SAP is going after PeopleSoft customers, countering Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s plan to integrate PeopleSoft’s applications into a single suite.With white-hot interest focusing on PeopleSoft applications, users may do well do sit and wait a few months before making any decisions, analysts say.SAP announced a new maintenance and migration service Wednesday, aimed at its customers using PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards applications, called SAP Safe Passage, IDG News Service reported. The initiative extends maintenance and support services to products from PeopleSoft and the company it acquired in 2003. The SAP move come one day after Ellison announced “Project Fusion,” its effort to combine the Oracle, PeopleSoft, and J.D. Edwards enterprise applications into a single suite. Fusion is due in 2008, with the first deliverables set to appear next year. Fusion will be Java-based and use standard technology for easy integration with other applications, according to Oracle. The product will provide a simple upgrade from PeopleSoft, Oracle, and J.D. Edwards applications, Ellison said in his remarks at the event, IDG News Service reported. “I expect the majority of customers will do the upgrade,” Ellison said. “The important thing is that it will be a time of their choosing, not of our choosing. Customers decide if and when to do the upgrade.” Joshua Greenbaum, a principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting of Berkeley, Calif., said the best course may be to wait until the dust settles before making any business decisions about using PeopleSoft applications.“This has always been about capturing the PeopleSoft customer base, and certainly that’s what Larry was trying to (at the Fusion event),” Greenbaum said. “But SAP has put those back in play in a big way. I’m looking at a six-month window before we’ll see customers start assessing their options for the future.” The 2008 due date for Fusion offers customers time to consider their options, Greenbaum said. “The real question is where do you want to be in 2008 with your business and your products,” he said. Technology Industry