i2 Embarrasses Itself with the Street and at ISM

When you're down and out, it's good to find creative ways to cut costs. But whatever marketing genius at i2 decided to splurge for a booth at ISM without investing in suitable mounted collateral and signs clearly was missing a thing or two in his decision. In the first days of the event, someone printed out i2's collateral in black and white and taped it to their booth. But by the third day, they decided to splurge for a color cartridge in the ink jet and voila -- the material was in color! Very professional, I must say. But when you're turning in results like this and surprising the street with negative news, I guess we should expect nothing more on the marketing front, either. Perhaps avoiding ISM entirely might have decreased their loss by a penny or two a share and been a much better option.

The crazy thing about i2 and procurement is that they have a number of assets they could deploy and market the heck out of if they choose to do so. From a catalog and master data management system to sourcing and attribute management technology (acquired during the Hologix asset sale), i2 could be a formidable competitor or complement to some of the bigger names in the space. But if they decide to do anything with these assets, they should not do it in a half-baked -- actually more like 1/10th baked -- manner like they did at ISM. Their booth was an embarrassment to all of the incredibly smart engineers and product managers who have touched their suite of acquired and homegrown Spend Management solutions over the years.

- Jason Busch