SAP Sidles Up to PeopleSoft Users

Software giant SAP AG (NYSE/Frankfurt: SAP) has moved quickly to hoover up any PeopleSoft Inc. (Nasdaq: PSFT) users worried about the long-term impact of the Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) merger (see SAP Offers Safe Passage and Oracle Takes Control of PeopleSoft).

This morning, the German vendor unveiled its strategy to lure PeopleSoft users onto its own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products. Initially targeted at users with both SAP and PeopleSoft products, the initiative involves SAP handling maintenance and support for both its own offerings and those of PeopleSoft.

SAP also unveiled a migration path over to its own mySAP ERP products. To back the strategy up, SAP has acquired Texas-based services firm TomorrowNow, a specialist in providing support for the PeopleSoft product line.

But Sheryl Kingstone, program manager at analyst firm The Yankee Group, warns PeopleSoft users not to panic. I wouldn’t jump to SAP just because you are not sure of the direction that Oracle is taking the products in,” she says.

“Where [the migration path] becomes a little complicated is that SAP and PeopleSoft use a completely different architecture for development tools."SAP’s move follows Oracle’s decision to slash 5,000 jobs from the newly combined firm, and came just 24 hours after the firm announced its long-term plans for the combined companies (see Oracle Announces Job Cuts and Oracle Shares PeopleSoft Plans).

Nonetheless, Kingstone believes that SAP could still be “worth a look” for users that employ a mixture of software products. “The mixed environment is certainly there,” she says, adding that a number of SAP customers also use PeopleSoft for the likes of call-center applications.

SAP estimates that around 2,000 companies around the world use its own products as well as those from PeopleSoft and its JD Edwards product line.

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum