Less than a month after JDA Software announced in August its offer to purchase rival i2 Technologies for $346 million, supply chain software provider Kinaxis saw its opening and launched an incentive program it hopes will attract i2 customers uncertain about the company's future as it is absorbed into JDA.
Early in September, Kinaxis reacted to the latest deal in the steadily consolidating supply chain software market by offering current i2 customers an aggressive incentive to sign up for RapidResponse, Kinaxis' on-demand service for supply chain planning, monitoring, and response. Under the program, Kinaxis will waive its standard fee for integrating RapidResponse with a company's ERP system, which typically costs $100,000 to $200,000, according to officials.
"We wanted to get our hat in the ring ... by making it simple for i2 customers to switch," said Randy Littleson, Kinaxis vice president of marketing, in an interview. By including the integration of RapidResponse with a company's existing ERP backbone as part of its subscription charge, Kinaxis hopes to ease the transition for interested parties in its core vertical markets of high tech, electronics, industrial manufacturing, and aerospace and defense.
The company also hopes that the reduced costs associated with on-demand software will appeal to enterprises currently charged with maintaining applications installed on premise, Littleson added.