InformationWeek

September 8, 1997

PeopleSoft To Bo lster Financial Applications

Vendor also readies strategy for payroll functionality across Europe

eopleSoft users this week will get a first look at PeopleSoft 7.5, the enterprise applications vendor's next major release, due in March. At its annual user's conference in Orlando, Fla., the company is also expected to shed light on a new financials application called Performance Measurement, as well as announce support for all potential currency and financial reporting issues brought on by the European Monetary Union.

PeopleSoft will also unveil its strategy for rolling out new payroll functionality across Europe. The company will team with Automatic Data Processing Inc., a worldwide leader in payr oll services, to develop and market a range of payroll software products for large European customers.

"ADP has a large European installed base and it understands the various regulations and local practices," says Row Henson, VP of product strategy at PeopleSoft, in Pleasanton Calif. "This gives us expertise and gets us into new countries quickly."

The new payroll applications for the European market will be included in the PeopleSoft 7.5 release. The partnership, however, will not extend to North America, where the two vendors sell competing human resources software packages.

Select Software Tools in Irvine, Calif., will release a modeling tool called Select PeopleTools that will give PeopleSoft users a model-based view of their application development as well as a path to component-based development.

PeopleSoft also said last week that it will embed Webcasting technology from Actuate Software Corp. in San Mateo, Calif., into future releases of its software. Actuate's flagship product, Repo rtCast, delivers corporate content, such as financial reports, through Internet channels.

"This will automate the delivery of critical information to our business units," says Bill Ashworth, director of IS for credit-card company Advanta Corp. in Horsham, Pa. "Now, users have to go to our PeopleSoft repository and pick out what they want. Instead, we want people to define the information they want to see and then have it pushed out to them."

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