Peoplesoft’s General Manager for Europe, Howard Gwin, definitely had a message to get across at the Robertson Stevens conference, it was just a question of recognising it amongst the jargon. It seems they’re drilling down all over the place at Peoplesoft while endlessly driving incremental functionality into the verticals. Peoplesoft, which fights it out in the corporate business software and human resources marketplace with SAP AG, has annualized revenues running at $615m and its compound growth rate is 90%. Gwin attributes some of the company’s success to the growth of its direct competitors, SAP AG and Oracle Corp, which he says has helped to create a price premium in the market. He also forecasts a very bright future in the European market which Peoplesoft says is perpetually two years behind the US in client/server applications. But Gwin was prepared to acknowledge SAP AG’s strangle hold in Europe, and he’s setting his sights on the number two slot. SAP is installed in 90% of the top companies in Germany, but we have a bigger pipeline there than anywhere else in Europe he said. It’s telling us that people are looking for an alternative.
