SAP is shutting down TomorrowNow, the troubled services subsidiary that sparked a trade secrets lawsuit from archrival Oracle and generally created headaches for the German application vendor.
SAP announced Monday that "it has chosen to wind down the operations of TomorrowNow," a process that will be completed by Oct. 31. The company in a statement said it is working with TomorrowNow's 225 customers to help transition them to support services from Oracle or another provider.
SAP had indicated last November that it was considering several options for the future of the TomorrowNow business, including its possible sale.
Acquired by SAP inn 2005, TomorrowNow provides third-party support for Oracle's acquired JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications. TomorrowNow's forte was providing maintenance and support services at a lower cost than Oracle. SAP acquired TomorrowNow in what was seen as a bid to pull customers of those acquired applications away from Oracle and into the SAP fold.
But TomorrowNow proved to be problematic for SAP. In March 2007, Oracle sued SAP, alleging that TomorrowNow had illegally accessed Oracle's customer-support Web site and downloaded Oracle software and support materials. In a response filed in July 2007, SAP acknowledged that "certain downloads took place that, in violation of [TomorrowNow] policies, may have erroneously exceeded the customer's right of access."
The lawsuit is still pending and trial is currently scheduled for February 2010.
Last November TomorrowNow's top executives resigned and SAP said it was considering selling the business.
Options for TomorrowNow customers include paying for maintenance and support from Oracle, hiring another third-party service provider such as Rimini Street or doing the work in-house.
Rimini Street, which provides services for JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications, announced in May that it would begin offering similar services for SAP applications. That company's fortunes could get a boost from SAP's decision to move its enterprise customers to a more expensive support plan by Jan. 1. Rimini Street CEO Seth Ravin was a co-founder of TomorrowNow, and his new company at one point considered, then decided against, acquiring TomorrowNow.
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