Sounds almost as though it’s apologizing for what its existing software can’t yet do, because no sooner does it get version 7.0 of its software out of the gate (CI No 3,240), than PeopleSoft Inc is already pointing urgently to features of a 7.5 release of its manufacturing and financial application suite due next April. Maybe the aggressive new marketing and advertising campaign underway over at SAP AG around version 4.0 of SAP R/3 is having an effect. PeopleSoft says 7.5 will be enabled to support global distribution and manufacturing applications, meaning the multi- language and multi-currency support already provided in its financial and human resources applications will be made available to the distribution and manufacturing applications. It’s making a big deal of a new performance management application it’s creating in conjunction with KPMG Peat Marwick LLP that’ll evaluate and track cost, revenue and profit indicators from general ledger applications and process it using PeopleSoft’s integrated OLAP engine. It will beta in the second quarter of next year. 7.5 will also include support for additional European payroll and European monetary union requirements and come with new applications to develop Q&A processes, and for forecasting and demand planning. A new suite of Treasury application will support the management of cash, deal, risk, expenses, stock administration and compensation. It will offer new support for dates and bar-codes in manufacturing applications and retailing via a solution developed with intrepid solutions. Human resources applications for student administration, federal government and the public sector are due in the fourth quarter of 1998. For the communications, transportation and utilities industries PeopleSoft 7.5 and PeopleSoft Projects will support Primavera P3 and Microsoft Project. It has new financial applications due for 7.5 it will talk about next quarter. The company says it will make its DirectPath application design methodology and toolset available to all of its customers as a beta release with 7.5 in the first half of next year. General ships of the toolset will start in the end of 1998.
