PeopleSoft pack predicts customer penchants

PLEASANTON, CALIF. - PeopleSoft next week will unveil software designed to let companies create better customer profiles and predict customer behavior through their Web sites and call centers.

The Customer Behavior Modeling application would build customer profiles and gather the information into predictive models, says Louis Olds, a PeopleSoft vice president. The modeling aspect would use data mining with advanced analytics. Companies could look at transactions and identify a customer's propensity to buy a certain product or continue doing business with them.

PeopleSoft plans to release the Customer Behavior Modeling application, as well as new wireless technology for delivering customer relationship management (CRM) applications, at its user conference next week in Atlanta.

The application also includes a customer-scoring feature that will use models to rate customers. The scoring would be used for marketing, sales and customer support.

The software maker is joining the likes of Oracle, E.piphany, Siebel Systems and SAP in offering similar customer behavior features, although PeopleSoft has struggled bringing this feature to its customers.

The weakest link

"[Customer analytics has] been their weakest point, and they needed to fill this hole," says Kevin Scott, an analyst at AMR Research.

However, Patricia Seybold Group's Lynne Harvey says PeopleSoft's Customer Behavior Modeling application is on par with those of competitors.

Coming from PeopleSoft PeopleSoft’s new Customer Behavior Modeling application includes capabilities that: Build customer profiles. Provide models that predict customer behavior. Rate customers by value to company.

"PeopleSoft was behind the curve, but it's catching up to the others," she says. For example, Siebel has had to partner with companies such as Experian to offer customer modeling in its e-business applications, whereas PeopleSoft is building its customer modeling software into its Enterprise Performance Management applications suite.

Pricing for Customer Behavior Modeling, which is due out in November, varies based on the size of the organization. It can range from less than $100,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, the company says.

CRM delivery

In addition to the application announcement, PeopleSoft will unveil technology that would deliver CRM applications to mobile devices such as laptops and PDAs.

According to AMR analyst Scott, CRM vendors have yet to figure out how to overcome the infrastructure and security issues that have prevented the delivery of these applications over wireless devices.

PeopleSoft: www.peoplesoft.com