PeopleSoft Set To Ship CRM Update

The CRM upgrade also will bring three new vertical solutions for the insurance, energy and high-tech industries, as well as new "enterprise integration points," or EIPs, designed to help integrators link complete systems. A new telemarketing-to-order capture module, for example, lets telemarketers identify and qualify leads to orders more quickly, the Pleasanton-based software vendor said. PeopleSoft also has embedded e-mail and chat clients to ease customer interaction.

PeopleSoft CRM 8.8, scheduled to ship Dec. 26, follows an industry trend toward embedding more analytics into the core product, including realtime dashboards and what-if analysis. CRM market leader Siebel Systems and database powers Oracle, IBM and Microsoft also have been rushing to pour more analytics into their core products.

"This is a major release--the biggest since 8.0 for PeopleSoft--and makes this [product a more credible competitor to Siebel in high-end contact centers," said Forrester Research analyst Eric Schmitt.

The CRM market has seen a spate of vendor maneuvering recently. With most large enterprises already penetrated, vendors like PeopleSoft and SAP are striving to expand their stakes in existing accounts beyond their respective human resources and ERP footprints. Meanwhile, Siebel has struggled to move into smaller accounts. And at the low end, where SalesLogix and Goldmine are big factors, Microsoft is slated to launch MS-CRM by the end of the month.

Another up-and-comer is San Francisco-based Salesforce.com, with its hosted CRM offering. The company "has done a good job figuring out what people really need and making it easy to use," said one West Coast technology vendor that moved to Salesforce.com from Siebel. "[But it's still not a factor in high-end CRM implementations requiring call center support. Not many people want to entrust their call centers to an ASP."

Crestone International, an Atlanta-based hosting company, has standardized on the current PeopleSoft 8.4 but is looking forward to improved support for handheld devices in upcoming PeopleSoft releases, said Sean McCormack, Crestone's vice president of operations.