In April 2004, Microsoft and JDA Software, a leading provider of integrated solutions for retailers and their suppliers, jointly announced a multiyear strategic alliance. The goal of the alliance was to accelerate delivery of the next generation of the JDA Portfolio® enterprise-level solutions onto an open, services-oriented architecture based on Microsoft .NET technologies. More than 4,800 retail, manufacturing, and wholesale companies rely on JDA Portfolio solutions to automate and improve their merchandise planning, pricing, promotional, forecasting, replenishment, allocation, and category management processes and decision making. Microsoft provides technical, marketing and development support around the release of JDA's new solutions called PortfolioEnabled®. Building on the Microsoft strength in customer, store, and enterprise platforms, JDA is dramatically improving how efficiently retailers and their suppliers operate and connect in real-time by enabling the agile enterprise with its first series of PortfolioEnabled applications, launched at the start of 2005.

"Strengthening our partnership with JDA represents a significant step for Microsoft and our ongoing efforts to focus our solutions on specialized markets such as the retail and hospitality industry. We are excited about the development progress of the PortfolioEnabled applications and, together with JDA, we have the capacity to expand the vision of Smarter Retailing and the value of our joint solutions in the retail vertical," said Brian Scott, vice president of Retail and Hospitality Industries, after an August 2005 IDAP meeting.

JDA's PortfolioEnabled applications are designed to improve efficiency and decision making from the supplier warehouse to the consumer door by connecting the right people with the best process and software functions. At the November launch, JDA will announce availability of its new PortfolioEnabled application, Enterprise Planning by Arthur® on the Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Designed to deliver scalability, flexibility, and performance, Enterprise Planning is the highly anticipated next generation of JDA's Arthur Merchandise Planning and Assortment Planning applications. Unlike planning solutions that focus on only one aspect of planning, the Microsoft .NET-based Enterprise Planning offers integrated planning capabilities for the entire enterprise. By delivering Enterprise Planning on the highly robust, mission-critical-ready SQL Server 2005 database, JDA can enable retailers to gain significant capabilities while reducing their cost of ownership in information technology. Enterprise Planning is fully customizable to support retailers' unique business processes and metrics so they can more profitably plan, deploy, and manage their resources. From setting strategic financial goals to executing assortment and key item plans, Enterprise Planning will help retailers to improve bottom line performance by creating plans that reflect their financial goals and target market.