Since launching its PeopleSoft Select division in 1997, the vendor has relied exclusively on direct sales to customers with less than $250 million in annual revenue. That left emerging enterprise customers outside the four metro areas where PeopleSoft Select transacts the majority of its business-New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Atlanta-underserved, says Michael Stankey, general manager and VP of PeopleSoft Select.

The reseller program, which is designed to expand PeopleSoft's midtier reach, will go into effect in the third quarter. PeopleSoft will continue to sell directly to small and midsize businesses in its four largest markets, Stankey says.

Users say placing responsibility for an end-to-end sale in the hands of a reseller could streamline complex ERP projects. Empire District Electric Co., a $240 million utility in Joplin, Mo., purchased about a dozen modules directly from PeopleSoft in fall 1997, and has yet to implement them all. "There was always an issue of who was responsible, the consultant or PeopleSoft,"says Ron Yust, Empire's director of information services. "Funneling everything through a retailer establishes one point of contact."

ERP vendors have sought to increase sales to small and midsize companies since last year, when demand among larger customers began to ebb. Greg Runyan, research analyst at the Yankee Group, says that by helping emerging enterprises save time on ERP installations, PeopleSoft may be able to ramp up its midmarket business. The vendor says its midmarket business has grown 18% each quarter in the last year.