PeopleSoft plans to ship two upgrades of its CRM software during
the next four months in an effort to match Siebel Systems'
functionality.
PeopleSoft got into the customer relationship management market
when it acquired Vantive early last year and released a Web-based
version of Vantive's applications as part of its PeopleSoft 8
product line last June. With the upcoming upgrades PeopleSoft is
looking to put itself in a position to compete head-on with Siebel,
Oracle and SAP for CRM installations.
"My goal in 2002 is [for us] to emerge as the clear alternative to
Siebel," said Phil Wilmington, executive vice-president of North
American operations and global alliances at PeopleSoft. "I think
it's Siebel and three [other] players now: us, Oracle and SAP."
At a customer event on 4 December, Wilmington and other PeopleSoft
executives said the company plans to ship an initial CRM upgrade
before the end of the year, with features tailored for financial
services industry users plus support for a third-party tool to
integrate the software with Microsoft's Outlook e-mail software.
A more substantial upgrade will follow in March and will include a
mobile version of the applications and features geared toward other
vertical industries, such as insurance, PeopleSoft said. Dubbed
Version 8.4, the upgrade will also add a module aimed at help desks
that need to track software defects.
Rick Bergquist, PeopleSoft's chief technology officer, acknowledged
that analysts have identified some areas in which the company's CRM
applications fall short of Siebel's technology. But once Version
8.4 ships, he said: "we don't think we'll have any large
competitive gaps out there".
PeopleSoft has sold its CRM applications to about 125 customers,
and Bergquist said roughly 10 companies have gone live with the
software.
Thomson's Financial's portfolio solutions subsidiary, which
develops investment management and accounting software, is one user
that has PeopleSoft 8 CRM in place. Thomson Financial rolled out
some of the applications for 160 employees earlier this year in the
first phase of a long-term project that eventually could involve
2,000 end users.
Craig Berkson, chief information officer at the portfolio solutions
unit, said PeopleSoft's Web-based client software significantly
reduces desktop support issues because no code needs to be
installed on PCs. But Berkson added that there are some functional
differences between PeopleSoft 8 CRM and the last release of
Vantive's applications, which he had initially installed at one
division.
For example, Berkson said, the PeopleSoft 8 product has
less-sophisticated relationship modelling capabilities because it
was based on an earlier Vantive release. As a result, he said,
users may have to customise the software in order to set up a
real-world data model.
The CRM 8.4 upgrade should include more flexible data modelling
capabilities, he said, adding that Thomson Financial is also
interested in the Outlook integration and the mobile computing
capabilities PeopleSoft is promising.