Crimson Consulting Research Study Confirms PeopleSoft Leadership in Application Ownership Experience.

LOS ALTOS, Calif. -- Ownership Experience "Key Feature" Comparison Study shows PeopleSoft leads Oracle, SAP, Siebel, and Microsoft

Crimson Consulting Group today announced publication of a research study that analyzes key application features that drive the ownership experience of major enterprise applications. The summary ratings demonstrate PeopleSoft's leadership in delivering these key features, particularly when evaluating all phases of the enterprise application lifecycle. The research includes an objective assessment of twenty key application features that directly impact ownership experience across the three major phases of the application lifecycle: implementation, application usage, and ongoing support and maintenance. The detailed assessment is validated by in-depth interviews of qualified experts in each vendor's solution. The resulting study provides a comparative, multi-vendor assessment of the application ownership experience "feature set" for Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Siebel. The study report can be found at www.crimson-consulting.com/ownershipexperiencestudy/index.html.

The research study provides a detailed analysis of twenty key ownership experience features across the following phases of the application lifecycle:

--Implementation: PeopleSoft features for implementation rated higher than Microsoft's, SAP's, and Siebel's in enabling implementation teams to install, implement, and deploy enterprise applications through comprehensive configuration wizards and pre-packaged integration packs for all major enterprise application vendors. Oracle also rates consistently high in the areas of configuration, data loading, pre-packaged integrations, and web services. PeopleSoft has made more progress than other vendors in enabling and streamlining its configuration and integration tools.

--Usability: Across the features evaluated, PeopleSoft and Siebel rated highest in terms of the usability features evaluated. The task-oriented organization of application screens and the consistency of screen layouts across all modules in PeopleSoft applications improves end user productivity and enables end users to complete tasks faster and with fewer errors. Microsoft Business Solutions usability is limited due to a continued reliance on a "thick client" architecture for most of the applications, and SAP was found lacking in task-oriented dashboards.

--Maintenance, Support, and Upgrades: PeopleSoft rated consistently high across the maintenance feature set primarily due to the ability to proactively and rapidly isolate and resolve application issues through embedded diagnostics scripts, thorough test scenarios and scripts, and streamlined upgrade process. Specifically in relation to Microsoft Business Solutions, PeopleSoft's complete web-enablement streamlines the upgrade process compared to an offering like Microsoft Great Plains, which operates in a client-server environment and requires the client to be upgraded as well.

"Since the launch of PeopleSoft's Total Ownership Experience initiative sixteen months ago, other vendors in this market have followed PeopleSoft's lead with similar programs. Our research defines the feature set integral to the enterprise application ownership experience and, through our detailed comparative study, demonstrates PeopleSoft's continued leadership in this obviously important area," said Glenn Gow, founder and partner, Crimson Consulting Group.

The Crimson research study, conducted during May and June of this year, included a comprehensive evaluation of key application ownership features of enterprise applications including Microsoft Great Plains, Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise and EnterpriseOne, SAP mySAP Business Suite and R/3 Enterprise, and Siebel. The study included primary data gathering complemented by a series of in-depth, one-on-one interviews with a panel of experts including implementers, users, and operators that have extensive experience with each vendor evaluated and in each phase of the lifecycle. The result was a detailed comparative matrix incorporating qualitative and quantitative data for all vendors across twenty unique total ownership experience criteria. The study covered all application functional areas including Human Resources, Financials, Customer Relationship Management, and Supply Chain Management and was designed to identify and compare the key features that are critical in the ownership experience.

About Crimson

Crimson helps executives selling complex solutions achieve market leadership. With a focus on strategic marketing, we provide analysis, planning, and execution consulting services for some the most successful high technology companies in the world.