Shiny Happy PeopleSoft

Shiny Happy PeopleSoft

With higher profits and increasingly prestigious clients drawn to itsproducts, PeopleSoft can afford to push an upbeat message. Dennis Howlettreports.

PeopleSoft’s recent user conference in San Diego was a jolly affair.

The feel-good set-piece speeches were led by PeopleSoft CEO Dave Duffield.

Emphasising a commitment to providing the best in service, Duffield’s keynote address pointed to an overall product and delivery satisfaction rate of 85% with an overall customer retention rate of 99%.

Just last week, PeopleSoft added a prestigious new name to its list of customers: Ford Motor Company is to implement PeopleSoft Financials for its global accounting operations. The software will be used in 35 countries and complement the car maker’s existing PeopleSoft human resource management system.

The company’s annual results, released along with the news on Ford, helped to explain PeopleSoft’s bonhomie. Revenues climbed to $450m for the financial year ended 31 December 1996, almost double 1995’s $232m. The figures include the revenues of Red Pepper Software, a supply optimisation software developer acquired by PeopleSoft in October 1996. After taking account of $26.5m in charges linked to the merger, PeopleSoft’s 1996 profits were $36m, compared to $27m in 1995.

Duffield declared in San Diego that his intention is to drive the company into the number two applications slot behind SAP, with the push coming from financials and manufacturing. ‘PeopleSoft customers tend to be more visionary, and their companies tend to be fast moving but are looking for a phased vanilla installation – they’re not into business process re-engineering,’ Duffield said.

It sounds fine in principle but that’s not quite the view of the system integrators. Coopers & Lybrand’s Stacie Scogno said: ‘In the real world it’s very different. It’s true PeopleSoft can be shoe-horned into a company in a few weeks, but then we spend the next year sorting the mess out’.

On the other hand, Price Waterhouse associate director Jay Kuhn said: ‘With the right expertise we believe customers can see real value early on because PeopleSoft’s products are based around an elegant toolset.

However, it’s when we get to back-end integration that life gets tricky.

PeopleSoft is not adequately focused on this issue at the moment’.

Currently, development seems to be running in a number of directions.

For a start, PeopleSoft is concentrating on pushing financials, yet it is also developing products for the Web and has project teams devoted to wrapping industry-specific applications around the core applications suite.

Asked whether PeopleSoft risked diluting its long-term core strategies, Duffield replied: ‘We have technologies that mean we can compete well in financial and discrete manufacturing – we’re there, the other stuff is optional. We don’t have to roll out any particular application at the moment and don’t think that Web technologies are at a stage where we can make firm decisions.’

The consultants aren’t wholly convinced. Deloitte & Touche partner Tom Walker said: ‘The challenge for PeopleSoft is to make sure they don’t run too fast – they have to pick their applications and markets very carefully.’ Kuhn echoed this: ‘We’re a little cautious because we’ve already seen Oracle fail with decentralised management. Provided growth doesn’t hiccup, things should be fine.’

There’s little doubt that PeopleSoft’s financial applications development strategy is ambitious and exciting. Product globalisation, language independence and the promise of an architecture that is scalable yet can be rolled out quickly are enticing but unlikely to be without problems.

In a parody of the summer pop hit of 1996, Duffield closed his keynote with the number one reason not to do the Macarena: ‘Because it’s been released more times than PeopleSoft 5.xi.’ It drew a loud laugh from the assembled throng. Perhaps they were hoping it was not a prediction for PeopleSoft 6 and beyond.

Year 2000 bill reaches committee stage

A House of Commons committee is scheduled next week to consider a Private Member’s Bill from David Atkinson, Conservative MP for Bournemouth East that will force companies to declare to stockholders how prepared they are for the year 2000.

The Millennium Computer Compliance Bill has already passed its second reading. If it receives Royal Assent, it will amend the 1985 Companies Act to require company directors to assess the Millennium compliance of their systems and to publish the results and remedial plan in their companies’ annual reports.

‘Nobody has picked up on this issue and there is a grey area about the degree to which shareholders should be informed,’ said the MP’s adviser Andrew Hull. ‘If we don’t take action now, it’ll be too late.’

However, a Department of Trade & Industry spokeswoman suggested that the bill stands little chance of becoming law. ‘The department is in sympathy with the objectives of the bill, but legislation is a slow, cumbersome way to tackle a problem that needs solving now,’ she said.

Visitors to the Softworld Accounting & Finance exhibition at Earl’s Court 2 in London next week will have the chance to learn more about the bill’s progress from Atkinson at a meeting sponsored by software supplier Access Accounting. The meeting takes place at 4pm on Wednesday 19 February. To attend, contact Access on (01206) 322575.

S

Share

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Resources & Whitepapers

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata
Professional Services

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata

3y

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folde...

In the past decade, the professional services industry has transformed significantly. Digital disruptions, increased competition, and changing market ...

View resource
2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

3y

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professi...

In recent months, professional services firms are facing more pressure than ever to deliver value to clients. Often, clients look at the firms own inf...

View resource
Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine
Accounting Firms

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

3y

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

In a world of instant results and automated workloads, the potential for AP to drive insights and transform results is enormous. But, if you’re still ...

View resource
Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021
Making Tax Digital

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

3y

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

The first phase of Making Tax Digital (MTD) saw the requirement for the digital submission of the VAT Return using compliant software. That’s now behi...

View resource