Factory Card & Party Outlet is Implementing JDA to Achieve Inventory, Sales and Margin Goals

Business Wire, June 28, 2005

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Current JDA Customer Builds upon Its JDA Portfolio Investment with Implementation of Portfolio Advanced Replenishment Suite

JDA(R) Software Group Inc. (Nasdaq:JDAS) announced that Factory Card & Party Outlet Corp., operating 185 company-owned retail stores in 20 states, is implementing additional JDA Portfolio(R) software, which it licensed in the first quarter 2005. The party supplies and greeting card retailer will combine the Portfolio Advanced Replenishment by E3(R) suite, Seasonal Profiling by Intellect(TM) and Marketplace Replenish(TM) in order to achieve their inventory, sales and margin goals by improving their replenishment, logistics and customer service processes. Factory Card & Party Outlet will integrate these solutions with JDA's merchandise operations solution, MMS(R), which they previously licensed.

Commenting on the retailer's rationale for selecting JDA's replenishment solutions, Richard Oppenheimer, Factory Card & Party Outlet's vice president of inventory management, stated, "While being a JDA customer for 10 years certainly played a part in our decision to add to our JDA Portfolio, the major reason is the confidence we have in the ability of JDA to implement the solutions in the timeframe that we expect. Over the years, JDA has developed well-defined processes and organizational structures to support successful replenishment implementations."

Regarding the retailer's investment in additional JDA solutions, Peter Charness, JDA's senior vice president of global marketing and chief product officer, remarked, "As retailers continue to meticulously scrutinize their technology investments for maximum ROI, JDA is continuing to prove that our products and services are well equipped to help them to get the most from their investment. In this case, Factory Card & Party Outlet has seen how our tightly integrated Intellect(TM) and Advanced Replenishment applications will deliver top value by driving more efficient replenishment processes."

JDA Portfolio Replenishment Solutions Deliver Sophisticated Functionality

According to Oppenheimer, Factory Card & Party Outlet requires sophisticated replenishment technology to support their strategy for profitability and growth. In citing the replenishment functionality that will benefit the retailer, Oppenheimer stated, "JDA's replenishment solutions contain a long list of features that will be instrumental in our future success, such as seasonal profiling, exception management and promotion management."

Oppenheimer provided additional background on the outcomes that he expects to gain by addressing the company's requirements in the following areas:

--Seasonal Profiling: "We expect seasonal profiling to provide some tremendous benefits to our organization. We support about 40 seasons that run anywhere from a couple of weeks to nine months, so for us, having more precise seasonality index profiling is crucial to getting the right inventory to the right place at the right time," commented Oppenheimer.

--Exception Management: "Exception management functionality will help Factory Card & Party Outlet to identify fast-occurring trends at the store/SKU level and to identify on hand integrity issues," explained Oppenheimer. "We currently carry 30,000 items and of these, we replenish approximately 16,000. When you multiply this by 185 stores, we basically replenish almost two million store/SKU locations. If we need to zero in on an inventory problem anywhere within the organization, we basically would have to check two million data points and currently, we just don't have the resources to do this. Our new JDA solutions will enable us to manage the abnormal inventory movements, so that we can more easily track down what might have gone wrong, if anything."

--Promotional Sales Planning: "We currently use 'work arounds' within our existing system to build up the appropriate inventory levels prior to a promotional event. Once we go live with JDA's E3 applications, we anticipate being able to more effectively plan our promotions by allowing our new applications to automatically identify and suggest ordering for our annual promotional events," stated Oppenheimer.

About Factory Card & Outlet Corp.

Factory Card & Party Outlet, (www.factorycard.com) based in Naperville, Ill., currently operates 185 company-owned retail stores in 20 states, offering a wide selection of party supplies, greeting cards, gift wrap, balloons, everyday and seasonal merchandise, and other special occasion merchandise at everyday value prices.

About JDA Software Group Inc.

With more than 4,700 retail, manufacturing and wholesale customers in 60 countries, JDA Software Group Inc. is a global leader in delivering integrated software and professional services for the retail demand chain. By capitalizing on its market position and financial strength, JDA commits significant resources to advancing JDA Portfolio, its suite of merchandising, POS, analytic and collaborative solutions that improve revenues, efficiency and customer focus. Founded in 1985, JDA is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., and employs more than 1,100 associates operating from 26 offices in major cities throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit www.jda.com, e-mail info@jda.com or call 800-479-7382.