Business software maker PeopleSoft used the CeBIT
spotlight in Germany Friday to lift the wraps off the latest version of its
enterprise portal, an upgrade that highlights real-time collaboration
capabilities and instant messaging alliances IBM, Microsoft and Yahoo.
PeopleSoft’s Enterprise Portal 8.8 has been fitted with a new Resource
Finder tool that will integrate business IM products from IBM and Yahoo
in the second quarter this year
and instant messaging capabilities from Microsoft in the
fourth quarter.
Conspicuously absent in PeopleSoft’s announcement was mention of the
other big name in the enterprise IM space — America Online — which
has an enterprise IM solution with access to about 180 million users,
including 60 percent of all businesses.
A PeopleSoft spokesperson told internetnews.com there was nothing in place with AOL, adding that the door was open for negotiations with the online media giant. “There’s nothing in place [with AOL] right now. There may be more IM vendors added in the future but, for now, it’s just IBM, Microsoft and Yahoo,” the spokesperson said.
At the CeBIT conference, the company showcased the new Resource Finder add-on, which lets users locate any resource needed to help execute a business process.
This is where a secure version of instant messaging comes into play. For
example, PeopleSoft explained, users can quickly find a customer who has
purchased a particular product, a member of an organization who can answer a
specific supplier request or the appropriate application to create an
expense report. “Integrated instant messaging technologies allow users to
detect whether their business partners are online, and immediately
communicate with them in real time to expedite business transactions,” the
company said.
With IBM, Yahoo and Microsoft’s enterprise IM built into the product,
Enterprise Portal 8.8 users can locate, connect to and collaborate with the
appropriate person for a given task or business process, as well as maintain
control over tailored sub-sites within the portal.
“The ability to exchange instant messages within applications and portal
frameworks is essential for improving business efficiency,” said PeopleSoft
CTO Rick Bergquist.
More importantly, by fitting IM into its offerings, PeopleSoft gets to
ramp up its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities. Because it
is real-time and is powered by buddy lists, one of instant messaging’s key
feature is presence-detection and PeopleSoft said its customers can take
advantage of the “follow me” functionality.
Presence detection allows users to immediately determine whether or not a
messaging partner is on-line. “Follow-me” functionality enables messages to
be forwarded to different devices such as mobile phones or converted into
speech and delivered through voicemail. The privacy settings ensure that
users are not subject to unwanted communication,” the company explained.
The latest iteration has been jazzed up with a new wizard-driven site
administration capabilities enable business users to create and deploy
sub-sites with little or no assistance from the IT department.
PeopleSoft, based in Pleasanton, Calif., sells enterprise applications
that power back-office operations for corporate clients. Known primarily as
an eCRM specialist, the company’s software also ties together accounting,
human resources, manufacturing, and supply chain management systems.
PeopleSoft claims more than 600 customers have licensed the Enterprise
Portal, which is the flagship component of the its AppConnect suite. The
upgraded Enterprise Portal 8.8 will be generally available in the U.S. on
March 19 and internationally on May 28.
