PeopleSoft Inc. on Monday introduced a new suite of enterprise resource planning software designed to automated the gamut of horizontal business processes for midsize companies.
The PeopleSoft Mid-Market Solutions includes 13 modules and is sold with a fixed price that includes unlimited user licenses, training and implementation services.
The modules automate defined business processes. For instance, the Financial Management module automates the process of recording, transforming, closing and measuring financial data, and the Sourcing module automates the process of sourcing and settling of goods and services.
Other modules address resource and project management; sales and marketing; service; procurement; fulfillment; manufacturing; payroll and compensation, officials said.
To enable companies to link the new modules to non-PeopleSoft software, the suite includes a module called AppConnect that integrates systems via APIs, people using a portal, and data via reporting.
The applications include pre-loaded data tables configured for particular verticals. The tables may include things like user roles, but are configurable to individual businesses.
Officials at PeopleSoft, in Pleasanton, Calif., said they have a full migration path for users who want to move from the companys earlier small business software to the new modules.
“This is not a separate code line, we invested in the tools and templates to provide these seamlessly,” said Jeffrey Read, vice president and general manager of PeopleSoft Mid-Market.
“Our architecture is cleaner… We only publish HTML down to users, there is no configuration [of their PCs] needed; you dont need to upgrade to get more horsepower for Java applets” pushed out by the enterprise server software.
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PeopleSofts Mid-Market Solutions announcement comes at a time when many software vendors are looking to position their products for small and midsize businesses. Enterprise software developer SAP AG, for instance, last month introduced its Business One software suite for automating small and midsize companies business processes. Like PeopleSofts, the SAP software targets specific business processes.
However, PeopleSofts Read pointed out that his companys offerings actually target a very different set of potential customers. While SAP Business One is for companies with between 10 and 250 employees, PeopleSoft Mid-Market Solutions is geared toward businesses with $50 million and $500 million in annual revenue. The two sets of companies have different needs, Read said.
“There is no such thing as a small-to-midsize business,” Read said. “Youve got small businesses and they have their needs, and midsized companies have there needs.”
Midsize companies are also more likely than large enterprises to be buying information technology, Read said.
“Mid-market companies now are investing. A lot of mid-market companies didnt buy systems for Y2k, when enterprise customers were replacing their legacy systems with client server,” he said. As a result, mid-market companies “systems are in need of updating.”