Government, higher ed benefit from PeopleSoft creation

PeopleSoft Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., has developed two new homeland security solutions to assist government and higher education organizations, the company announced Aug. 26 at its software user conference in New Orleans.One of the solutions, called Guardian, is a suite of applications that enables government agencies and police, fire and emergency personnel ? the so-called first responders ? to prepare for and react to emergencies in real time. The suite includes applications for recruitment, skills assessment and deployment of first responders.The Guardian command center console manages the information and communications needs of emergency command centers both in times of crisis and in daily work-force management. It will monitor emergency alerts, track resources and assess personnel skills, allowing users to manage emergency response from any location.The other new solution, called the Patriot Act SEVIS Solution, or PASS, will enable higher education institutions to comply with the federal mandate to track and report on the status of foreign students in the United States. Beginning in January 2003, higher education institutions will have to report changes in the status of foreign students enrolled at their campuses to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS established the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System to track the more than 500,000 foreign nationals who enter the United States each year on student visas. PeopleSoft's PASS solution will enable educational institutions to comply by the Jan. 31 deadline. The first customers to use PeopleSoft PASS include the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Duke University, California State University System, University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan, the company said. "The two solutions...are the first of many [homeland security] solutions that you will see coming out from PeopleSoft," said Kimberley Williams, director of industry strategy for PeopleSoft's education and government.