortfolioEnabled applications.

SQL Server “Yukon” Becomes a Strategic Platform for JDA
Featuring best-of-breed strategic merchandise management capabilities for advanced enterprise planning and replenishment, the first PortfolioEnabled applications scheduled for delivery will work together in a real-time integrated framework to help ensure a company’s marketing, production, distribution, merchandising and store operations will all be on the same page working with shared processes and information. These JDA products will leverage Microsoft’s next-generation SQL Server, code-named “Yukon,” designed to provide increased scalability, availability and security for enterprise data and analytical applications.

Limited Brands Endorses Accelerated Plans
One retailer foreseeing the business value that this strategic relationship will deliver is Columbus, Ohio-based Limited Brands. Part of JDA’s Premier Partner Program, Limited Brands has relied on JDA Portfolio applications since 1989 to support the inventory and strategic merchandise management requirements of its family of the world’s best fashion brands.

“We’ve had positive experiences working with JDA to support our businesses with several innovative applications of technology, business process and information,” said Tom McFadden, group vice president and chief development officer, The Limited Technology Services. “Because it is very important to us that JDA invests heavily in research and development, we are pleased to see Microsoft and JDA working diligently to further the advancement of the JDA product suite. As we continue to work with JDA on several new and important initiatives, we look forward to the next release of .NET-enabled JDA products.”

PortfolioEnabled Solutions Align With Microsoft’s Smarter Retailing Initiative
JDA and Microsoft share a common technology vision that centers on the development of software based on industry standards such as Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Web services. These standards enable retail companies to deploy the most open and flexible solutions possible for their mission-critical businesses.

These new PortfolioEnabled solutions are based on Microsoft’s Smarter Retailing Initiative (SRI), announced in January 2004, which provides an innovative approach for enabling retailers to take full advantage of their legacy investments to connect the retail enterprise to the store, to suppliers and to the consumer.

SRI focuses on three key areas: Smarter Shopping, Smarter Selling and Smarter Operations. This alliance addresses smarter operations, real-time collaboration and workflow management needs with the first four deployable modules of the PortfolioEnabled product.

PortfolioEnabled will, over time, consolidate JDA’s entire suite of products into six business domains. These business domains cover every aspect of best practices for demand chain processes and provide, in their entirety, the broadest and deepest solution suite available.

About Microsoft’s Smarter Retailing Initiative
The Microsoft Smarter Retailing Initiative helps retailers win today by leveraging current investments, and win tomorrow by easing delivery of new retail experiences. Consisting of Smarter Shopping, Smarter Selling and Smarter Operations, the Smarter Retailing Initiative is designed to close the loop between the retailer’s strategy, the in-store execution, and familiar technologies already in consumer’s hands. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/smartretail/.