A pair of business alliances, European currency capability, and new functionality for manufacturing were among the key announcements by PeopleSoft Inc. executives at the enterprise software firms annual customer conference. The event was held Sept. 7-11 in Orlando.
With some 10,000 people in attendance--up from 6,500 at last years San Diego gathering-- PeopleSoft unveiled plans for version 7.5. Scheduled for release in the first half of next year, the new release will include a global-distribution-and-manufacturing system that will support the full range of languages and currencies currently supported by its accounting and human-resources applications.
It also will have Euro capability, including multibook functionality for payables and receivables. Another new application is a quality system for identifying trends and addressing problems in manufacturing based on real-time shop-floor data. A treasury application will feature cash, deal, and risk-management functions. Other new applications to be included in next years release are stock administration, total compensation, and expense management.
Probably the most notable is a pair of new offerings to be based on alliances with other leading information-technology providers. First, the Pleasanton, Calif.-based software firm will work with payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Inc. to develop and market a new payroll system for European companies. The two firms will jointly develop country-specific payroll systems.
The other arrangement has PeopleSoft and consulting firm KPMG Peat Marwick LLP cooperating to create a new application to measure financial performance. To be called PeopleSoft Performance Measurement, the system will provide activity-based costing, economic value-added, and multidimensional revenue- and profit-analysis capabilities integrated with PeopleSofts general-ledger system.
