PeopleSoft offers Net community for merchants
As part of its Net strategy, PeopleSoft launches its Merchant Program, an online service offering its customers access to multiple product and service providers.
Pleasanton, California-based PeopleSoft said in a statement that its Merchant Program includes companies such as Consumer Financial Network (CFN), Compaq Computer, Intraware, Foundation Technologies, and Sabre.
With the new Merchant Program, PeopleSoft said its customers will have online access to the various "communities," or different services areas, such as benefits, procurement and travel, and expense. PeopleSoft ebusiness communities represent applications designed to link people, content, and commerce on the Internet. The first merchant integrations will be available in the company's fourth-quarter later this year, the company said.
As previously reported, PeopleSoft rolled out a new Internet strategy last fall which consists of several elements including: the development of an e-business backbone, extensions for e-business, and the PeopleSoft Business Network; a program for managing and integrating other vendors' products into PeopleSoft's products; and offerings such as a healthcare organization.
With the Merchant Program, each participating company will be included in a related community, or field. For instance, travel and transportation software maker Sabre would be included in the PSBN travel and expense community. PeopleSoft said that its customers will have access to Sabre's BTS software suite, which can handle travel booking, expense reporting, and travel decision support and services.
"By including Sabre BTS with the PSBN portal, we are providing corporations with the convenience of a single source to control expenses and manage travel via e-commerce," Sabre senior vice president Nancy Raynor, said in a statement.
PeopleSoft said that Compaq will be offering a link to its Compaq.com extranets through the PSBN procurement community. In this community, Compaq will provide enterprise customers benefits, such as customized products and support from Compaq or its fulfillment partners, streamlined procurement process, and a 24-hour a day marketplace.
Earlier this month, PeopleSoft rolled out the first phase of its e-commerce backbone that will provide the foundation for the PSBN application integration plan. As reported, the company said its PeopleSoft e7.5 brings additional Internet-related features to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, adding HTML access and a Web-deployable Microsoft Windows client, due out later this quarter.