There may not be a major PeopleSoft release to announce from Oracle OpenWorld, but there's plenty of PeopleSoft news coming out of San Francisco. 

First, release 9.2 will not be coming later this year. PeopleSoft strategy lead Paco Aubrejuan announced in the PeopleSoft roadmap session that although a specific date is not available, 9.2 is scheduled for general availability in the early part of 2013. Clearly lots of folks are interested though, as he spoke to a packed room that put a smile on his face prompted the comment, "Whoever said PeopleSoft is dead?" Applause followed. "This is our eighth year as part of Oracle, and I think our best yet," Aubrejuan said. 

Additionally, three new PeopleSoft Mobile applications are available now and will work with 9.1, announced Dave Bain in the Mobile session. Expense management, approvals and company directory are now ready to go mobile on both tablets and smartphones, and do not require additional licensing fees, he said. 

Other noteworthy news includes the PeopleSoft extended support window: 9.0 will be supported through June of 2015, and extended support fees are waived for both versions 9.0 and 9.1. 

News from PeopleTools followed the roadmap session with Jeff Robbins taking the stage to another packed house. PeopleTools releases are now scheduled for every 12-18 months, but customers can realistically expect a 15-18 month window, he said. Among improvements in 8.53 are improved pivot grids, available site-wide branding, dashboards and workcenters optimized for tablets and a simpler design in the interaction model, similar to web browsing. 

Be sure to check out the PeopleSoft Update manager as well. This features allows customers to easily install any and all (pick and choose) available updates and bug fixes in one easy step. "PeopleSoft update manager knows what's new and what's been fixed," Robbins said, making it easy for customers to always have access to the latest and greatest fully functioning version of PeopleSoft. 

While 9.2 may not be out yet, lots of demos and information has come out of OOW. Moving forward, the PeopleSoft team is looking to make applications that are simpler and more intuitive, require little or no customization, and that make staying current easy and affordable. "Every investment we make is measured against those," Aubrejuan said. 

He treated the audience to a demo of the new Life Events feature in PeopleSoft HCM 9.2, taking on the persona of Roseanna Channing to the amusement of the crowd. "I know it doesn't look it, but I just had a baby," he quipped, before taking the audience through employee self service features of adding new withholdings and applying for promotions. 

The HCM demo also showed the audience new search functions, paycheck modeling, the recruiting dashboard and pagelets which will now be transactional, not just view-only. 

More to come from this jam-packed week in sunny San Francisco (no fog yet!), so stay tuned!