Peoplesoft to set up development center in India

NEW DELHI: Peoplesoft is planning to set up a development center in India.

The center is e expected to come up in Bangalore with the company investing $3-4

million. During the first year, Peoplesoft will hire 40 professionals for the

center.

The center will focus on developing the core product while the customization

and implementation will be taken care of by its alliance partners,

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Arthur Anderson. The global alliance with Arthur

Andersen is also being explored in India to tap the government sector. "In

the coming months you are going to hear a lot more about us," said

Peoplesoft India country manager Thiru Vengadam.

The company has already extended its global alliance with

PricewaterhouseCoopers in India. The alliance will see PricewaterhouseCoopers

launching an Indian version of the Peoplesoft package soon. "The product is

expected to hit the Indian market sometime during next month," said Mr

Vengadam.

Claiming to be the largest ASP in the US with about 60 customers, Peoplesoft

is keenly watching the business opportunities in India and, in fact, is in the

process of negotiating with most backbone providers. Mr Vengadam, however,

declined to name any of them. Peoplesoft, which has 140 modules, operates in the

five areas of ERP, CRM, e-commerce, enterprise performance management, and

supply chain management. Peoplesoft has recently acquired Vantive Corp in a bid

to build competency in the area of CRM. In order to proliferate the Indian

market, Peoplesoft India has tied up with Chennai-based Servion Global Solutions

to tap the CRM needs in the call-center segment. According to Mr Vengadam,

"There will be more such alliances to tap niche segments."