PeopleSoft ERP suite excels at human capital management

Oracle PeopleSoft ERP is an on-premises system designed to provide end-to-end business process management and support for organizations, beginning with administrative functions like HR and finance and extending into supply chain management. The sweet spot of PeopleSoft ERP has historically been human capital management (HCM), an important focus of many companies, given the need to recruit, manage and develop the right talent in a highly competitive marketplace. As an on-premises system, Oracle PeopleSoft can run in Windows, Linux, UNIX and IBM mainframe environments.

There are several main functional categories in PeopleSoft ERP. They are:

HCM: Comprising functions revolving around HR policies and reporting that is able to incorporate the local regulations and customs for each country in which an organization has employees. The HCM component also features workforce management, which handles the scheduling of labor, tracking of time and absences, labor forecasting for workload demands, and adherence to labor laws and pay rules.

There is talent management functionality in PeopleSoft HCM that can integrate with both PeopleSoft and other HR software. It covers all phases of the talent lifecycle, from planning, recruiting, performance, learning and career development; to succession planning, compensation, talent reviews, measuring and reporting. PeopleSoft HCM additionally provides personalized HR self-service for employees, based on the role each employee plays in the organization as well as on the employee's native language and other operational requirements.

Financial management: Includes asset lifecycle management, credit-to-cash workflows, financial control and reporting, financial analysis, governance, risk and compliance functions, procure-to-pay workflows, travel and expense management, treasury management and additional applications for financial-services and public-sector organizations.

Supplier relationship management: An integrated suite of procurement applications for supplier management that is designed to reduce expenditures on goods and services, streamline procure-to-pay processes and drive policy compliance.

Supply chain management: Synchronizes supply chain activities by managing customer orders from start to finish, including inventory allocations and order fulfillment, and the management of inventory at different warehouse locations.

PeopleTools and technology: An application development toolset for builds and customizations of PeopleSoft applications. It can be especially useful for organizations that want to further tailor their ERP system.

Enterprise services automation: A suite of PeopleSoft applications especially designed for project-centric organizations and departments. The software enables such organizations to establish core operational processes that support full project lifecycle management -- across operations and finance -- from project selection, planning and staffing, through execution, cost control and analysis. Activities supported by the software include: project analytics, costing and discovery, program management, proposal management, billing, contracts, expenses, and grants.

The latest release of Oracle PeopleSoft is PeopleSoft 9.2. It is designed to enable users to more easily navigate through online screens with a global text search. Users also have the ability to act directly on search results. In addition, release 9.2 introduces mobile capabilities for requisitioning, inventory, and company directories; "smart HR" template-based transactions; and the ability to mass approve a general ledger.

Oracle PeopleSoft is widely used by midsize companies and large enterprises in a wide range of private- and public-sector industries. PeopleSoft software and underlying technologies are licensed, and the software is priced on a per-module basis. This enables sites to tailor the PeopleSoft ERP system to their particular needs and to buy only what they need, with the ability to add more features later.

There are several levels of PeopleSoft support to choose from, starting with Premier Support, which includes upgrades and maintenance for software and hardware. Sustaining Support guarantees maintenance for as long as you use the software, with extended support for operating systems and firmware. Oracle also offers a full complement of training for all of its PeopleSoft software, including training and certifications through Oracle University.