New Orleans August 27, 2002 e-Business solution provider PeopleSoft this week rolled out a new suite of pre-integrated portal, integration and warehouse solutions intended to reduce the complexities of integrating multi-supplier applications, as well as a new module for its supplier relationship management system designed to allow organizations to evaluate, monitor and control supplier performance across the enterprise.
In its new AppConnect product suite, PeopleSoft said it is offering Web services technology to simplify integration, allowing companies to reduce custom development and ongoing maintenance of multiple integration technologies.
"Well over 35 percent of today's [information technology] budgets are spent integrating multi-supplier applications," said Michael Barnes, senior program director at technology consultancy META Group. "By simplifying integration and leveraging a more consistent, well-defined application infrastructure, companies can extend their core business processes across the enterprise. This results in reduced IT costs and improved business performance."
AppConnect includes Enterprise Portal, Integration Broker and Enterprise Warehouse components. These products communicate using Web services and legacy integration methodologies. Additionally, AppConnect is compatible with J2EE, and .NET, and it works with IBM WebSphere and BEA WebLogic application servers.
Jim Bolte, vice president of information systems at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, North America, said his company went with AppConnect in order to "future-proof" its IT infrastructure. "Our decision to deploy PeopleSoft AppConnect products wasn't just about choosing a portal; it was all about who could bring it all together today and still be able to handle tomorrow's challenges," Bolte said. "With PeopleSoft's open technology, we know that when new technology comes along we are protected."
PeopleSoft also took the wraps off its Supplier Rating System, a new module in the company's supplier relationship management (SRM) solution. The new solution provides analytical capabilities intended to enable organizations to evaluate, monitor and control supplier performance across the enterprise.
"A supplier rating system will greatly assist companies in executing an SRM strategy," said Carl Lehmann, vice president at the META Group. "Supplier scorecards and analytics provide the basis for sound sourcing decisions both in selecting a supplier for a specific contract or in identifying areas where supplier rationalization or expansion would benefit the company as a whole."
PeopleSoft said its Supplier Rating System will enable customers to create a consistent, repeatable methodology for business managers and executives to manage and measure supplier performance. Organizations could use the system to capture data from across the enterprise and choose from 80-plus key performance indicators to set parameters, weigh criteria and create supplier scorecards to measure performance in areas such as product quality, invoice accuracy, delivery reliability and price.
For subscribers of Dun & Bradstreet, the Supplier Rating System will provide insight into a supplier's financial performance with integrated data from Dun & Bradstreet, enabling a company to factor in financial performance and credit worthiness.
The PeopleSoft Supplier Rating System will be available in fourth quarter.
