Nothing But 'Net

Computerworld - Carol Ptak is in the thick of PeopleSoft Inc.'s efforts to transform itself from, as she puts it, "that HR company that, oh, by the way, does some supply chain" to a major player in ERP and analytics software. Ptak learned manufacturing from the ground up, starting out as an assembler on a plant floor. From there, she went on to plant management and then established her own consulting firm before joining IBM's worldwide ERP solutions group. In addition, in 2000, Ptak served as president and CEO of APICS—The Educational Society for Resource Management. She joined Pleasanton, Calif.-based PeopleSoft last year and now has worldwide responsibility for the company's manufacturing industry strategy across its entire product line.

Ptak recently spoke with Computerworld's Tommy Peterson about how her company and others are responding to customers' needs.

What sorts of technological issues do you see PeopleSoft having to address? I see it from two sides: There's what customers tell us they need, and then there's the flip side. Take the example of Post-it notes - which is, until it comes out, customers don't know they need it. Post-it notes were really a disruptive change, albeit not something that changed the world. But still, they weren't something that somebody went to 3M and said, "You know, we really need a little piece of paper that's got glue on the back that sticks but doesn't stick." But after 3M developed it, everybody went, "Oh, gotta have that."

So the job is really twofold—first, listening to what customers are saying and translating that into changes. The other half is looking at what we've got and helping our customers understand what's there.

So, what are users saying they need right now? People are going for anything that will increase revenues or decrease costs with some level of surety that that's going to happen in the very short term. It's [which] technology is going to address a real business issue for them.

Users don't think of the kind of big systems that PeopleSoft and its competitors sell as quick fixes. It depends on the size of the company. What I'm seeing is that the big companies out there are buying point solutions. They're buying something that fixes a very finite scope of issues they have in the company. The smaller companies, the under $2 billion companies, are looking for full-suite integration projects, but they're looking for them to be completed in under a year. The expectations are of time to implementation of six to nine months. So it's a big project for that company, but it's also very quick. The old 18- to 24-month project times just don't hold anymore. They need to have whatever it is you're going to do up, running and producing the return on investment within a year.