PeopleSoft Founder Launches ERP Software Company

Dave Duffield, founder of PeopleSoft, announced Nov. 6 the launch of a new ERP company with its foothold in human resources—the area of backend business applications where PeopleSoft made its name.

The big difference with Workday, Duffield’s newest company, and PeopleSoft: software that’s built using an on demand model versus on premises.

Duffield and co-founder Aneel Bhusri are applying “modern concepts and standards to software,” according to Duffield, who led the Nov. 6 conference call with news reporters to launch the company.

The newer technologies have only recently emerged with the rise of the consumer (and business) Internet, or Web 2.0, that has enabled technologies such as Web services, software as a service and open-source technologies.

Workday, which launches with an HCM (Human Capital Management) suite, is basing its software on three core design principles: agility, ease of use and ease of integration—pretty much the mantra for any on-demand software provider.

The question, then, is how Workday will differentiate itself from established on-demand ERP software providers like Intaact and NetSuite? (Oracle founder Larry Ellison owns a stake in NetSuite; Ellison also acquired PeopleSoft only after a protracted, bitter battle with Duffield and the PeopleSoft board).

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