NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at Oracle's global "Applications Unlimited" launch event held on 6 continents over 24 hours, Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0. The introduction of PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 completes the delivery of the PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 Suite, and reinforces Oracle's continued commitment to the "Applications Unlimited" program.

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In response to customer feedback and insight, PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 enables organizations to successfully deploy fully integrated talent management strategies and configurable business processes across the enterprise. Additionally, this latest release leverages Oracle(R) Fusion Middleware and industry-standard technology to help reduce the total cost of ownership while increasing business value.

"The release of PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 represents our commitment to extending and evolving the value of our customers' current investments. The application provides best-in-class functionality, which reaffirms Oracle's position as an industry defining thought leader," said Oracle Vice President and General Manager of PeopleSoft Enterprise, Doris Wong. "Built through direct collaboration with customers, the new release offers key enhancements and next generation technology which will enable users to transform the way their organizations manage talent and achieve major business goals."

New Capabilities Drive Enterprise-Wide Talent Management

Relying on PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0, organizations are equipped to implement enterprise-wide talent management strategies. The new Profile Management feature serves as the foundation of all functional areas of talent management including recruiting, performance management, development, learning management analytics and competency management. PeopleSoft Profile Management integrates all talent management applications and defines organizational, job and person profiles from a common set of skills, experiences, certifications and other attributes. As a result, organizations can seamlessly match candidates to jobs, create prescriptive learning and development plans and measure performance against established goals.

Configurable Business Processes

PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 delivers more flexible and configurable capabilities that enable organizations to tailor applications to complement their unique business challenges and reduce the need for customizations. For example, SmartHire is a new capability that includes a template-driven approach to streamline the hiring process. By leveraging SmartHire, organizations can deploy job or location-specific hiring templates across the enterprise, allowing rapid, flexible hiring from non-traditional locations while helping to reduce administrative costs and eliminate the need for customization. Additionally, with enhancements to the person model functionality customers may more effectively manage the non-traditional workforce, while an embedded online I-9 processing tool will help to ensure compliance and increase operational efficiency. In areas such as payroll, benefits and performance, customers will find new, easy-to-use, highly configurable tools that enable them to more effectively execute their business processes.

Standardized on Next Generation Technology

PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 has been integrated with components of Oracle Fusion Middleware including Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (previously called Oracle XML Publisher). These integrations give customers a comprehensive, standards-based platform to address the challenges of disparate technologies and applications. Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher helps reduce the high costs associated with the development, customization and maintenance of documents while increasing the efficiency of document and reporting management. A centralized and highly configurable approvals and delegation framework reduces the need for customization, enables regulatory compliance and increases overall data integrity. PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 is based on a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) with enhanced and additional web services to improve extensibility and performance.

Usability and Scalability Improvements Drive Usage, Business Value

"With increased usability for eLearning and interoperability and an array of talent management tools for eRecruiting and performance management, Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 reinforces the optimal user experience, leading to widespread system usage, improved employee satisfaction and enhanced productivity," said IDC Director Enterprise Applications Research Albert Pang. "The scalability of PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 allows the right applications to manage the entire employee relationship life cycle -- from hiring to succession planning -- without fear of functionality gaps and technology limitations, making Oracle's global offerings more compelling than ever."

Product Availability

PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management 9.0 is currently available for traditional deployment, and is also available on demand via Oracle On Demand.

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Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This announcement is provided to you solely for information purposes, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. Many factors can materially affect Oracle's product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information.

CONTACT: Jessica Epple, +1-650-506-8741, or jessica.epple@oracle.com, or
Amy Grady, +1-650-506-6175, or amy.grady@oracle.com, both of Oracle

Web site: http://www.oracle.com/