PeopleSoft Talk with Marc Weintraub: Partner Spotlight--Smart ERP Solutions featuring Doris Wong

 

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Hi, I'm Marc Weintraub, your host of PeopleSoft Talk. Thanks for tuning in.

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Joining me today is Doris Wong, CEO of Smart ERP. Thanks for being here.

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Thank you, Marc, it's great being here.

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So, tell everybody a little bit about your organization, and your role within it.

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All right. So, I'm the CEO at Smart ERP Solutions.

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We are an Oracle Platinum partner. And we focus on working with PeopleSoft customers.

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We focus on two areas. Giving add on solutions to PeopleSoft customers, to really help them run their systems better.

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And services: implementation, strategic service, maintenance, you name it, we probably do it on PeopleSoft.

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That sounds good. And you, personally, have some rich history with PeopleSoft. Can you share a little bit about that?

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Absolutely. So, let's see, I've got about 20 years working with Peoplesoft - started back in 1995.

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And, was a developer on PeopleSoft! So, I've used the toolset. I've built applications. I've done upgrades. You name it, I've done it all.

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And, after the Oracle acquisition, I actually was running all of PeopleSoft, inside of Oracle

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as the General Manager, in what I consider to be those hard years after the Oracle acquisition.

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So, what challenges are you seeing with your PeopleSoft clients?

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Since I have a very rich history with PeopleSoft, pretty much anything they bring up they can work with them and discuss.

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But, I would say some of the biggest challenges for them continue to be around usability.

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Around automation. Around streamlining of their business processes. So as a result, we really spend a good amount of effort

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with add on solutions to help them with that, and also services to help them streamline their business processes.

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So, going in a little deeper of how you're addressing and solving those challenges,

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what are some of those solutions and services that you bring to them?

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Well, good question! So one of the things that we definitely see as very hot in the industry right now,

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a good example of automating a manual process, a very paper-intensive process: employee onboarding.

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When you get hired, you walk in, they give you a pile of paper.

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Well, we've managed to take that entire manual process, and automate that directly into PeopleSoft.

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Totally, tightly, seamlessly integrated into PeopleSoft.

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So, that's a very good example. Where somebody that might take an hour to enter in data --

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we can automatically do that with the push of a button after an employee fills in all of their paperwork.

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And it's part of PeopleSoft and connected to PeopleSoft?

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Well, that's the thing about me - 20 years of PeopleSoft. I leverage everything about PeopleSoft, and continue to do that today.

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So we are right there inside of PeopleSoft. We use the data, we use the platform. We use all the security.

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Everything PeopleSoft already has in place, we just leverage right behind it and give great value, great solutions for PeopleSoft customers.

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That sounds great. So what are some unique differentiators within your organization?

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Well, I think the unique differentiation definitely is around the fact that we are an Oracle Platinum partner.

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We're not the traditional, partner in the sense that we provide services for upgrades and implementation.

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But we bring to the table our add on solutions. So for any challenge a customer has,

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we can look at it and say do we have a solution that could help automate, that could help solve that?

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Working tightly, seamlessly integrated in PeopleSoft, as well as provide the services that they need to meet their business needs.

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So, one of the things we take great pride in, and you know this Marc, keeping that cost of ownership low.

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So even as a partner with our add on solutions, we focus on that lower cost of ownership.

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Because I've been there once, when they were standing up there.

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So what feedback are you hearing from your clients about what's been delivered in 9.2 and what's coming in the future?

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Well, it's great to see customers upgrading to 9.2, and definitely the features that are in 9.2, such as pivot grids or workcenters,

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are definitely very popular. And then all of the feature functions that's coming out in the different applications,

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that's also very important to them. I think the Fluid UI is absolutely a game changer.

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The fact that the messaging around - you can do your work from anywhere on any device. I think is absolutely very, very important.

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It gives a great user experience, UI, that's very critical for PeopleSoft.

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And what are your clients telling you about the PeopleSoft Selective Adoption, and how they just consume at their leisure?

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The ability to take enhancements when they want it, or patches when they want it. Or only those that they need.

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I think having that flexibility to be able to do it on their timetable, when they need it,

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is again, another big game changer in terms of cost of ownership to PeopleSoft customers.

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They will continue to find those patches that they need or those enhancements, and work through the process.

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And keep that total cost of ownership down, as well. Not a big bang. But smaller increments that they can be able to take over time.

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Are any of your clients expressing any concerns about the long-term viability of PeopleSoft?

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Well Marc, it's interesting you bring that question up.

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When I was running all of PeopleSoft as the General Manager, that was definitely right after the acquisition, when that came up a lot.

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But today, working with PeopleSoft customers, it's very rare that I get the question about the viability of PeopleSoft.

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Customers are always talking about upgrading, "I need to upgrade to 9.2. I need to take advantage of these new features."

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"When are they going to have this?" Those are the types of conversations that we have. They're planning out their roadmaps, versus,

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questioning whether they should even be on PeopleSoft. So, good job! That is no longer an issue in my opinion.

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So previously, we've been talking a lot about products. PeopleSoft products, as well as your value products that you add on.

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What about services? What kind of services can you provide for your clients?

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In addition to our add ons, we also have a whole practice around services for PeopleSoft. That could include upgrades.

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Upgrades to 9.2, and being able to easily do it with the whole new upgrade strategy and delivery mechanism around software.

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We also do implementation services. So implementation services across the entire enterprise.

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Whether it's HCM, or Financials, or Supply Chain, or CRM, or Campus Solutions.

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And any kind of business process re-engineering and strategic planning for our customers, too,

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So, that, combined with our add on, we believe we do offer quite a bit of services, as well as value to the clients we work with.

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Any interesting big plans for your organization regarding PeopleSoft?

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Absolutely, Marc. So, a couple things. So first, on our add on side, we'll continue always to look for new creative, innovative, add on solutions

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that are highly configurable, easy for our clients to adopt. Whether it's on premise, or whether it may potentially be a cloud-based solution.

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So that one area, we'll continue to focus on with PeopleSoft customers.

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The second area is in our services offering. We continue, and will continue to focus on

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bringing best-in-class implementation and upgrade services to our customers.

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But in addition, we'll focus on making sure we're leveraging service offerings to help PeopleSoft customers

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with the new things that PeopleSoft is coming out with.

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For example, your Fluid User Interface. Being able to help customers adopt that - being able to implement more of that.

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Maybe to do certain custom transactions. That could be a whole area that we can bring additional value to PeopleSoft customers.

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Another example of where we'll build some services program, is around the Selective Adoption process.

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Definitely to have programs in place to help PeopleSoft customers.

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Look for those things that they need easily adopted, get it deployed, and then continue to do that on an as needed basis.

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So having very template-services programs around that to help customers do that.

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Well thank you so much for being here, today.

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You're welcome, Marc, it's great to be here.

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And it's great to see you, as always!

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Always!

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And our PeopleSoft customers are extremely lucky to have Smart ERP Solutions on their side.

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You should visit their website with the URL below.

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See what service offerings and product offerings they have that can bring value to your organization.

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And again, thank you for joining on this PeopleSoft Talk. I'll talk to you next time.