TomorrowNows Fate Wont Ruin Third-Party App Support (
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Third-party app support won't fail despite TomorrowNow's legal struggles, observers say.The resignation of TomorrowNows top management raises questions about the companies viability as well as about the prospects for all other companies that provide third party support for enterprise class business applications.
SAP announced Nov. 19 that Andrew Nelson, the founder and CEO of the beleaguered subsidiary, has resigned, bringing several top managers with him. At the same time, SAP said in a statement it is looking at its options with TomorrowNow, including a potential sale of the company.
The "sale" caveat has led to questions about the real issues that will determine the future of TomorrowNow, which is embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Oracle in April alleging the subsidiary stole code from Oracles support servers. In July, SAP admitted to some wrongdoing at TomorrowNow, but said it had no knowledge of or access to the unlawfully obtained data.
On Nov. 1 Nelson sent out a letter to customers saying that TomorrowNow is in the process of implementing "an important business change designed to benefit both our clients and TomorrowNow." The letter states that during the past two months TomorrowNows sales and services teams reached out to customers to discuss the establishment of a new software support environment on customer computers and on premises that would be used by TomorrowNows maintenance and support engineers.
Click here to read more about SAPs plan to consider several "options" including a possible sale of TomorrowNow.
The upshot for customers is that, as of Nov. 21, the company will permanently shut down the TomorrowNow service teams access to its customer support environment. If customers dont have an alternative plan worked out, their support service could be interrupted.
"To avoid potential disruption to your TomorrowNow Support Services after Nov. 21 your organization will need to provide a new support environment that is not on TomorrowNow computers or TomorrowNow premises," reads the letter, submitted to eWEEK from sources close to the company.
In the letter, Nelson said he personally welcomes the opportunity to address questions or concerns. He provided his direct contact information at TomorrowNow. In July SAP named Mark White as the new executive chairman for TomorrowNow. Whites mandate was to clear up irregularities at SAPs subsidiary. In its Nov. 19 statement SAP said White is still in charge at the company.
There are currently two companies that sell third party support for the PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel Customer Relationship Management Applications acquired by Oracle: TomorrowNow and Rimini Street.
TomorrowNow, which was co-founded by Nelson and Seth Ravin, was acquired by SAP shortly after Oracle acquired PeopleSoft in late 2005. In the meanwhile, Ravin split from TomorrowNow and formed Rimini Street. The goal with both companies is to provide third party support for enterprise applications at about 50 cents on the dollar.
TomorrowNow, however, fell on hard times when Oracle filed suit against SAP and its subsidiary and upon subsequent investigation SAP found TomorrowNow had in fact improperly downloaded "some" documentation from Oracles support site.
Its not clear what will happen to Oracles suit against SAP should SAP sell TomorrowNow. Currently the two enterprise software rivals are scheduled to meet in court in February, 2008. However, the uncertainty raised by the lawsuit could weigh heavy on customers decisions to migrate to third party support providers.
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Enterprise Applications 
