SAP support to Oracle users

SAP is offering third party support and maintenance to Oracle users using Siebel applications (a CRM). SAP is undertaking this manoeuvre with the help of its wholly-owned subsidiary TomorrowNow, which specialises in supporting JD Edwards and PeopleSoft applications. The program offers support to users who wish to stick to Oracle applications and only need support from a third party.

TomorrowNow’s program caters more to maintenance needs than upgradation. While there may be no product advancements in the service, there are features such as bug fixes, patches and compliance updates. SAP claims to provide all this at a rate much lower than Oracle support—around 22 percent of their initial implementation fee to be precise.

This is an important factor in the announcements made by SAP simply because organisations use software packages for up to five years and therefore may spend more on maintenance than on buying them.

SAP has therefore planned to forego the upfront license fees early on to woo Oracle customers.

Along with this, SAP also offers the Safe Passage (a migration path) program to users who want to switch from Oracle to SAP applications.