LYCOS RETRIEVER 
David Duffield: Software
built 630 days ago
Duffield had hoped that his financial programs would eventually account for as much as one-half of company sales. The software was welcomed by the market and seemed to be living up to Duffield's expectations by late 1993. The line of financial programs was expanded to include applications for general ledger accounting, asset management, and accounts payable/receivable management. When sales from that line kicked in during 1993, revenues and profits vaulted to about $58.2 million and $8.4 million. Interestingly, that sales figure approximated the 1992 revenues for Integral, the company that Duffield had started and left six years earlier; soon, PeopleSoft would leave that mainframe software company in the dust.
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Now, at 66, Duffield is back in business. This time he's making a bold attempt to challenge industry giants Oracle and SAP AG with on-demand software that allows customers to manage business tasks via the Internet instead of installing costly programs on company computers. In an interesting twist, that means taking on the old PeopleSoft products that Oracle still sells and supports.
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After failing to convince Larry Ellison that Oracle should invest in the development of human resource management software, Duffield decided to create his own business. PeopleSoft with its innovative software for managing human resource functions became a phenomenal success. In addition to its financial success, Duffield was heralded for creating a culture and environment in which individuals could thrive personally and professionally.
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Analysts say Duffield's timing couldn't be better. He is entering the software business just as corporations, frustrated by years of wrangling with complex and expensive products, have begun searching for a simpler way to automate their businesses. Young trailblazers like Salesforce.com, NetSuite and RightNow Technologies are encouraging companies to migrate to online software. The approach has been gaining in popularity for the past eight years, since former Oracle executive Marc Benioff launched Salesforce.com, a subscription service that allows companies to manage sales leads on the Web.
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