Oracle announced PeopleSoft Enterprise Financials and Supply Chain Management 9.1 today, an enterprise applications suite that is said to use Web 2.0 tools to increase collaboration and productivity and reduce operational costs.

With input from more than 150 customers, the latest release includes new features in Oracle’s financial, supplier relationship management, enterprise service automation, supply chain, and asset lifecycle management software. Release 9.1 draws on Web 2.0 tools for improved collaboration and provides workbenches, dashboards, and embedded analytics to increase productivity. The integrated applications help users to execute business processes more efficiently, the company said.

“A large part of this was bringing the user experience forward,” said John Webb, VP of product management for PeopleSoft products, in an interview today.

The PeopleSoft Supplier Relationship Management 9.1 module is said to cut supply management costs by enforcing procurement policies, reducing spend on goods and services, and streamlining procure-to-pay processes.

More specifically, Webb said, procurement users can look at a vendor record related to a purchase order, pulling in information from within PeopleSoft and outside sources, such as a Dun & Bradstreet report, to show the financial viability of a supplier.

The application also automates contract generation and collaboration. It can record the give-and-take of contract negotiations with full document authoring capability and document sharing so that various departments, such as legal or engineering, can add comments. Suppliers can view contracts or purchase orders and add their comments as well. Interactions can occur through e-mail, the web, or a portal, Webb said.

PeopleSoft Supply Chain Management 9.1 improves processing across the supply chain by increasing the efficiency of order capture and returns, accelerating fulfillment and logistics execution, and improving coordination, the company said.

Within the supply chain module, the Manufacturing Solution focuses on optimizing production processes and ensuring alignment with business goals by connecting customers, suppliers, and employees with manufacturing best practices, Oracle said. This helps to eliminate waste and maximize demand-driven efficiency. Real-time performance analysis can save time and money. One of the features now available in this application is the ability to create production schedules from orders, bypassing product configurators, Webb said. Users can look online at the production bill of materials to spot shortages. Also, an integration between PeopleSoft and Demantra provides demand forecasting capability, he said.

PeopleSoft Asset Lifecycle Management 9.1 optimizes capital infrastructure decisions and helps reduce equipment downtime with new analytics, streamlined asset and lease accounting, and configurable alerts to detect and resolve asset-related issues, the company said. This module gives users tools for capital planning and budgeting, constructing, servicing and maintaining, upgrading, transferring, and disposing of equipment.

The asset-focused application focuses on fixed plant equipment, IT, and real estate assets, Webb said. In release 9.1, there is added support for mobile workers in field maintenance for improved work orders and scheduling capability. By looking ahead, workers can determine, for example, whether service is needed in addition to a repair, saving additional on-site visits.