COM J. Holincheck, J. Comport

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1 J. Holincheck, J. Comport Research Note 7 October 2003 Commentary PeopleSoft Merger Presents a Process Fusion Opportunity PeopleSoft supplies most of the infrastructure required to support business process fusion. It needs to deepen certain core components and start to leverage those components to deliver composite applications. Prior to the merger of PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards (JDE), both vendors included aspects of business process fusion in their respective visions; however, neither vendor had translated those visions into product strategies. Now merged, PeopleSoft's road map for blending the two main product sets draws heavily on technologies used to implement business process fusion-related projects. The result is a strengthening of PeopleSoft's capabilities in the raw material for business process fusion, even though an explicit strategy addressing user needs for business process fusion has not yet emerged. Business process fusion pursues business optimization by examining, manipulating and monitoring business processes in combination. Implementation of these objectives leads architects and implementers to favor specific enabling technologies in business process initiatives, including: Service representations Rich metadata and process representations Loose coupling of processes User interface and service independence Here, we examine how the PeopleSoft architecture, the JDE architecture and the combined architecture are meeting these requirements. PeopleSoft's Architecture Evolution Version 7.5 moved PeopleSoft from a two-tier client/server architecture to a multitier architecture. PeopleSoft partnered with BEA Systems, using its Tuxedo product to provide some of the key enabling technologies, including the Application Server and Transaction Monitoring components. Version 8 added Internet architecture to the user interface. PeopleSoft's integration architecture also improved with v.8, which provided stronger support for real-time, synchronous integration through Business Interlinks, as well as providing better support for batch integration through Application Engine. Today, PeopleSoft packages its synchronous, asynchronous and batch integration solutions into a single offering Gartner 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Integration Broker. The broker is implemented on top of PeopleSoft's application server, which includes the use of the embedded services of BEA's Tuxedo. With v.8, PeopleSoft also introduced its first Web-based portal solution. PeopleSoft Portal provides rolebased, consistent access to applications (PeopleSoft and non-peoplesoft). PeopleSoft also provides its content management, knowledge management and collaboration functionality through PeopleSoft Portal. In v.7.x, PeopleSoft first introduced Enterprise Warehouse, its data warehouse. It includes capabilities to perform extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) functions on data from PeopleSoft and non- PeopleSoft applications. It also includes Cube Builder, a component that can take data from the warehouse and create multidimensional data stores for use in analytics. Late in 2002, PeopleSoft first packaged Portal, Integration Broker and Enterprise Warehouse into a single offering, AppConnect, independent of its applications. These tools have a strong affinity with and reflect the flexibility that has been core to PeopleSoft's value proposition. This flexibility reflects a "bottom-up" perspective in which the details of data and process are captured and mapped into the repository for use in composing connects and views. Missing is a "top-down" perspective that defines or anticipates broader business processes than those within the PeopleSoft applications. Such a view is an essential part of any business process fusion project. Until this top-down view is offered by PeopleSoft, users will need to supplement PeopleSoft with these definitions and any tools needed to create and manipulate them. JDE's Architecture Evolution In the mid-1990s JDE branched out from its AS/400 heritage with the introduction of OneWorld. The new architecture provided a core that was portable to several platforms and worked across many databases. The creation of business functionality focused a business process in response to requirements coming from JDE's targeted industries. Tools provided setup configurability, but most functionality lived in code, not the tools. As added flexibility was needed, additional tools were added. That resulted in a product core surrounded by multiple tools and no unified tools strategy. With the arrival of the Web and increased demand for applications based on commercial application servers, JDE began a move toward Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), particularly WebSphere. JDE's acquisition of YouCentric rounded out its customer relationship management offering and brought an architecture and skills in Java and J2EE. Rather than replacing established applications and architectures, JDE adopted a strategy of wrapping its core as services and adding new features and products around the edges, based on the newer J2EE architecture. This strategy became increasingly part of each release. With JDE (OneWorld) 5, now PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne, JDE has incorporated several IBM technologies into its technology stack. It uses IBM WebSphere Portal and Application Server, as well as providing IBM's DB2 UDB as a part of the offering (other relational database management systems are supported). Even with the new servers, the OneWorld core server architecture endures, hosted on the server operating system, but not using application server (J2EE) services. Although there is a focus on IBM technology, the architecture allows support for other stacks. JDE/PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne also leverages other third-party solutions to provide key parts of the architecture. The data warehousing foundation is provided through a partnership with Microstrategy. The ETL functionality to populate the data warehouse is provided through a partnership with Informatica. JDE also has done significant work in providing integration technology. Its extended Process Integration (XPI), based on webmethods, provides the infrastructure for integrating EnterpriseOne with third-party applications. It includes the webmethods Integration Server along with specific adapters that support 7 October

3 EnterpriseOne integration. In addition, EnterpriseOne includes extended Business Processes (XBP), which leverages the XPI infrastructure to support business process management. Although there is power in the focus on business process management, strong process definition tools are needed to reduce complexity when packaged definitions (XBPs) are unavailable or need extension. The Road Map and Beyond Although PeopleSoft and JDE built cross-platform, repository-based applications, their approaches were different. PeopleSoft focused on its toolset as the basis for its own creation of business logic and as a customer environment for extension. JDE expressed more business logic in code and used tools more for configuration and reporting. More recently, JDE embarked on a strategy to wrap its OneWorld architecture with more J2EE and Java when developing new functionality. As PeopleSoft merges the two companies, it has focused on supporting the installed base and opening up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. To do this, the companies have produced a road map that continues development on the separate stacks of the predecessor companies and blends data and user experience through integration and portal technology. This layer of common user experience and integration, along with the tools that make it possible (AppConnect, XPI), is the responsibility of PeopleSoft's newly created Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG). Although this delivers a common user experience and coordinated execution, it does not resolve the challenges of duel development, multiple repositories and separate implementation, particularly when the products are commingled in a single customer site. And while the two products remains separate, PeopleSoft has recently unified the management and planning of tools and architecture (groups separate from ESG). We expect that, as new technology arrives and tools are updated, more of the architecture will become common across the products (see Figure 1). 7 October

4 Figure 1 PeopleSoft's Architecture Evolution 2009 Portal Broker Unified (0.7 Probability) J2EE Portal Broker Merger 2004 JDE Core WebSphere Road Map PeopleServer 2002 PeopleServer JDE Core WebSphere Before Source: Gartner Research (October 2003) By 2009, PeopleSoft will have established common tools and architecture for Enterprise and EnterpriseOne, even if the products remain distinct from a market and functional perspective (0.7 probability). Users should consider the possibility of great discontinuities in future upgrades when planning for the use of PeopleSoft and JDE tools for extensive configuration or modifications. PeopleSoft and Business Process Fusion PeopleSoft has recognized the importance of many main concepts involved with business process fusion, including support for end-to-end processes and the need to link managerial processes with transactional processes. PeopleSoft has most of the components required for business process fusion as part of its offerings; however, its history of planning and development via functional pillars continues to challenge cross-functional product vision and planning. There are several opportunities for leverage between Enterprise and EnterpriseOne. EnterpriseOne Content Manager could be integrated with Enterprise Portal to allow stronger content management. EnterpriseOne data could be loaded into Enterprise Warehouse so that it can be used by Enterprise analytic applications. PeopleSoft has the requisite infrastructure to support the creation of composite applications, but has not been as aggressive as SAP in building these solutions or developing a partner network of composite application developers. JDE had started an independent software developer program for EnterpriseOne, but not specifically geared to composite applications. PeopleSoft's strategy for cross-selling modules from Enterprise and EnterpriseOne leans heavily on application integration, portal and compositing technology. 7 October

5 A side benefit is that PeopleSoft's own use of these tools will make them stronger and more suitable for to use as a part of business-process-fusion-related projects. The merger road map will extensively exercise and evolve the combined companies' business-processfusion-enabling tools. PeopleSoft's own use of the tools, and its attention, will initially be limited to creating a convincing combination of the now-expanded portfolio of products. The inspiration for business process fusion uses of PeopleSoft products and tools will first come from customers and later from PeopleSoft itself. Bottom Line: PeopleSoft provides most of the piece parts required to support business process fusion in Enterprise and EnterpriseOne. However, many of the piece parts are relatively new, especially in EnterpriseOne, and customers should be aware that support for business process fusion is a work in progress. Type A (technology aggressive) PeopleSoft customers can use PeopleSoft's infrastructure to pursue business process fusion by piloting new composite application development. Enterprises that have made a strategic commitment to PeopleSoft as their dominant ERP II platforms should consider PeopleSoft's architecture to accomplish business process fusion. Enterprises that use PeopleSoft as part of a mixed portfolio of applications and vendors should look at business-application-neutral platforms for fusion through at least YE04, although PeopleSoft will be appropriate for processes closely tied to PeopleSoft-delivered business functionality. PeopleSoft will have to fill holes and converge two separate and distinct product architectures. This will put PeopleSoft at a disadvantage in terms of speed to market, a disadvantage that can be overcome through resources and focus. 7 October