Edwards snaps up large deals

By ADAM GIFFORD

JD Edwards accounted for 80 per cent of large software deals in Australasia last year, says Richard Mathews, managing director for the region.

He said the Denver company won hands down in New Zealand, where new customers included the Herald, the Fire Service, Auckland International Airport, Gordon & Gotch, the Open Polytechnic, Steel & Tube Holdings and its Australian parent, OneSteel.

Across the Tasman, its customers included Berri, Blackmore's and News Ltd.

The company here is also involved in the worldwide installation of a system in Johnson & Johnson, the largest deal in JD Edwards' history.

It played a big part in tipping revenue last year over the $US1 billion ($2.32 billion) mark.

JD Edwards does not break down revenues by region, but Mr Mathews said New Zealand and Australia were the company's fastest-growing territories.

Despite its strong global sales, the company was predicting a small loss in its first quarter, and made only $4.9 million last year.

Licence sales, which provide future revenue from maintenance and services, were up 34 per cent to $419 million.

The company made 73 licence sales last year, worth more than $1 million each, compared with 35 such sales in the previous year.

JD Edwards' partnership with Sebel accounted for $43 million in sales, and another $43 million came from sales of Ariba procurement software.

Mr Mathews said there had been a rapid adoption of the latest version of the company's core software, OneWorld XE (extended enterprise), with 1500 copies shipped since it was launched in October.

Fisher & Paykel IT manager Don Cooper said his firm was about to upgrade.

He said one reason for this was the extra functionality and flexibility in the new version, which meant modifications made in previous implementations could be dropped.

One such modification, to cope with the rebates common to whitegood sales, cost more than $100,000. That task could now be done within XE, with no modification budget required.

Mr Cooper said the system had allowed Fisher & Paykel to halve its IT staff.