Business software vendor SAP plans to intensify its efforts to win over users of rival applications from Oracle Corp., an SAP executive said recently. SAP intends to release the second version of its Safe Passage migration program aimed at Oracle's customers in the third quarter, said Bill McDermott, president and chief executive officer of SAP Americas.

"Our job is to get into [Oracle's] installed base and let them know there's a choice," he said.

SAP launched the first version of Safe Passage in January 2005 initially as a way to appeal to PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards applications users who became Oracle customers after the database and applications vendor won an 18-month battle to acquire the ERP (enterprise resource planning) company. PeopleSoft closed the purchase of J.D. Edwards while Oracle's hostile bid was unfolding.

Although there was a dip, SAP remains on track to grow software license revenue by 15 percent to 17 percent for fiscal 2006 as a whole, McDermott said. "There was a little seasonality in the quarter," he added. "We're not too concerned about the quarter. The company's on a roll."

McDermott expects Oracle to stumble in the next couple of quarters, claiming that the vendor's rise in fourth-quarter software license revenue was driven by Oracle's push to have its installed base sign maintenance licenses.

As McDermott looks out over the rest of fiscal 2006, he expects growth to come in the high-end from MySAP ERP 2005, SAP's and Microsoft Corp.'s joint duet software, SAP's hosted and on-premise CRM business and its business intelligence and analytics technologies.

SAP will also be increasing its focus on the midmarket. "Sixty-five percent of our worldwide customers have revenues of less than US$500 million," he said. "We want to get the word out."

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Prashanth Rai