The short answer is most PeopleSoft customers are moving or have already moved to PeopleSoft 9.1. Oracle recently shared a statistic at a recent user group meeting that almost 50% of all PeopleSoft customers are currently live on 9.1 or have a 9.1 upgrade / re-implementation project in process. When you include PeopleSoft 9.0 customers, you have almost 80% of the PeopleSoft install base on versions 9.0 or 9.1.

Clearly – customers are adopting PeopleSoft 9.1 at an astounding rate. PeopleSoft 9.1 is generally considered the most compelling PeopleSoft release in years. When combined with the latest PeopleTools releases (8.51 / 8.52), you have substantial functional application and technological enhancements. There are literally hundreds of enhancements across Financials, Supply Chain Management and Human Capital Management. Staying current with the PeopleSoft roadmap also allows customers to take advantage of Fusion when they are ready.

Customers on 9.1 also don’t have to wait until the next major release to take advantage of new functionality delivered by Oracle. Oracle has utilized PeopleSoft 9.1 to roll-out its new Feature Pack strategy and Continuous Delivery Model. These serve as a way to deliver new application enhancements to those on 9.1 without having to perform customization or upgrade. As of December 2011, Feature Pack 1 has been delivered for Financials and Feature Packs 1 and 2 are available for HCM. This also allows PeopleSoft to better compete against Cloud / SaaS based applications where application enhancements are made on a more frequent basis.

There are those customers who also are upgrading out of necessity for a multitude of reasons:

• Support expiration / fee increases
• Get caught up on fixes, bundles and general maintenance
• Required due to hardware upgrade

If you aren’t on 9.1, there are a number of next steps your organization should consider. You should first understand the PeopleSoft application roadmap and support horizon for your current version. Customers should get a handle on your current PeopleSoft environment – inventory customizations, reports, processes, interfaces, etc. Customers also should review key business processes and identify gaps, pain points and manual / offline processes.

Oracle has outlined a delivery date for PeopleSoft 9.2 in late 2012, with the upgrade scripts to follow in 2013. At this point in the upgrade cycle organizations will be asking themselves, “Can we afford to wait?” Clearly the answer will vary by situation, but we are seeing numerous 9.1 upgrades planned for early 2012.

An upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.1 isn’t for every organization. Those with long-term commitments to Oracle or ongoing ERP needs should be paying close attention to Oracle’s application roadmap and asking themselves “Why aren’t we on PeopleSoft 9.1?”