PeopleSoft Inc has revealed plans to push its software into yet another specialist vertical market. The ambitious Californian ERP software vendor has teamed up with a little known, privately held outfit called SPL WorldGroup BV which, amongst other things, sells a suite of customer care applications tailored for the utilities industries, a vertical market now being targeted by PeopleSoft. SPL has built an application family called CIS Plus, which integrates customer information areas such as billing, marketing and contact data, all tailored to the huge data bases used by utility companies. SPl typically deals with customer databases consisting of several million users. The package is also designed to allow deregulated utility companies to offer non-utility services such as financial products. Having worked together on several clients, PeopleSoft and SPL will immediately begin marketing an integrated offering which combines CIS Plus with PeopleSoft’s general ledger, accounts payable and human resources functions. Future offerings will include further links to areas such as the fixed asset register. To cement relations between the two, PeopleSoft has taken a minority equity investment in SPL WorldGroup of an undisclosed size, while SPL’s consultancy division will receive preferred status as a PeopleSoft implementation partner within the confines of the utility industry. SPL is incorporated in the Netherlands, and has annual revenues in excess of $100m, half of which derives from the US.
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