J.D. Edwards aims at front office

J.D. Edwards is looking toward the front of the corporate house.

The Denver-based enterprise resource planning vendor announced this week it is preparing a new front office suite of applications for customer service management (CSMS).

"Organizations must automate customer service management functions to respond to rapidly changing competitive pressures and business strategies," said Michael Schmitt, J.D. Edwards's senior vice president. "J.D. Edwards developed CSMS in conjunction with several of our customers who realize the strategic value of deploying an infrastructure that links every point of customer contact and interaction throughout the supply chain from call center and service management to distribution and manufacturing."

The new suite is to be integrated with J.D. Edwards' OneWorld ERP software. It was developed with the help of J.D. Edwards customers like Lexmark International, Itron Corporation, and Oshkosh Truck.

The suite includes call center management, which was designed to handle high volumes of calls and contains an automatic routing system to help speed call responses. CSMS also contains service contract and service order management modules, and an install-base management software system, which is designed to let users track information about their customers' history with the company.

J.D. Edwards' foray into the front office is inline with the rest of the ERP market. Most of the major vendors, including leaders SAP, Oracle, and Baan, are stretching their traditional back office systems to the front of the house.

J.D. Edwards' CSMS will be available by the end of the year as a part of the next version of OneWorld.