What is PeopleSoft?
What is PeopleSoft?
Technically, PeopleSoft was a company created in 1987 to develop and distribute one of the first Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS). In 2005, PeopleSoft was acquired by Oracle Systems, one of its fiercest (and largest) rivals, and today, its software is developed and supported by Oracle. However, what people are probably asking about when they ask about "PeopleSoft" are the PeopleSoft Enterprise applications, which are data management software applications designed for storing and organizing data on employees, students, projects, and other business elements.
Human Resources Management
What made PeopleSoft unique from the get-go, however, is that it directly involved the end user into these various business procedures. For instance; the company's first HRMS, which appeared in the late 1980's, was the first system to allow the end user (in this case, the employee) direct access to the database he/she was working with. This allowed employees to add contact information, employee info, hours worked, etc. to the database without a dedicated middleman sitting there, gathering information from employees, and inputting it manually. Less people involved meant less mistakes, greater efficiency, and eventually, lower cost.
PeopleSoft takes this client-server model to all kinds of database driven business procedures, including the management of students, supply-chains, and entire projects. If there's a workplace function you want to regulate, PeopleSoft has a solution (or can build one) for you.
Besides cutting out the middlemen from various daily operations, PeopleSoft applications have the added benefit of adding structure to often chaotic processes, such as design and testing. In particular, PeopleSoft's project management capabilities are essential for working under a regulated environment, such as government contracting -- or, for instance, avionics. As anyone who works with airplanes or flight accessories knows, a company that develops anything as part of an aircraft must undergo strict regulatory guidelines during the design and testing process. For many companies in this field, these procedures are an everyday occurrence, and a customized PeopleSoft application ensures not only that they are done, but that the who, when, and where are recorded within the project database.
Similarly, PeopleSoft applications have become immensely popular with universities and academic institutions dealing with class enrollment and other student administration procedures. Schools found that a customized, PeopleSoft-based "portal" to their database, with carefully limited accessibility to students (and more accessibility to administrators) allowed students to register for classes easily, avoiding the bottleneck of data entry by a few individuals at the registrar's office. Direct database access not only eliminates the need for those individuals, it simplifies the entire process and empowers students to ensure that they're registered for the classes they want, that their academic holds are taken care of, and that their bills are paid.
How is PeopleSoft software different from other relational databases?
Minor differences aside, PeopleSoft's greatest advantage is that it requires absolutely no additional software on the client side of the database. That means that adding access to hundreds or even thousands of PCs is a snap, provided your server can handle all the queries. Most databases require some kind of plug-in or separate application to provide even client-side functionality -- PeopleSoft applications can be entirely web-based, meaning zero maintenance on the client side. This is a huge advantage for business applications accessed and altered by a large number of employees, such as an inventory management database.
PeopleSoft applications are enormously powerful in almost any modern business environment, whether they're used to manage employees, projects, transactions, or time. Given that, and the fact that they can be easily accessed anywhere, by anyone you choose, they have the potential to be a huge time-saver, and a downright necessity in larger corporate environments. Setting up, or just as importantly, operating an existing database, takes some training, but the ability to structure and streamline everyday tasks is priceless.
Here are some training courses that match this article:
PeopleSoft: Introduction to PS v8.9
PeopleSoft: CRM Automation and Configuration Rel 9.0
Peoplesoft: CRM Fundamentals Rel 9.0
PeopleSoft: Introduction to PS for HRMS Rel 9
PeopleSoft: Introduction to PS for HRMS Rel 8.9
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