PeopleSoft Planet

So, what the heck is PeopleSoft anyway? First of all, PeopleSoft is a software company. They make ERP software.

Here's my definition of their software:

"PeopleSoft is an integrated software package that provides a wide variety of business applications to assist in the day-to-day execution and operation of business processes. Each individual application, such as Financials, Customer Relationship Management and Human Resources, interacts with others to offer an effective and efficient means of working and reporting in an integrated fashion across the enterprise"

I think that works..

So, let's talk a little bit about the company.

About PeopleSoft

Dave Duffield and Ken Morris founded PeopleSoft in 1987, when they engineered the company's first human resources application. Built on a client-server architecture, their solution offered flexibility and ease-of-use to a class of users previously barred from simplified access to the information and capabilities centralized in mainframes.

By putting ease of functionality directly in the hands of users, PeopleSoft quickly assumed industry leadership status in human resources solutions.

This would be the first of many innovations that would transform the way enterprises do business on a global scale. In 2000, PeopleSoft introduced the Pure Internet Architecture®. Even today, it is the only pure-internet architecture with no code on the client.

It has enabled what PeopleSoft calls the Real-Time Enterprise. It allows organizations to connect people directly to business processes, eliminating intermediaries, inside and outside the enterprise. It creates unprecedented efficiency and lowers costs.

It provides businesses with an unmatched competitive advantage. The Real-Time Enterprise sets the standard for business performance in the 21st century, and PeopleSoft is at the forefront of enabling businesses to make this model a reality.

PeopleSoft was the world's second largest provider of enterprise application software. PeopleSoft's business solutions are built with the flexibility to fit your business today and the adaptability to change with your business over time.

A broad portfolio of applications with industry-specific functionality gives you unprecedented flexibility to optimize business operations and compete more effectively.

PeopleSoft is a worldwide leader in providing complete solutions for more than 24 industries—from industrial manufacturing and consumer goods to financial services, healthcare, and public sector organizations.

More than 12,200 organizations worldwide—from mid-sized manufacturing companies to the largest service enterprises in both the private and public sectors—are using PeopleSoft solutions to build stronger and more profitable businesses.

PeopleSoft applications are built on innovative and open technology, enabling easy integration with third-party applications and legacy systems. And PeopleSoft's pioneering Total Ownership Experience initiative ensures the best overall user experience at the lowest cost of ownership.

Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Pleasanton, California, PeopleSoft has 12,000 employees and annual revenues of more than $2.3 billion.

More about PeopleSoft

Founded: August 1987

IPO Date: November 1992

Market Capitalization: $7 billion (1-98)

Revenue: $815.7 million (1-98)

Employees: 3,000 (1-98)

Location: Pleasanton, California

Company Mission: PeopleSoft's mission is to provide innovative software solutions that meet the changing business demands of enterprises worldwide.

PeopleSoft Inc. (NASDAQ: PSFT) was established in 1987 to provide innovative software solutions that meet the changing business demands of enterprises worldwide. A client/server applications pioneer and market leader, PeopleSoft develops, markets, and supports a complete suite of enterprise solutions for finance, materials management, distribution, supply chain planning, manufacturing, and human resources.

In addition, PeopleSoft provides industry-specific enterprise solutions to customers in select markets including communications, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, higher education, public sector, services, transportation, U.S. federal government, and utilities.

The company also offers PeopleSoft Select, a complete packaged solution including software, hardware, and services to address the needs of medium-sized organizations. With more than 1,800 customers around the world, PeopleSoft has been recognized for both its award-winning customer service and its remarkable growth.

It was listed by Fortune Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in America in 1994, 1995, 1996 and again in 1997. PeopleSoft product and service information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.peoplesoft.com

About Dave Duffield

David A. Duffield is a founder of PeopleSoft and has served as chairman of the board since PeopleSoft's incorporation in 1987. He also served as chief executive officer from August 1987 through September 1999 and president from August 1987 through May 1999.

Prior to founding PeopleSoft, he was a founder and chairman of the board of Integral, a supplier of human resource and financial applications software, from 1972 through 1987.

Mr. Duffield also served as Integral's CEO. Mr. Duffield was the co-founder of Information Associates (now a subsidiary of Systems and Computer Technology). He holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and an M.B.A. degree from Cornell University.
 

More about Dave Duffield

Duffield, 62, saves unwanted house pets through Maddie's Fund, a $240 million foundation he set up in memory of a beloved miniature schnauzer.

PeopleSoft is the third company that Duffield has started. He left IBM to found a company that built a payroll system for the University of Rochester. Then he jumped into human resources software with his second company, Integral Systems.

Sitting on a beach in Hawaii during a retreat for Integral salespeople, Duffield pieced together a plan to write payroll programs for server computers and the PCs that hooked up to them.

The Integral board wouldn't go for it, Duffield said in a December 2000 interview with Bloomberg News. So he and engineering buddy Ken Morris left to start PeopleSoft. He gave up the CEO post in 1999.

As CEO, Duffield coddled workers. He gave everyone a laptop and twice invited the whole company to spend the weekend at his house on Lake Tahoe, Duffield said in the 2000 interview. He once heard a band playing on the PeopleSoft campus. It sounded terrible, so he bought all the musicians new instruments.

"Dave Duffield cherishes everybody who works for him," said Richard Avanzino, president of Maddie's Fund, which Duffield started in 1999 with $200 million of his own money. "PeopleSoft is his baby."

Duffield rarely talks to the press.

Duffield is PeopleSoft's second-largest shareholder with 9 percent of the stock, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The value of his stake has risen 12 percent to $489 million from $436 million since Ellison made his offer.