PeopleSoft exec follows Conway out the door

Within two weeks of the firing of CEO Craig Conway, business applications vendor PeopleSoft Inc. has seen the departure of another top executive, Ram Gupta, executive vice president of products and technology.

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Company spokesman Steve Swasey yesterday confirmed Gupta's exit but declined to add any details, leaving it unclear whether Gupta was fired, as his boss Conway was, or left voluntarily.

"We don't discuss the departure of employees and personal employee business," Swasey said.

Gupta was largely seen as the executive in charge of the consolidation of the PeopleSoft applications portfolio with those of J.D. Edwards & Co., which PeopleSoft acquired last year. In an interview with Computerworld this summer, Gupta said that among PeopleSoft's post-merger achievements was the ability to provide customers with "more choice" in products.

In addition to reviving development of the World product line, Gupta claimed that in one year, PeopleSoft rolled out more enhancements to the EnterpriseOne suite, the former J.D. Edwards flagship application, than had been added in the two years before the merger.

Replacing Gupta is longtime PeopleSoft veteran Stan Swete, who worked for PeopleSoft between 1992 and 2002 and was one of "the principal architects of PeopleSoft 8," according to Swasey. Swete's return to the company demonstrates CEO Dave Duffield's commitment "to re-energize PeopleSoft's innovation and technology development," Swasey added.

With the arrival of Aneel Bhusri as vice chairman of the board, Gupta's departure was more a matter of when than if, said John Moore, analyst at ARC Advisory Group Inc., a Dedham, Mass.-based consultancy. Bhusri, who was appointed when Conway was ousted, will oversee product strategy.

Overall, Gupta's performance was satisfactory, Moore said, but at times, he seemed to lack a "grand" vision for PeopleSoft's technology road map. What would be surprising, he added, is if current PeopleSoft Chief Technology Officer Rick Bergquist also departs. Bergquist is more likely to get along under the new management, Moore said, and it was likely that Gupta bristled at having been demoted under Duffield's regime and "packed his bags."

Another open question is whether the total ownership experience customer quality program that Conway and Gupta both championed over the past year will be allowed to fade away. Mostly likely, Moore said, it will diminish from the prominence it has had.

This is just another step toward Oracle Corp.'s inevitable buyout of PeopleSoft, said Joshua Greenbaum, analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, Calif. Oracle doesn't need marketing people from PeopleSoft, particularly one like Gupta, who Greenbaum believes allowed the company to become more reactive than proactive in technology development. Gupta's exit is not a bad thing for customers, said Greenbaum. "I think PeopleSoft users can feel more secure knowing that the game is drawing to a close."