SAP, a German business software giant, is bringing the battle to New Zealand to woo customers from archrival Oracle with the introduction of its subsidiary TomorrowNow.

SAP bought the Texas-based TomorrowNow in January. TomorrowNow provides support services for PeopleSoft and JD Edwards systems, both owned by Oracle.

Meanwhile, Oracle is offering a plan to migrate SAP's customers to its platform, known as "off SAP".

However, SAP believes it has a good opportunity to take advantage of unhappy customers following the particularly hostile takeover of PeopleSoft by Oracle.

SAP's Australia and New Zealand chief executive Geraldine McBride says the company has surveyed 100 Oracle customers across Australasia and found about 30 were interested in taking up TomorrowNow's services.

"The market doesn't like uncertainty, it wants predictability. SAP is being seen as a safe bet so customers are voting with their wallets, which is shown with market share up till the end of the first quarter."

The TomorrowNow operation will be based in Singapore and will have dedicated staff for Australia and New Zealand. Ms McBride says there will be an up to 50 per cent reduction in support costs than under Oracle.

TomorrowNow customers have no obligation to migrate to SAP, but can use it either to support existing licences or as part of a migration programme.

Locally, SAP is growing at 26 per cent annually, Ms McBride says, with growth in areas such as the public sector and financial services.

SAP has also spent the past year targeting the small to medium end of the business market, a step away from its normal customer base among enterprises such as Fonterra.

"What we're doing is being able to offer our capabilities to two-person operations as well as multi-national corporations."

Ms McBride points out both Australia and New Zealand are mid-sized business markets and as a result, SAP is expecting to more than double its presence across Australasia in the next year.

Growth is currently running at triple digit over the past year. "Even if you take away the fact we started from a small base, we've still got very healthy double-digit growth."

A lot of the smaller companies that have benefited from the economic boom are turning to software providers such as SAP, having outgrown smaller business solutions. "You know that you can grow with us because we're not going to get taken over and we'll continue to invest money in research and development."

Ms McBride says SAP's market share across Asia Pacific stands at about 70 per cent, compared with a worldwide figure of around 58 per cent. However, she says insufficient data was available to break down the New Zealand market.