PeopleSoft extends leadership in manufacturing with EnterpriseOne 8.11

At the 2004 APICS International Conference and Exposition, PeopleSoft released EnterpriseOne 8.11, which incorporates intellectual property from the PeopleSoft Enterprise product family.

It also includes more than 250 product enhancements, including new solutions for designing production lines, processing inbound radio frequency identification (RFID) shipments, and managing customer relationships.

PeopleSoft introduced a new sales and operations planning solution and key enhancements that improve the application ownership experience for manufacturers.

EnterpriseOne 8.11 is designed for manufacturers in consumer goods, industrial, life sciences, asset-intensive and project-oriented services industries. The new release delivers the following solutions:

* Demand Flow Manufacturing: Formalises patented approaches for designing production lines, managing material replenishment, and staffing manufacturing production lines based on production volume and skill levels.

* RFID Processor: Builds on PeopleSoft`s existing outbound RFID solution that enables suppliers to meet their customers` RFID requirements as dictated for each shipping location. The new RFID Processor, designed for processing inbound RFID shipments, provides manufacturing professionals immediate visibility into inventory * whether it is in-transit, in a warehouse, or at the manufacturing plant.

* EnterpriseOne CRM: The first enterprise CRM solution to incorporate manufacturing-specific business processes for sales and after-sales service interactions, including lead and opportunity management, consensus-based forecasting, real-time order promising, and case and service management. It also uses intellectual property from PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM, and integrates customer-facing processes with back-office operations to deliver consistent customer information across the enterprise.

* Sales and Operations Planning: Provides a single repository for sales, manufacturing operations, engineering and finance information. As a result, companies can more effectively anticipate fluctuations in demand and simulate the financial implications of supply chain decisions.

PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne 8.11 includes numerous total ownership experience enhancements. After extensive testing in PeopleSoft`s lab environment, the company has reported the following performance gains:

* 38% reduction in overall installation time
* 28% less time to complete key user tasks
* 40% reduction in time to implement applications using PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne Rapid Start, a pre-packaged software and services solution

Dave Macdonald, national solutions consulting manager for PeopleSoft Africa, says: "PeopleSoft has delivered an unprecedented amount of new functionality to its EnterpriseOne customers since the acquisition of JD Edwards just 15 months ago.

"We`ve remained laser-focused on delivering innovative solutions that enable companies to become demand-driven manufacturers. With over 250 new product enhancements in PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne 8.11, we continue to distance ourselves from the competition."

PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne 8.11 is in beta testing and will be available in December.

Customers running previous versions of PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne can easily upgrade to PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne 8.10 or 8.11 with the new PeopleSoft Global Services NOW upgrade programme, announced at PeopleSoft Connect 2004.

When PeopleSoft Global Services primes an upgrade, PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne customers are eligible for a combination of upgrade, maintenance, education, and software incentives, including a free technical upgrade using one of PeopleSoft Global Services` six solution centres.

The PeopleSoft NOW upgrade programme is available from 21 September to 31 December. To learn more, visit http://www.peoplesoft.com/corp/en/consulting/peoplesoft/index.jsp?site=corp.