My earlier blog on CIOs being forced to give cloud options a serious consideration was followed by how different types of organizations are reacting to cloud options in the Enterprise applications space (see here). In today’s article, am getting a little specific to customers with PeopleSoft ERP.

Firstly the message from Oracle is clear – PeopleSoft has a lot of steam left. Continued technology & functionality investments in PeopleSoft as a product will only enrich it over the years to come. In the last Open World, Oracle articulated their “Continuous Delivery, Flexible Adoption” model to deliver new capabilities 2 to 3 times a year. This was exemplified by 9 new feature packs already GA for PeopleSoft HCM v9.2 in 2 years of release. So there will probably not be a version 9.3 ever. You can download the full presentation of the Open World presentation here. For more details on the module-wise features and PeopleSoft’s Statement of Direction, check out this article (My Oracle login required). The feedback SOAIS is getting from PeopleSoft install base customers is they will want to continue to remain invested in their ERP due to multiple factors. It will remain a huge challenge for them to completely switch to alternate cloud solutions in the near term.

But the fact remains that the cloud ecosystem today is creating compelling value propositions that they cannot ignore. IDC predicted Cloud Services as one of the top 10 trends in 2015 to watch out. Quoting from that article “Cloud services will remain a hotbed of activity in 2015 with $118 billion in spending on the greater cloud ecosystem. Adoption of cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) will grow briskly (36%)…. Similarly, look for heightened competition among Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers as competitors engage in death match battles to attract developers and their apps and Software as a Service (SaaS) players accelerate their adoption of PaaS and cloud marketplaces.”

SOAIS’ clients are in varying situations of PeopleSoft adoption. SOAIS’ regularly partners with them as part of Enterprise Advisory engagements to review their existing technology footprint, understand future business goals, assess whether current technology fits their needs, evaluate new technologies / products fit for them (cloud?), build a roadmap on how and what to implement to meet business goals. Some of the key recommendations are summarized here:

SituationSOAIS’ Recommendation
Near Vanilla PeopleSoft implementation with few modules in foot printSeriously evaluate moving to Cloud Applications; consider a co-existence strategy in first phase of cloud move; build an ROI case.
PeopleSoft v9.1 or lower with heavy PeopleSoft Investments like custom modulesImmediately upgrade to v9.2; stay current on support; leverage new technology and functionality; in later phases consider Private Cloud option or coexist with new modules adopted from a cloud suite.
Heavy investment in PeopleSoft 9.2 with pressure to reduce TCOConsider Private Cloud option or coexist with new modules adopted from a cloud suite.

 

You may reach out to a SOAIS sales representative to know more details on the above recommendations, be it Enterprise Advisory Services, PeopleSoft Upgrades or Private Cloud options.

Contributed by Prashant

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