CAN PEOPLESOFT DELIVER?

CAN PEOPLESOFT DELIVER? In 1994, Peoplesoft's "deferred revenue" went up to $52.2 million from $26.9 million in 1993. $11.6 million of the 1994 deferred revenue was due to "license fees for which revenue recognition is dependent primarily on software product availability." Peoplesoft reported in its 1994 SEC Form 10-K, "The growth in the Company's customer base and expansion of its software product lines and services, including the recent introduction of Peoplesoft HRMS 4, Peoplesoft Financials 3, Peoplesoft Distribution and Peoplesoft's consulting services group, have placed, and are expecting to continue to place, a significant strain on the company's management and operations, including its service organization." "Peoplesoft is presently unable to set a firm delivery schedule for its software product availability on the Sybase System 10 RDBMS. No assurance can be given concerning the successful development of software on the Sybase System 10 platform, the specific timing of the releases of any future modules or their acceptance in the marketplace." Until it was fixed with an upgrade in November, 1995 of the PeopleTools 5.01 tool set that included a set of security enhancements, Peoplesoft application user passwords could be used to bypass the normal database security blocks. Because user passwords could be tampered with or recreated, all corporate information stored in the database was vulnerable. (InfoWorld, Oct. 23, 1995, page 23 and Nov. 13, 1995, page 43) In 1994, Peoplesoft spent 244% more on sales and marketing than on product development and engineering. For more information contact: HERE Local 2850, 548-20th Street, Oakland, CA 94612 510-893-3181 ext. 116 Fax: 510-893-5362 e-mail: here2850@igc.apc.org opeiu29/afl-cio