SAP is expected to announce on Monday that it will offer third-party maintenance and support to Oracle's customers running Siebel Systems applications.

SAP, which is offering the service through its wholly owned subsidiary TomorrowNow, is hoping to woo away Siebel users by offering up to a 50 percent price-cut over Oracle's maintenance and support prices, an SAP representative said.

The move is nothing new for SAP and its TomorrowNow as they fight Oracle in the enterprise applications market. TomorrowNow provides third-party maintenance and support to other companies Oracle has acquired, such as PeopleSoft and JD Edwards.

As part of a series of SAP announcements leading up to its Sapphire user conference next week, TomorrowNow will be unveiling support for Siebel's 5.x, 6.x, 7.0x, 7.5x and 7.7x applications for up to 10 years, with new security fixes and bug patches, said an SAP representative.

TomorrowNow is offering its third-party Siebel support and maintenance to users who want to retain their Siebel applications and is also making it available via SAP's Siebel Safe Passage Program. That program is designed to offer software and services to transition Siebel users to SAP's customer relationship management software, said an SAP representative.

TomorrowNow has opened a Siebel support office in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, which houses a team that includes several former senior Siebel support members.