OAUG (Oracle Applications Users Group) president Patricia Dues said Tuesday that the organization is in the midst of plans to support PeopleSoft users and the PeopleSoft user group.

"The OAUG welcomes them to work with us," Dues said.

In simple terms it means that the OAUG will show the PeopleSoft user organization the ropes -- how to work with the giant software vendor.

The OAUG has many years of experience in working with Oracle Corp.

In the past there has been some friction between the OAUG and Oracle around dropping support for older applications. But at the end of the day, Oracle has usually compromised and extended support timeframes to comply with OAUG members.

OAUG is currently in the midst of planning how they will support the PeopleSoft user group, said Dues.

The OAUG president conjectured that significant help can be given by laying out the organizational structure of the OAUG and how it has adapted to work with Oracle.

"We have the infrastructure in place," she said.

For example, OAUG has a Customer Support Council that works directly with Oracle and on which an Oracle executive sits.

Dues said OAUG sees the PeopleSoft Inc. purchase as a positive and is not concerned that the software giant might dilute its current support or development to accommodate thousands of new customers.

"Oracle is buying the entire company, and that means the development group is coming with it so there is no reason that Oracle applications will be ignored or support will dwindle," said Dues.

Finally, Dues said that it is self-evident that PeopleSoft has an excellent product by the fact that it has competed for so long with Oracle.

"They have been doing something right. The ability for Oracle to pick the brains of these very smart people will be an asset," Dues said.