Employees also use automated systems to order equipment and supplies (through a Web link to Office Depot), and they even design their own business cards: An online order form lets them enter a title and select which phone numbers and addresses to list. The card then goes to the printer, "straight to plate."
"Nobody jumps out of bed in the morning and says, 'I want to go to work and fill out forms,' " says CIO Zarate. "We create systems that let people be brilliant rather than push paper."
CEO Duffield is even more direct: "When you get rid of the BS, it's amazing how much work you can get done."
PeopleSoft didn't need fancy technology to create its value system. Fun, egalitarianism, agility - these values tend to thrive in the fast-paced world of software startups. But the company has relied on technology to maintain those values while building a workforce of thousands that spans the globe.
PeopleSoft is using information systems to create what Zarate calls an "infomocracy" - a transparent organization that provides open access to information for all its members. "Everyone should know everything," he insists, "good news and bad news. PeopleSoft has a really strong democratic strain - a sense of equality. There's no hierarchy because everyone has access to everything."
He's not exaggerating. This is a company with some 400 major databases - few of which are off-limits to employees. For example, an automated sales-tracking system called SPIKE (Sales Productivity Intelligence Knowledge Engine) makes sure that all 500-plus members of PeopleSoft's North American sales and marketing teams have as much information as possible about prospective customers. With SPIKE, sales leads get assigned electronically, usually in an hour or less. The system also tracks each lead's progress through the sales cycle, from first contact to close, ensuring that the right team members are involved at the right time - and that they always have the latest information on each client.
The company also maintains a competitive database, which stores information on rivals such as Baan, SAP, and Oracle Corp. This database gets updated regularly with financial reports and news clips. It also features an area called the Sales Lounge, on which reps can post field notes about encounters with outsiders and report outside-the-company opinions on PeopleSoft products and services.
But perhaps the most significant source of group intelligence is a Lotus Notes application known simply as the Key Stuff database. It features information on all company projects: where they are in the development process, their technical documentation, the problems associated with them, and the like. "Any person in the company, at any time, can see any product's development status," says Row Henson, 49, vice president for product strategy in human-resources software. "Most software companies avoid letting people in the field - sales reps, account managers - see what's planned for future release until it's ready to be announced. We believe that these people ought to know - have to know - as much about what's going on as anybody does."
Duffield agrees. "What our competitors are doing shouldn't really affect our plans - or vice versa," he says. "If a competitor's strategy is right, it'll win. If our strategy is right, we'll win. We're not going to win or lose by keeping information secret."
Thus far, Duffield and his colleagues have been winning big. In the near term, he says, the company's biggest challenge is adding enough talent to keep growing as fast as the market demands. In the long term, the challenge is just to keep pushing - to stay hungry even after enjoying more success than anyone thought possible.
"We can't take ourselves too seriously," Duffield says. "We can't get caught up in our own success. You can never think you've 'made it.' The challenge isn't to keep your eye on big competitors. It's to pay attention to the innovators. We don't want the next PeopleSoft to sneak up on us."
Paul Roberts proberts@nwi.net is a frequent contributor to Fast Company. His most recent article was "Kinko's - The Free-Agent Home Office" (December:January 1998).
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