SAP Extends Grab for PeopleSoft Users - ' Move Makes SAP an ' (
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"Ive talked to a number of customers who are considering other maintenance options," Hamerman said, "[such as] PeopleSoft customers who are considering third-party vendors. A valid point made here in [SAPs] press release is, essentially, [regarding] Oracles development of future releases, a lot of customers may not use those future releases. They may just stay on the current release they have for an indefinite period. If support runs out, other vendors like TomorrowNow can support their retired releases."
Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst for Enterprise Applications Consulting, said that at the very least, SAP managed to cast itself as a viable option with the initial program and its recent extension.
"The program caught a lot of customers eyes, particularly the ones initially targeted: i.e., the ones with [SAP and/or PeopleSoft or JDE applications] overlap," Greenbaum said. "These are not necessarily trivial decisions, particularly for the ones not actively seeking a replacement; for those customers who are waiting out the storm.
"A lot of them have put this into the hopper, saying we need to think of this as one option. The initial program did what SAP could have hoped for: It got the conversation going and got them on the table as an option for the customers."
At any rate, its obviously a very aggressive move by SAP, Greenbaum said. "These two companies are clearly out to make each others customers as happy as possible. Theyll be very aggressive about it," he said. "At a minimum it ups the ante a bit and keeps the pressure on. And even if it impacts only a handful of people, in the long run it will have a disruptive effect on Oracle, and that is something that SAP likes."
Oracle had not responded to requests for comment by the time this story was published.
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