Speaking at the London stop of PeopleSoft's "Leadership
Summit" tour, company president and chief executive Craig Conway
thanked customers for their support while the US Department of
Justice investigates Oracle's hostile takeover bid for
PeopleSoft.
"If there was ever a year that PeopleSoft appreciated the
support of its customers, it's this year," Conway said.
He made few direct references to the Oracle battle as he laid
out the case for the company's growth potential in human resources
and financial management software but it was not far from the minds
of visitors to the conference.
Geoffrey Milton, director of human resource development in
Europe for container shipping company Royal P&O Nedlloyd, which
uses PeopleSoft Human Capital Management 8.0 and is looking to
upgrade to its version 8.8 said, "Although I would not say the
[Oracle] issue has been resolved, it has been covered over and so,
for us, it really isn't a factor now."
Milton said he was at the conference to find out more about the
differences between 8.0 and 8.8, and he sees no need to look
at competitors for his company's software upgrade planned for later
this year.
In general, PeopleSoft seems to be not only retaining, but also
expanding its customer base. On Tuesday, it announced that BT will
deploy PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management software to
manage its worldwide workforce of almost 100,000.
Last April, PeopleSoft reported revenue of $643.1m (£354m) and
net income of $24.2m in the first quarter, results that topped its
own predictions but fell slightly short of analyst
expectations.
Conway was upbeat about PeopleSoft's main competitor, SAP.
"Eight years ago, SAP was 10 times our size, four years ago they
were four times our size and today SAP is just over twice our size,
so we are gaining market share," he said.
Conway will have to be back in the US to testify in court on 29
June.
Laura Rohde writes for IDG News Service