BearingPoint adds Sybase support to app service

IDG News Service - IT services provider BearingPoint Inc. now manages enterprise applications running on Sybase Inc. databases, the companies announced today.
As part of its application management offering, BearingPoint now provides implementation, monitoring and hosting of versions of PeopleSoft Inc. enterprise applications whose underlying database is from Sybase, Ira Entis, managing director in BearingPoint's managed services group. "What's new is the opportunity to support Sybase clients," he said.
Although it's starting with PeopleSoft, BearingPoint will later expand to enterprise applications from other vendors that use Sybase databases, Entis said. BearingPoint can manage the applications from the client's site or from an external hosting facility.
The PeopleSoft/Sybase managed application service from BearingPoint is now available worldwide. Entis declined to provide pricing information, saying prices vary widely depending on the scope and nature of the service engagement.
Before supporting Sybase software, BearingPoint already provided this service for enterprise applications that use other databases, such as those from Oracle Corp. and IBM, he said.
BearingPoint in McLean, Va., and Sybase in Dublin, Calif., said they decided to join on the effort now because they recently discovered a big opportunity to market the managed service to clients with substantial investments in Sybase software. "In discussions we had, we saw an opportunity we didn't necessarily see earlier," Entis said.
The decision to support PeopleSoft applications first is related to the uncertainty PeopleSoft users feel in light of Oracle's multibillion-dollar unsolicited offer to acquire that software vendor, he said.
BearingPoint feels this managed service might be attractive for companies that use PeopleSoft on Sybase databases and might want to migrate to another enterprise application vendor, such as SAP AG, if Oracle succeeds in its takeover attempts, he said.
By outsourcing the application management to BearingPoint, these companies would be able to delegate such a migration to BearingPoint and not have to devote resources and time to do it themselves, he said.