PeopleSoft finds millions south of border
The software maker beats out rivals to land a multimillion-dollar contract to upgrade Mexico's tax administration.
Mexico's Tax Administration Service signed a two-year deal worth more than $50 million last week to upgrade its taxation system using PeopleSoft software and services, the company said. IBM Business Consulting Services and SPL WorldGroup will assist PeopleSoft on the project, it said.
The software maker, based in Pleasanton, Calif., said the selection for the World Bank-funded deal was done through an elaborate bidding process in which SAP and Oracle also participated. It included three-month testing of each company's products and evaluation by external academic and research bodies.
The big win for PeopleSoft comes after it reported poor second-quarter results last month, blaming Oracle's hostile takeover bid.
Mexico's tax administration has 30,000 employees spread over 1,100 offices. The federal tax system uses several centralized and decentralized databases across 66 collection centers. The upgrade project will consolidate data from these into a single platform for better tax compliance and to impede tax evasion.
PeopleSoft's Enterprise Revenue Management package, jointly developed with SPL, will be used for management of tax collections and to locate lost revenue while adjusting to market conditions. The project is designed to let Mexican taxpayers use online services through a tax office Web portal and establish direct contact with it via e-mail, phone and the Web. They will also be able to access their tax account statements online.
"Governments today are embracing technology to streamline business processes, become more responsive to taxpayers and increase revenues," Craig Conway, CEO of PeopleSoft, said in a statement.