Insights

Common Challenges

A growing number of JD Edwards organizations just like Mizuno USA have realized the ongoing challenges are not worth the cost and have made the switch to SmarterCommerce. Below you’ll find the three most common challenges that we consistently hear from users of other JD Edwards-integrated solutions. 

Inconsistent Integration

A reliable connection between JD Edwards and digital commerce is an essential element for a successful digital strategy. Legacy JD Edwards-integrated solution customers have often found the quality and management of integration to be subpar. A less-than-perfect integration results in growing complexity and unreliability in managing your ecommerce, payments, or retail integrations. This in turn adversely impacts the online customer experience due to incorrect pricing, inventory availability, or product information.  Inevitably, customers will lose confidence in an ecommerce platform and adoption, a key component to the ROI, will greatly decline.   

Integration is complex, but a solution needs to get it right 100% of the time to provide an outstanding customer experience. One customer pointed out that the batch data integration approach used by one JD Edwards-integrated solution, kept presenting customers with a $0.00 price for products, obvious mistake. Customers would then have to call in for the correct pricing and place orders over the phone. This issue, over time, eroded the JD Edwards customer's trust in the solution which was a key consideration in the decision to switch to SmarterCommerce.

Lagging Innovation 

When investing in a business-critical solution, every organization needs assurance that the platform will be continually enhanced and keep pace with process and technology advancements. Seeing the benefits of product improvements is an indispensable sign of a healthy partnership. However, customers of legacy JD Edwards-integrated solutions have consistently expressed that their platform seems to be frozen in time, with limited vendor investment in product improvements rolled out over the past few years.  With some vendor solutions, company ownership has changed over the past few years through acquisitions and this organizational change has not translated into increased investment or software improvements. Customers have been left questioning the business value of their significant annual maintenance investment.

Customer and competitive expectations are evolving year over year and are more demanding now than ever. Without a software platform that evolves and delivers new capabilities to streamline business operations and provide exceptional customer service, JD Edwards customers will struggle to deliver effective digital commerce experiences and drive customer adoption of self-service technologies. 

Unreliable Support Services 

With a 20+ year history of serving JD Edwards businesses, we have often heard that other JD Edwards-integrated solutions are providing subpar software support services. Interruptions in a speedy support resolution process are frustrating and ultimately delay business progress. In the worst cases, unresolved issues interrupt critical business functions and impact the bottom line. This may take the form of communication challenges between your organization and the support team, unreasonably long response times, lack of urgency or willingness to prioritize a support case, or lack of product knowledge to really address the issue.

An often-overlooked consideration in evaluating software support quality is the total cost and structure for software support. Legacy JD Edwards-integrated solutions will often charge customers annual maintenance for software enhancements thereby driving up the long-term cost of software support. After a few years, this can translate into a significant uplift on the initial annual maintenance bill especially if the solution is lacking in functionality thereby necessitating a significant level of enhancements.

It is critical for JD Edwards organizations to understand both the quality of support and the cost structure of software support in order for long-term partnerships to be mutually beneficial. This is true not only for your organization's sake but also for your customers that will undoubtedly be affected by unreliable customer service. 

Solutions with SmarterCommerce

Like Mizuno USA, JD Edwards customers have addressed or avoided the above-mentioned challenges by switching to SmarterComemrce from legacy JD Edwards-integrated solutions. While SmarterCommerce provides many benefits that solve business challenges, the three considerations listed below are specific reasons why JD Edwards organizations have walked away from an investment in other JD Edwards-integrated platforms and switched to SmarterCommerce. 

Reliable, ERP-Connected Technology

What makes SmarterCommerce different from other companies? With almost 30 years of JD Edwards consulting and development experience, SmarterCommerce offers a fully integrated commerce solution across all sales channels addressing ecommerce, payments, and retail.

SmarterCommerce JD Edwards-integration is second to none which means that your organization avoids the "integration gaps" that are common with other solutions and drive unnecessary enhancement and implementation costs.  SmarterCommerce connects with the data and business logic in your JD Edwards ERP at the BSFN level allowing your organization to leverage standard and custom JD Edwards business logic. There is no replication of data or batching of data back and forth with hourly or nightly processes.

With SmarterCommerce solutions, JD Edwards integration is complete and in place from Day 1 allowing your organization seamlessly engage with customers in a unified commerce world.  Customers can experience an ecommerce platform with 100% certainty that the information and processes can be trusted.

Proven Business Value 

Investing in a new ecommerce, payments, or retail solution is a significant economic commitment and involves not just an initial investment, but also an ongoing subscription investment. Customer expectations also evolve and demand more from the solution as the competitive marketplace and customer expectations change over time. As an example, features that were cutting edge 10 years ago, like catalog filtering and multi-language, today are expected and even taken for granted.

The right partner continually delivers increasing business value by expanding the solution capabilities and maturity of the solution. SmarterCommerce invests heavily in R&D putting customers software maintenance and subscription fees to work expanding the product base with cutting-edge new features. With SmarterCommerce, customers don’t have to wonder how their investments are resulting in tangible benefits for business success today or in the future.

High-Quality Software Support Services

SmarterCommerce’s support team, ServicePlus, takes great pride in providing customers with reliable and responsive support. Many professionals on this team have worked with JD Edwards and SmarterCommerce for over 20 years. Our high-quality software support services team is comprised of U.S.-based professionals, facilitating easy support communication and responsiveness for customers. With a solid team ready to assist your support needs, your organization can be ensured that ongoing business operations will run smoothly and allow your team to focus on business growth and delivering a great customer experience. 

Make the Switch

SmarterCommerce makes the switch from other JD Edwards-integrated solutions as seamless as possible with our "Easy Switch" Program. Because we believe so strongly in the value of SmarterCommerce, we will provide your organization with a software usage discount, a tailored pricing structure to maximize quick ROI, and advisory services to build a business case for your transition to SmarterCommerce. Is it time to switch? Contact our team today!