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PeopleSoft, IBM Announce Significant Enterprise App Alliance

At its Connect 2004 user conference, PeopleSoft Inc and IBM announced they will establish the most significant enterprise applications alliance in the history of the two companies. As part of the new alliance, PeopleSoft will standardize its applications on the IBM middleware platform, and both companies will market the joint solutions. PeopleSoft and IBM also announced they will collaborate to deliver new, pre-integrated industry solutions and establish the first business process interoperability lab.

The announcement represents the largest commitment to the integration of enterprise applications with IBM middleware. Customers will benefit from a platform with superior functionality and inherently more flexibility than competing platforms, unlike those that force the adoption of a separate, proprietary middleware stack that limits their flexibility and choice of vendors. By combining the IBM WebSphere platform, the most widely installed, open standards-based middleware in the industry, with PeopleSoft's industry-leading applications, customers can better leverage current IT assets without having to "rip and replace" existing systems.

Joint Development

PeopleSoft will integrate IBM middleware and development tools -- including core components of WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Business Integration, WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Studio Application Developer -- with its portfolio of applications. Together, PeopleSoft and IBM bring the perspectives of the leading infrastructure provider and the leading application developer to foster innovation across both company's products. The combination of thousands of IBM infrastructure developers and PeopleSoft application developers will result in the delivery of the most comprehensive business solutions for managing customers' business processes.

The two companies will jointly market the combined offerings to solve customers' business and technical challenges. Both parties will also contribute resources, domain expertise, integration technologies and funding for marketing and sales programs.

"This is the largest and most significant agreement that PeopleSoft and IBM have ever made," said PeopleSoft's president and CEO Craig Conway. "Today, we have eclipsed the competition by bringing together the most flexible and adaptable applications software with the strongest, most open middleware infrastructure in the world."

"Combining PeopleSoft's industry-leading applications with IBM's superior middleware provides customers with a significant opportunity to integrate business processes throughout their organization, leading them down the path to becoming an on demand business," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive of IBM Software Group. "Customers are seeking innovative solutions that won't lock them into a proprietary platform. Combining industry-leading applications and infrastructure technology provides customers with offerings that can help them solve their business challenges more quickly."

New Industry Solutions

PeopleSoft and IBM will jointly market and deliver integrated, cross-functional industry solutions targeted at solving some of the most difficult business process challenges facing companies today. These solutions will consist of PeopleSoft applications, IBM middleware, third party software, and services from IBM and PeopleSoft to provide customers with a complete solution offering.

The initial industry solutions will focus on banking, financial markets, insurance and telecommunications. Solutions for the telecommunications industry -- built on IBM's Service Provider Delivery Environment framework -- will include Customer Profitability Management, Network Lifecycle Management, and Customer Loyalty and Retention. Other new industry solutions will include Distribution Channel Management for Insurance and Integrated Risk Management for Banking and Financial Markets.

Business Process Interoperability Lab

PeopleSoft and IBM will also jointly establish the industry's first business process interoperability lab to drive integration and customization. PeopleSoft application developers, IBM, and other leading industry software vendors will test and certify application interoperability in real-world business environments. The lab will reduce the time and effort required for pre-testing new standards and application integrations from multiple vendors. Customers and partners will be able to more rapidly respond to market dynamics and changing business needs through this open, standards-based platform.

"As we continue to connect and optimize our business processes across organizations -- both internally and externally -- we need an application infrastructure solution that can accommodate our heterogeneous IT environment and reduce our integration and infrastructure costs," said Vic Koelsch, vice president and chief information officer of Michelin Group. "Given the complexity of our environment and the nature of our business, time to value and solution total cost of ownership are critical. The integrated platform that PeopleSoft and IBM are delivering will enable us to deploy solutions faster and more cost effectively, while allowing us to leverage our existing IT investments today and in the future."

According to the State of Indiana: "Indiana's use of PeopleSoft applications with WebSphere infrastructure has helped us to expand our enterprise architecture. The integrated IBM and PeopleSoft offering will enable us to lower costs, integrate business processes across our organization, and increase efficiency."

"Major enterprise application vendors are re-tooling their infrastructure and creating new service oriented business applications," said Jeff Comport, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner Group. "These efforts are centered on adherence to key industry standards, use of standards-based middleware, and the rapid formation of business process driven industry applications."

The companies intend to execute a definitive agreement governing the alliance in Q4 2004.