With the imminent release of its next-generation customer relationship management (CRM) suite, PeopleSoft Inc. is banking on the Web to change the way the enterprise handles customers.
Written in HTML (hypertext markup language), PeopleSoft 8 CRM - which will be formally unveiled next week at the Pleasanton, California company's Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, and widely available at the end of June - will be the market's first "pure Internet solution," John Grozier, vice president of Product Strategy for CRM, said Tuesday.
With no code residing on desktop clients, the suite's applications will be available to a wider array of users via any Web browser, through a portal view. Also, customers will be able to access their account information, when appropriate, in addition to employees, suppliers and partners.
The new architecture, which relies heavily on HTML and XML, also allows for integration with PeopleSoft's back office applications, as well as applications from other vendors. Building the suite with Internet standards helped PeopleSoft position the product as an integration cost-killer, Grozier said.
"You can use the browser as the unifying container for (access to) information across multiple applications," Grozier said. "Those two absolutely go hand in hand."
Other features of PeopleSoft 8 CRM include real-world forecasting, extensive personalization and customization options, and multi-language and multi-currency support.