IRS Chooses PeopleSoft CRM Software

The Internal Revenue Service awarded PeopleSoft Inc. a contract worth more than $10 million to provide customer relationship management software.

The Internal Revenue Service awarded PeopleSoft Inc. a contract worth more than $10 million to provide customer relationship management software.

The Pleasanton, Calif., company will supply the full PeopleSoft 8 CRM suite, through which taxpayers, preparers and IRS users can obtain tax records around the clock.

Under the contract, the IRS will obtain enterprise licenses for the browser-based software for use on multiple computing systems, said Ron Sullivan, general manager of PeopleSoft's federal government sales.

The first phase of deployment will begin next summer, and the full installation will be complete by 2004, he said. The initiative is part of the IRS' modernization program, led by Computer Sciences Corp., which holds the IRS Prime contract.

Sullivan said the request for proposals went out in March to a select group of CRM vendors. CSC and the tax agency evaluated the PeopleSoft product for about two months to make sure it met the requirements, he said.

Other bidders included Clarify Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and Siebel Systems Inc. of San Mateo, Calif.