Financial management.

• Position: Technology Tools

PeopleSoft Inc. has released PeopleSoft Financials 8.4, a new release of pure Internet applications providing "a single global view of financial results -- anytime, anywhere," the company says. Leveraging financial management best practices such as commitment control, PeopleSoft Financials 8.4 delivers cost controls such as active alerts that inform line managers when costs exceed pre-set targets, helping to ensure that spending limits are not exceeded. Embedded analytics also provide instant insight to critical financial data, improving employee awareness and providing alignment with overall financial goals.

PeopleSoft Financials 8.4 features built-in support for financial best practices, ensuring quality and precision and reducing cycle times, errors, effort and cost. PeopleSoft says that research from Hackett Benchmarking & Research found that companies implementing Financials 8.4 would save $700,000 for every $1 billion in revenue.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based PeopleSoft claims that the new release supports the "virtual close," shortening month-end closing cycles by making information about bookings, revenue, order status, margins and expenses available to management online, in real time. PeopleSoft Financials 8.4 also automatically generates accounting entries between business entities, automating the typically labor-intensive close, with its manual reconciliation and consolidation process.

In an interview, Renee Lorton, senior...