Oracle targeting SAP through OFF SAP

This is Larry Ellison at his competitive best! But the fact is that he needs a good product! And such a HUGE endeavor can create a BIG bottleneck. Initially the Oracle consultants will be in demand ... and then .. there will be no one to do the stuff if the magintude is to be what Oracle intends it to be!

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) to SAP customers: it's time to get "OFF SAP." And to help with that, Oracle today announced it is offering SAP R/3 customers, who are faced with having to re-license and re-implement their applications in order to upgrade to mySAP ERP or mySAP Business Suite, an alternative to move to Oracle(R) E-Business Suite.

Under the new program, Oracle Fusion for SAP or "OFF SAP," Oracle will
offer SAP R/3 customers up to a 100% license credit, to switch from SAP to Oracle applications. Additionally, as part of "OFF SAP," Oracle Consulting is announcing a free SAP Migration Insight offer, which includes a discovery workshop for R/3 customers that results in an assessment of the customers' specific migration plan. With SAP Migration Insight, Oracle Consulting will provide customers with a clear understanding of the migration process and benefits. Oracle Financing will offer a two-year payment plan for the application license and support fees, with no interest and no payments for six
months, followed by six installments. Together, these programs will allow customers to quickly begin receiving value from their Oracle applications, mapping payments to benefits over two years.

SAP requires customers who choose to upgrade from SAP R/3 to mySAP ERP or mySAP Business Suite to re-license and re-implement the applications, which can cost customers significant amounts of time and money.

"Oracle has evolved customers with us for nearly three decades across multiple generations of technology," said Charles Phillips, president, Oracle.

"94% of Oracle E-Business Suite customers are running on the latest
applications -- Release 11i. SAP, however, seems to be requiring customers to re-license their applications to upgrade to SAP's latest technology. Only 6% of SAP's customers have upgraded to mySAP ERP, according to a leading analyst firm. Now they have a low cost alternative to stop paying for upgrades and get OFF SAP."

SAP customers are faced with complexity, fragmented data, difficult and expensive upgrade processes and managing the legacy ABAP language. Over 40 customers have already switched from SAP to Oracle applications, and companies such as Group Voyagers (US) and Usina Nova America (Brazil) have moved from SAP to Oracle to take advantage of Oracle's standards-based applications and easy upgrades.

Oracle applications provide customers with technical advantages that deliver business value:

-- Information all in one place: only Oracle offers an information
architecture that allows customers to run on one global model and instance.

-- Business process flexibility: only Oracle has built configuration right into the system. This allows customers to rapidly adapt their business processes to ever changing business drivers.

-- Open, standards-based environment: only Oracle has built its
applications using the latest standards, such as Java (J2EE), enabling our customers to operate in the most secure, scalable and low-cost environments.

"We want customers to be able to breathe easily, knowing that they've got the best products available to maintain and gain their competitive advantage while ensuring their business runs as smoothly as possible -- without the headaches of re-licensing software when a new version of the product is developed. Additionally, Oracle provides transparent pricing, which is available on our website, so there are no surprises," continued Phillips.

Customers can take advantage of the "OFF SAP" program by calling Oracle
directly at 1-800-ORACLE-1.

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