SAP offers Safe Passage program to midsize firms

IDG News Service - In a move to attract a larger number of customers from rival Oracle Corp., business application software vendor SAP AG is extending its Safe Passage program to include small and midsize enterprises worldwide.
SAP and its channel partners for mySAP All-in-One will collaborate to provide companies running PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards systems protection for their existing investments, while offering a migration path to nearly 600 mySAP All-in-One applications, SAP said today.
PeopleSoft Inc., which acquired J.D. Edwards & Co. in 2003, was purchased in January by Oracle Corp. for $10.3 billion. SAP has been aggressively courting PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers ever since Oracle announced its acquisition plans.
The new program provides a conversion credit of up to 75% of the original PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards software licensing fees to be used toward the licensing of mySAP All-in-One software products. The offer is valid for all versions and releases of PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards applications.
Support and maintenance of the software will be provided through mySAP All-in-One partners.
The Safe Passage program, launched in January, initially targeted SAP customers that also ran applications from either or both of these software vendors. Around 2,000 SAP customers fit into this target group.
In April, SAP extended its Safe Passage maintenance and migration program to all companies in the U.S. running PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards applications.
More than 6,500 companies currently use PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards software products, according to SAP.

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