PeopleSoft Discounts New Licenses

In a move designed to fuel customer confidence in PeopleSoft as it fends off Oracle's hostile takeover bid, execs unveiled an initiative called Now, comprised of several free services and $100,000 off new license purchases of at least $200,000. The new-license rebate is good for 90 days after the contract is signed.

Enterprise, EnterpriseOne, and World customers who sign upgrade contracts by Dec. 31 will get a free technical upgrade from Global Services, three months of application-management services, and access to 500 Web-based training courses for up to five users for one year.

David Scott, VP of Global Services marketing and strategy, says the offer is designed to prompt upgrades among the nearly 5,000 customers who are running older releases of the company's software. Customers who take advantage will protect their PeopleSoft investments by guaranteeing themselves at least five additional years of support and will also gain access to the vendor's Total Ownership Experience program, which provides customers on newer versions of the company's software with tools for reducing the time and expense of rollouts and upgrades.

By giving customers discounts on both upgrades and new licenses, PeopleSoft is attempting to simultaneously reward and entice them.

"We're meeting them halfway," Scott says. "It's customers who built this company, and it's amazing how they've stood by us over the past 15 months."

PeopleSoft itself got a boost from a license agreement reached this week with 3M that calls for that manufacturer to standardize globally on the vendor's human-resources, financial, inventory, and manufacturing software. Terms of the deal were not divulged, but 3M's VP of IT, Jerry Erickson, told an audience of thousands of PeopleSoft customers that the move is the culmination of an effort to improve its financial-management practices by globalizing its business processes.

3M has had pieces of various applications spread throughout its operations in more than 70 countries, but is now creating a global IT infrastructure, Erickson said. The company has established an aggressive rollout schedule for standardizing on PeopleSoft apps.

Said Erickson, "We hope to have a footprint up and running by the second quarter of next year."