SAP: Time's up for TomorrowNow

SAP is to wind down TomorrowNow, the third party support subsidiary it acquired in 2005.

TomorrowNow - which provides support for applications produced by SAP's chief rival Oracle, at a lower cost than Oracle's own support - will be formally wound down by 31 October.

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TomorrowNow staff have little contact with Oracle but have detailed knowledge of the apps they work on - such as PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel - with many having experience of working for Oracle.

SAP is now working with more than 225 customers currently using TomorrowNow to help them move back to Oracle support or other support options.

Executive chairman of TomorrowNow, Mark White, said the company's goal is to help customers move to other support options without any disruption.

TomorrowNow hit controversy in 2007 when Oracle alleged SAP had hacked into Oracle's customer support centre to gain copies of its proprietary software code.

SAP admitted TomorrowNow had made inappropriate and unacceptable downloads of Oracle software but denied it had access to any intellectual property.

This prompted questions about TomorrowNow's future and rumours circulated late last year that SAP was looking to sell the organisation.