SAP’s safe passage

SAP has advanced the battle of Safe Passage in their holy war against Oracle, as more companies have been added to the list of those protected. Companies running solutions from PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Retek, and / or Siebel now have safe passage to IT investment protection; originally, the deal had only been offered to those employing Siebel product and Retek users are a new addition. SAP’s Safe Passage program is hyped as a solution for those who “face the uncertainties of the end of life of your PeopleSoft, JDE, Retek, or Siebel solutions.”

Naturally, too, SAP AG is touting their SAP NetWeaver as key to the smooth migration process. So confident is the SAP crew that their home page offers graphic information regarding the program’s track record in a “real world environment.” Four PDF files seek to convince customers through example that SAP is the way to go. Originally dubbed an initiative, the SAP Safe Passage program was launched at the beginning of 2005 to direct take in Oracle costumers in the wake of the osmosis of Siebel Microsystems.

At that time, Safe Passage promised that SAP partners would be enabled to align with SAP to advance strategic business goals; increase sales and lead generation capabilities; improve sales and implementation skills through training and education; improve information flow; and improve account management. In September 2005 came an extension to the program for Oracle customers using PeopleSoft and JD Edwards solutions through business process outsourcing. Leveraging business process outsourcing was then touted as an attractive alternative for PeopleSoft and JDE customers – again – “seeking to avoid the uncertainty surrounding their applications’ end of life after Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft and JDE.” (And again after an acquisition by Oracle.)

Global human resources services provider Arinso International, was the first new sale to the “BPO Services Powered by SAP” program. The “BPO Services Powered by SAP” quality seal certifies that BPO providers possess in-depth knowledge of SAP solutions, offer proven support and operations capabilities and keep the SAP solution for their customers on extant technology. The entire program would not have come together without a single key piece of the puzzle, however. That came in January 2005 with an acquisition of SAP AG’s own, that of TomorrowNow.

Once billed as the industry’s “most experienced third-party support provider of enterprise maintenance and support for customers of PeopleSoft and JDE,” TomorrowNow systems allowed SAP to offer maintenance and software support for PeopleSoft and JDE solutions. At that time, SAP calculated that approximately 2,000 companies were running SAP solutions who also had operations running PeopleSoft and JDE solutions. With the SAP NetWeaver platform connectors for JDE and PeopleSoft solutions, the Safe Passage program was underway. Just one year later, SAP financial representatives were able to announce the most successful year in the company’s eight-year history, thanking TomorrowNow and their new program.

SAP officials claimed that in one year of using TomorrowNow brains and technology, the firm gained 75 new clients, 31 using J.D. Edwards; hired 100 new employees; expanded regulatory support capabilities to 37 countries, including 34 countries for PeopleSoft and 35 countries for J.D. Edwards; enabled support in twelve languages; and opened a whopping four new offices, one each in the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The newest additions to the program were welcomed with the offer of SAP assuming maintenance, service and support issues across the SAP and PeopleSoft/JDE environments; immediate integration benefits from SAP NetWeaver, promising an extension to the life of extant investments in PeopleSoft and JDE; a clear road map for migration; and a services-oriented platform to drive business innovation via applications such as the SAP xApps packaged composite applications.

“Our first priority is assuring SAP customers that their relationship with SAP protects them from this disruption, and it is clear that companies running PeopleSoft and JDE solutions have serious concerns about the future of those software packages and how they will be supported,” said Bill McDermott, SAP America Inc. president / CEO, in the announcement. McDermott’s heart may be in the right place, but the apocalyptic vision that SAP sees for those firms so often mentioned as something like “facing uncertainties in the end of life of (competitors’) solutions” hasn’t happened too often.

One can suppose that SAP AG is content to wait, offering their services as a CRM security blanket. Just in case… Brussels, Belgium-based Arinso International is a global HR services partner offering various business consulting, outsourcing services and integration services. The company was founded in 1994 and currently employs over 2,200 staff in 25 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. TomorrowNow, Inc. lays claim to the title of “most experienced third-party provider of PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards software maintenance and support.”

The SAP division offers up to 10-year support periods to Fortune 500, mid-market, and public sector organizations from “nearly every industry sector.” SAP is one of the planet’s top providers of business software solutions, with over 34,000 customers in 26 industry segments, including high tech, healthcare, retail, public sector and financial services, and subsidiaries in 51 countries.