PeopleSoft Enterprise Performance Management 9.0 offers new and enhanced enterprise planning and compliance management capabilities. But the most notable addition is the inclusion of new reporting and analysis capabilities geared up for the higher education sector. EPM also throws in a new pre-built Campus Solutions data warehouse and associated data marts for good measure.
The analysis and reporting tools tap college/university and student financial records in order to optimize recruitment and admissions processes, understand faculty workloads and better manage grants and payments.
This vertical focus in line with Oracle’s strategy of providing industry-specific applications that embed packaged metrics, KPIs and business content based on best practices.
Improvements in the 9.0 release have also been absorbed into EPM’s core planning, budgeting and forecasting applications. For example the PeopleSoft Planning and Budgeting applications now tightly mesh with PeopleSoft’s Workforce Rewards and Human Capital Management application modules.
There are also new features that pulls together disparate financial data and lets companies analyze the performance of their subsidiary operations by honing in on relevant financial control and reporting rules. These capabilities have been integrated into PeopleSoft’s Global Consolidations and Internal Controls Enforcer applications.
PeopleSoft Enterprise Performance Management 9 also provides deeper integration between PeopleSoft Global Consolidations and PeopleSoft Internal Controls Enforcer. New control diagnostics for setup, segregation of duties and security access in Global Consolidations 9 are designed to help monitor the controls inherent in organizations’ financial control and reporting operations.
This is the second major EPM release since Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle took control of PeopleSoft Inc last year and may remove any lingering doubts about Oracle’s commitment to developing the product further.
In May 2005 Oracle launched a more unified version of EPM (8.9), offering a single data model for integrating PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards Enterprise One and JD World applications data in a single data warehouse model. Then in August it took a first stab at integrating EPM with the rest of its 10g and Fusion business intelligence and analytic suite.
