Dive Brief:
- Oracle is releasing a new version of its PeopleSoft Campus Solutions suite and bolstering its Oracle Cloud solutions in higher ed with a new Oracle Student Cloud and new functionality for Oracle Human Capital Management Cloud and Oracle ERP Cloud.
- The new products and updates are part of an investment in its higher ed offerings, and they are meant to provide institutions with increased flexibility and choice as a number of competitors, like Workday, move in on the space.
- With the new products, all of which are slated for release between now and 2015, higher ed institutions can choose on-site or cloud-based deployments for their student and ERP systems
Dive Insight:
Oracle's presence in higher ed is sometimes easy to overlook. The outsider looking in — and occasionally even students at schools that might not use Oracle's student-focused solutions — doesn't notice it because it's something administrators, staff, and faculty deal with directly. For the administrators, faculty, and staff, they're exposed to it so frequently that it's just there and they probably don't think about how big of a role it plays in their daily work. It is, essentially, the backbone of human resources and many other departments for most campuses, so these changes could further simplify a number of complex processes that Oracle already makes easier.
As easy as it might be to sometimes take for granted, it's also somewhat ironic that the company's technology is perhaps the most tangible contribution Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison has made to education, given his silent nature regarding personal monetary donations and investments.