'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: PeopleSoft

In the early 90's, ERP came of age. Everyone had to have the functionality ERP packages promised. Since then, as Web and Internet technologies have matured, CRM on the front end, and e-Procurement and Supply Chain Management on the back end, have come into their own.

Now in 2001, the catchphrase is "Collaborative Commerce," where we unite all of the above elements into one coherent system within and between organizations. This is the Big Kahuna, the zero latency, fully transparent, 360 degree exposure that is the stuff systems integrators dream of. Is it here? Are the technologies mature enough? Simple enough?

This, the last in a series of articles on Collaborative Commerce (C-Commerce), takes a look at the fresh, new efforts of PeopleSoft, as it continues to expand its own software footprint while welcoming integration with outside solutions.

Craig Conway Foments a Revolution

Just two years ago, PeopleSoft was regularly dismissed as "struggling," and "lost," particularly in the shadows of more formidable and marketing-oriented companies such as SAP and Oracle. It was being run by David A. Duffield, who built a friendly culture for both employees and customers. The company peaked financially in 1998, when it was, for a brief time, second only to SAP in enterprise software sales. But the walls came tumbling down in 1999, as the market for giant software packages that handled corporate internals from Human Resources to Supply Chain Management dried up, and the lure of dot-com riches danced in departing employees heads.

In May of 1999, Craig A. Conway was brought in as PeopleSoft's President and Chief Operating Officer, and was named four months later as the company's Chief Executive Officer, adding corporate and product strategy to his day-to-day operations duties. Dave Duffield remained as Chairman but gave Conway free rein to overhaul the company.

Conway established several key goals, among them:

* Create a back-to-business atmosphere at PeopleSoft while saving key employees in the midst of departing for the dotcom dreamland. He increased salaries, reduced vesting time on options from four years to two years, and managed to stem the tide of defections, reducing turnover from 30% in 1999 to a very reasonable 10% in 2000. Half of the executive management team departed, unable or unwilling to participate in such fundamental changes to the company. The other half were Conway backers who knew the company needed to change or face extinction.

* Move all corporate applications to the Internet. Conway was convinced that "pure Internet" (client browser interface; "zero client footprint") was the future of enterprise applications, and the place where PeopleSoft could gain competitive advantage.

* Build a CRM offering to add to its Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, and Financials suites, turning the company into a true, end-to-end player.

* Deliver collaborative e-business applications, allowing PeopleSoft components to interact with software elements from other companies. The strategy here was both a realistic one and a marketing one. First, Conway knew that the key to collaboration was to "play nice" with others in the field. There was no way to build a PeopleSoft-only application suite and still enable companies to work collaboratively with other companies, be they partners or suppliers. But Conway also believed that, by allowing current, say Oracle or SAP, customers to add bits of PeopleSoft functionality, PeopleSoft was gaining a toehold in companies it couldn't otherwise access.

source:http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/collaborative-commerce-erp-crm-e-proc-and-scm-unite-a-series-study-peoplesoft-16522/