Services Automation
Village Puts PeopleSoft on PSA Map
For those who dwell near or inside the professional services automation arena, the acquisition of SkillsVillage by PeopleSoft last month resembled a starter pistol with a fully engaged trigger.
Besides putting to rest any thoughts that PeopleSoft's bold talk inside the services automation space was merely bluster, the acquisition of SkillsVillage — a services procurement portal — is now expected to lead other prime software vendors such as Oracle, Ariba, and Commerce One into the services procurement segment as well.
"The area of procurement focused on [office supplies] has been troubled through overpromising and underdelivering, and yet it has gotten an enormous amount of visibility. Meanwhile, the visibility of the automation of services has not been nearly as great," explains PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway, who suggests that the purchase now positions PeopleSoft as the leading supplier of applications in managing human capital costs.
"For the e-commerce players like CommerceOne and Ariba who want to maintain their grasp on the e-procurement space, services procurement is the next logical move, but the big ERP players aren't likely to concede the space, and PeopleSoft has now made that very clear," says Brian Sommer, chief executive of IQ4hire, a services procurement player based in Chicago.
PeopleSoft paid $32 million in stock and cash for SkillsVillage, which is purported to have garnered close to $10 million in annual sales. The developer's first order of business following the acquisition appears to be helping to educate the market about why the services procurement arena is not falling victim to the same foibles now afflicting portals specializing in the procurement of goods. Moreover, PeopleSoft management now likes to boast: "We're the safe option inside the services procurement space."
Family Matters
PwC Reminds Road Warriors to Phone Home
For professionals who are often on the road, PricewaterhouseCoopers' Parent Survival Guide has a few tips on keeping up communication at home:
• Start writing letters to your spouse. It is sometimes hard to express your feelings and emotions on the phone, especially when you are far from home and there are a million different things going on. Putting them in a letter is not only a tried-and-true form of communication, but it can be very romantic as well.
• Set up a regular calling time that works best for your family. Make it a time when you can talk to your children and spouse without interrupting dinner or while your spouse is trying to get the kids ready for bed.
• Travel can be extremely hard on the spouse left behind. Have a date night once a week or every other week.
Networking
When Smoking is Good for Your Career
Last spring, the Waltham, MA, building that Plaut Consulting shares with several other tenants experienced a power outage. This created an impromptu work stoppage for all tenants except Plaut employees, whose data center is equipped with a backup system. "We didn't even hiccup in our data center," says Michael Pelletier, 47, the director of IT Services, who joined the firm two and a half years ago. "That's when everybody took their midafternoon cigarette breaks. We were kind of gloating during the break — thank God for the generating UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) and that we're healthy as a horse."
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