HP to manage expanded PeopleSoft eCentre ASP offering

Enterprise software vendor PeopleSoft has followed JD Edwards in announcing an expansion of its enterprise application hosting, with Hewlett-Packard providing the technical operations, infrastructure and services. PeopleSoft says its ‘eCenter’ ASP offering has been a considerable success with businesses in the US, and the plan now is to push it out to “Fortune 500 to mid-market companies” around the world. Benefits, says the firm, include single-vendor accountability, rapid deployment due to the array of professional and accounting services, and ‘unique’ application expertise. Just as JDE, PeopleSoft says delivering its Internet applications through the eCenter hosting solution enables customers to focus on their core business and entrust enterprise applications management to PeopleSoft and HP. HP Services will manage the people, processes and technology, as well as desktop and network management, data security, high-level disaster recovery, and enterprise integration services. “PeopleSoft eCenter has been a tremendous success in North America, contributing significant license and services revenue to the company,” says Craig Conway, PeopleSoft CEO and president. “Expanding our … solution globally will enable us to rapidly extend the success of this business without the associated infrastructure costs. Says Ann Livermore, president of HP Services: “The PeopleSoft eCenter solution is a great example of empowering customers by giving them the ability to purchase computing as a service. This is another demonstration that HP has the expertise to operate and manage global IT infrastructures to provide customers with the flexible Internet solutions they demand.”