InformationWeek.com

Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits

March 13, 2000

PeopleSoft Begins Hosting Its Own Applications
Enterprise software vendor will compete with other service providers that offer its apps

By Jennifer Mateyaschuk

Related links:

PeopleSoft Enters Market For Professional-Services Automation (3/6/00)

And from our sister publication:

TechWeb PeopleSoft Webifies Vantive CRM Apps (1/31/00)

TechEncyclopedia

Need a definition of a technology term? Look it up here:

Send Us Your Feedback

here's a new application service provider on the block. Playing catch-up with competitors such as Oracle and SAP, PeopleSoft Inc. last week launched eCenter to give companies browser access to PeopleSoft 8 human-resources, financial, and E-procurement applications over a virtual private network or WAN.

It's an important move for PeopleSoft, which says it expects as much as half its software revenue to come from hosted applications in the near future. But like other enterprise software vendors, PeopleSoft already has partnerships with ASPs such as Corio Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. to host its apps, and most of these providers also offer users a choice of competing and complementary third-party products. Many companies like that flexibility, says Joshua Greenbaum, an Enterprise Applications Consulting analyst. Like SAP and Oracle, PeopleSoft will offer only its own apps and some supplementary third-party products.

"Our value proposition is in our serviceability," says Deepak Gupta, general manager of PeopleSoft eCenter. He says PeopleSoft can do the best job of making its applications work together reliably.

Stratum Med Inc., a medical-practice management company in Urbana, Ill., says that reasoning played into its decision to have PeopleSoft host software it licensed last year. "We felt PeopleSoft would be the best provider since it could guarantee higher service levels," says Robert Mulcahey, Stratum Med's chief operating officer.

PeopleSoft requires host clients to buy licenses outright and pay up-front implementation costs. But users can finance software costs over three years and bring the project in-house at the end of an 18-month contract.

The vendor will host its software on Sun Microsystems Unix servers in its Pleasanton, Calif., data center and in Exodus Communications Inc.'s facilities. PeopleSoft plans to host its eStore E-commerce, customer-relationship, and supply-chain management suites by year's end.

Back to This Week's Issue
Send Us Your Feedback
Top of the Page