It has been nearly 18 months since enterprise software giants Oracle Corp. and SAP AG went toe-to-toe over corporate theft charges filed March 22, 2007, by Oracle, but, besides spotlighting the intense rivalry between the two companies, the celebrated suit has done little to squelch the market for lower-cost maintenance services from third-party providers.
"The suit really hasn't had much of an impact on the market," said Ray Wang, an analyst at Forrester Research. "People are still looking at third-party maintenance."
"The numbers looking at us may have been suppressed somewhat, but we can't say what the percentage is," said Seth Ravin, president and CEO at Rimini Street Inc., one of the larger providers of third-party maintenance alongside SAP's TomorrowNow unit, which is the subject of Oracle's lawsuit. "Still," Ravin added, "our business has been on a tear. We've grown 300% this year, and we're seeing more longer-term deals with major Fortune 500 companies."
Interest in lower-cost third-party maintenance remains strong despite the suit for a couple of reasons, Wang and Ravin said.