PeopleSoft, Inc. was a company that provided human resource management systems (HRMS), Financial Management Solutions (FMS),supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise performance management (EPM) software, as well as software for manufacturing, and student administration to large corporations, governments, and organizations. It existed as an independent corporation until its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2005. The PeopleSoft name and product line are now marketed by Oracle.
PeopleSoft Financial Management Solutions (FMS) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) are part of the same package, commonly known as Financials and Supply Chain Management (FSCM).
History[edit]
Founded in 1987 by Ken Morris and David Duffield, PeopleSoft was originally headquartered in Walnut Creek, California before moving to Pleasanton, California. Duffield envisioned aclient–server version of Integral Systems' popular mainframe HRMS package.
The company's sole venture backing came from IBM.[1] George J. Still, Jr. from Norwest Venture Partners joined the Board of Directors.[2]
PeopleSoft version 1, released in the late 1989,[3]:18 was the first fully integrated, robust client–server HRMS application suite.[3]
PeopleSoft expanded its product range to include a financials module in 1992, distribution in 1994, and manufacturing in 1996 after the acquisition of Red Pepper.[3]
Product design[edit]
Application architecture[edit]
The original architecture for the PeopleSoft suite of products built on a client–server (two-tier) approach with a dedicated client.[3] With the release of version 8, the entire suite was rewritten as an n-tier web-centric design called PeopleSoft Internet Architecture (PIA).[3] The new format allowed all of a company's business functions to be accessed and run from within a web browser.[4]
Originally, a small number of security and system setup functions still needed to be performed on a fat-client machine; however, this is no longer[when?] the case.[clarification needed][citation needed]
The PeopleSoft application suite can function as an ERP system, similar to SAP, but can also be used for single modules - for example, Student Administration or HCM (Human Capital Management) alone.[citation needed]
Development platform[edit]
Implementation focuses on PeopleSoft's proprietary PeopleTools technology. PeopleTools includes many different components used to create web-based applications: a scripting language known as PeopleCode, design tools to define various types of metadata, standard security structure, batch-processing tools, and the ability to interface with a SQL database. Themetadata describes data for user interfaces, tables, messages, security, navigation, portals, etc. This set of tools can make the PeopleSoft suite platform-independent.