Oracle vs SAP - The gloves come off

Jason Karaian at GTF’s sister site, cfo.com, reports that Oracle’s suit against SAP is a sign that the industry’s nasty infighting is getting even nastier.

 Oracle is suing SAP  for allegedly hacking into its customer-support database and stealing sensitive information that it used to lure customers from its fierce rival. The argument is over TomorrowNow, SAP’s support-services arm, one of many third-party maintenance firms chipping away at Oracle’s high-margin, vendor-provided support for JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and other recent acquisitions.

Jason points out that, “dripping with snark and venom”, Oracle’s complaint makes compelling reading for anyone interested in the enterprise software industry. In attacking SAP, however, Oracle isn’t doing itself any favors. For example, the company maintains that TomorrowNow, with its relatively small staff, couldn’t possibly offer deep discounts on maintenance services without extensive access to pilfered proprietary information, because of the hundreds of regulatory updates, bug fixes, etc that a customer would need to maintain Oracle software.

This isn’t the first time that Oracle’s and SAP’s dirty laundry has been washed in public, cfo.com points out. When Oracle was fighting for antitrust clearance to purchase PeopleSoft, a document dump by the DoJ provided an inside glimpse at the tactics top vendors use to lure customers, including several revealing memos on the extent of discounts they were willing to offer. There were also plenty of colorful E-mail exchanges, including Oracle boss Larry Ellison declaring that  “best of breed is dead - except at dog shows, “ while another Oracle executive eagerly passed on to colleagues advice on dealing with the DoJ from a “master,” the soon-to-be-incarcerated ex-CEO of Computer Associates, Sanjay Kumar.

While it’s too early to tell which way the chips will fall, ultimately this spat can only hurt both of the participants. Smaller competitors are no doubt looking on with undisguised glee.