From: Art Gaylord
To: FSUC&ECC members
Re: PeopleSoft/Microsoft product dependencies issue.

I thought it might be helpful to provide some current information about
the nature and potential impacts of PeopleSoft's dependency on Microsoft
products to facilitate discussion at Thursday's meeting.  Some of what I
write below is based upon things I learned at the PeopleSoft Conference
earlier this month and maybe different than what you have heard before.

Although the PeopleSoft products have some dependencies upon Microsoft
products and third party products which run only on Microsoft operating
systems, this will not be a limiting factor in terms of people's ability
to use the PeopleSoft software.  Nearly all of the functionality of the
PeopleSoft products will be accessible using any Web browser that supports
standard HTML and HTTP protocols.  This includes, but is not limited to,
both Netscape and Internet Explorer on any platform they run on.  The
browser will be the primary direct interface into PeopleSoft for students,
faculty, and most staff and will support all common "self-service"
functions such as application for admission, course registration,
financial aid processing, payment of bills, and student advising.

A small number of staff members in administrative offices will need to use
PeopleSoft client software which runs only on Microsoft operating systems.
This client software will be used primarily for administration of the
PeopleSoft software itself and for the bulk entry of data.  We expect that
significantly less than 1% of all people in the campus community accessing
PeopleSoft will need to use this client.  PeopleSoft does not intend to
port this client to other operating systems, but instead is moving to
enhance its Web interface to eliminate the need for this client.

Some of the add-on reporting tools that PeopleSoft currently supplies run
only on Microsoft operating systems.  These tools, however, intended to be
used only by a limited number of administrative staff.  PeopleSoft
supports standard  interfaces for the purposes of reporting that can be
used across operating systems and software vendors and is making
significant enhancements to their interfaces to import and export data in
the next release of their software.

In summary, one of the major factors in the selection of PeopleSoft as the
vendor for our next generation of administrative software was their
software's ability to be directly used by an extended campus community
with a minimum of software and hardware restrictions.  Although the
current version of the software places some limitations upon a small
subset of the people who will be using we believe that these are minor and
will further diminish as the software evolves.