Oracle launches PeopleSoft CRM 9.0

Oracle has underlined its commitment to its PeopleSoft portfolio of applications by releasing a new version of the PeopleSoft CRM suite.

PeopleSoft CRM 9.0 features new functionality specifically designed for telecoms and financial services firms, the company said. This includes order and service management capabilities for mobile service providers; and pre-installed sample customer relationship management (CRM) processes for tasks such as account creation and lead and referral management.

PeopleSoft CRM 9.0 also features new functionality to "streamline" the user experience, including a worklist, autosave for recent searches, better calendaring, and auto-population of commonly typed text using hot keys.

Oracle said the release is part of its Applications Unlimited strategy to continue support for its E-Business, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications beyond the 2013 deadline it originally announced.

The company hopes the initiative will reassure customers that their investments in its acquired applications are safe and that it will not force them to upgrade to other Oracle products. Meanwhile, it is attempting to ensure all these applications can work effectively together by tightening their integration with its Fusion Middleware platform.

Therefore, PeopleSoft CRM 9.0 has expanded web services capabilities as well as tightened integration with Oracle's underlying Fusion middleware platform, its XML Publisher suite, Database and Application Server 10g, and process manager toolset.

However, this strategy has been criticised by rivals, who argued that Oracle's commitment to several different CRM suites could create confusion for customers.

In an internal memo leaked when Oracle announced its acquisition of Siebel last year, Marc Benioff, chief executive of rival CRM provider Salesforce.com, suggested that customers would be concerned that Oracle's support for seven different CRM products is unsustainable in the longer term, making it difficult for them to know which Oracle CRM suite to invest in.