DC Velocity - September 2018

go figure …
452,000

The number of U.S. warehouse and DC workers expected to be added this year and next.

SOURCE: CBRE

Microsoft, JDA partner in the cloud

Supply chain technology firm JDA Software Group Inc. has partnered with Microsoft Corp. to supply the cloud infrastructure for some of JDA’s initiatives to develop software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cognitive computing products for the retail, manufacturing, and logistics sectors.

Under the terms of the partnership, JDA will build software applications it calls “cognitive SaaS solutions” on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based JDA said. The products are modules in JDA’s “Luminate” family of software products, launched in May with the goal of using a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to improve users’ ability to predict consumer demand and provide faster fulfillment.

JDA supports other modules in that suite on different cloud
platforms, such as the “Luminate Assortment” and “Luminate
StoreOptimizer” products that are delivered through Google
Inc.’s Google Cloud Platform, JDA said in an e-mail.

Regardless of which partner provides the cloud infrastructure, offering software products to its customers on a cloud-based platform will further JDA’s vision of an “autonomous supply chain” that can generate automated forecasts and decisions, the company said. In Azure’s case, those include access to Microsoft’s global alliances network, compliance portfolio, embedded security, service-level agreements, and tech support, JDA said in an e-mail.

The Microsoft deal also dovetails with JDA’s acquisition in
July of the German artificial intelligence provider Blue Yonder
GmbH, which offers machine learning solutions for retail and
supply chain companies, JDA said.
Running its software products on the Microsoft Azure cloud
platform will further those goals by allowing JDA to gather con-
sumer demand signals, cognitive insights, and edge sensor data,
JDA CEO Girish Rishi said in a statement.

The partnership has the potential to impact the logistics software market by making it easier for companies to adopt the cloud-based applications necessary to launch “digital supply chain transformation” projects, Victoria Brown, research manager for the Global Supply Chain Strategy and Execution group at Framingham, Mass.-based consultancy IDC, said in the statement. “Cloud-based supply chain deployments account for only about 40 percent of deployments today, and this new, trusted partnership could send that on an upward trajectory quite quickly,” Brown said.

Cloud platforms have become a prerequisite for enterprise software deployments, Brown noted. Other recent examples of logistics software vendors investing in cloud-based deployments include the German business software giant SAP SE, which announced in June that its enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite was now available to a wider market, thanks to its deployment on all of the top three commercial cloud infrastructure providers—Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Microsoft.

—B.A.

FedEx Corp. has increased its delivery surcharges on larger and heavier packages, a response to an increase in demand to move goods that can’t be handled through the company’s normal pack-age-sorting operations.

The Memphis, Tenn.-based company raised its “additional handling surcharge” to $20 per package from $12 on packages with an actual weight of more than 70 pounds. The increase, which took effect Sept. 3, applies to packages moving in U.S. and international express, and U.S. and international ground services, the company said.

FedEx also more than doubled its charge to $675 on each “unauthorized” package moving in its ground parcel network, known as “FedEx Ground.” The previous charge was $300 per package. That change also went into effect Sept. 3.

Under FedEx policy, these types of packages are unauthorized, may be refused or returned to the shipper, and would be delivered at the option of FedEx Ground.

FedEx said it “continues to experience strong demand for transportation of larger and heavier packages.” The increases enable the company to “responsibly manage capacity through our network to maintain outstanding service for these larger packages,” it said.

Separately, FedEx said it would not apply residential delivery surcharges on peak-season traffic except on those shipments that the company clas-sifies as oversized or unauthorized, or that would necessitate additional handling.

During the peak, FedEx will charge $3.20 at its U.S. express business and U.S. and international ground services for a package that needs additional handling. The surcharge on an oversized package would be $27.50, while a ground unauthorized package surcharge will be $150 for U.S. and international shipments, FedEx said.