PeopleSoft Announces Strategic Sourcing Solution; Global Sourcing Solution Will Automate Complex Purchasing Processes

Business Wire, Oct 29, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2001

PeopleSoft Inc. (Nasdaq:PSFT) today announced PeopleSoft 8.4 Strategic Sourcing, a new suite of pure internet applications providing end-to-end support for Web-based procurement of services, and direct and indirect materials.

PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing is a collaborative solution that will help organizations manage the complex bidding and negotiation process associated with the procurement of direct goods, services, and large capital expenditures. It provides business management and workflow support for every step of the source-to-settlement business process including commodity spend and purchase contract compliance; Request for Quote (RFQ); reverse auctioning with user-defined rules and auction types; analysis of multi-line quote response; and contract award and fulfillment.

PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing is designed to enable organizations to streamline the workflow of critical procurement processes such as RFQs through real-time collaboration with their suppliers. Traditionally, procurement workflow processes have been labor-intensive and paper-based. PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing allows organizations to work directly with their suppliers online, significantly reducing sourcing cycle times related to RFQs and other procurement processes. This reduction in cycle time can result in substantial gains in productivity and lower procurement costs.

"When procuring goods and services, time is money," said Mike Frandsen, vice president and general manager of PeopleSoft's Supply Chain Management Division. "Utilizing PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing for all aspects of online purchasing will enable the manufacturer and the supplier to save substantial time and costs. Based on a pure internet architecture, the solution will significantly reduce the risk of human error by eliminating repetitive data entry required at every step of the traditional, paper-based procurement process."

Powerful business analytics embedded in the solution will help organizations quickly evaluate the performance of their suppliers based on user-defined criteria such as cost, quality, and delivery. Using the analytics, companies can quickly and efficiently determine the most appropriate suppliers, terms, and conditions. Additionally, seamless integration with financial and inventory planning systems will provide critical insight into spend analysis and inventory levels.

According to Pierre Mitchell, Research Principal for AMR Research's Enterprise Management Strategies, in The AMR Research presentation, "Strategic Sourcing gets an "e," June 5, 2001, "Organizations can achieve cost savings by 2% and 5% overall, based on applying IT to Strategic Sourcing, while reducing the sourcing cycle time for RFQ workflows from 25% to 75%."

Strategic Sourcing is currently scheduled for availability in the first quarter of 2002. The new solution will include global language translation for Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Canadian French, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese.

About PeopleSoft Inc.

PeopleSoft (Nasdaq:PSFT) is the world's leading provider of collaborative enterprise software. PeopleSoft pure internet software enables organizations to reduce costs and increase productivity through collaboration with their customers, suppliers, and employees. PeopleSoft's integrated, best-of-breed applications include Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Service Automation, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources Management, Financial Management, and Enterprise Performance Management. More than 4,700 organizations in 107 countries run on PeopleSoft software. For more information, visit us at www.peoplesoft.com.

Note to Editors: PeopleSoft and the PeopleSoft logo are registered trademarks. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.