Enterprise applications vendor PeopleSoft is scrambling to flesh out its customer relationship management (CRM) offerings. In January 2001, it bought privately held marketing automation software developer Annuncio for an undisclosed sum. This will enable PeopleSoft to offer one-to-one online marketing capabilities.

Initial integration of Annuncio’s product will take several months, but the software “is deliberately designed to slot into an existing web application,” claims Charles Grover, PeopleSoft’s international CRM business director. Once the deal closes by the end of the first quarter of 2002, he says, PeopleSoft customers will benefit “almost immediately”.

The Annuncio acquisition was PeopleSoft’s second in as many months. In mid-December 2001, PeopleSoft bought sales and service configurator applications from bankrupt ecommerce software provider Calico Commerce for $5 million in cash. Combining Calico’s configurator with Annuncio’s technology and PeopleSoft’s new customer behaviour modelling capabilities, “will make for an interesting scenario,” says AMR Research. It will let marketers drive visitors to a website where they will be offered configured services or products with options based on the company’s knowledge of the individual’s preferences. However, the analyst group believes it will take “at least a year” to fully integrate Annuncio.