SAP's recent decision to eliminate its lower-priced maintenance and support offering for new customers in favour of a single premium-priced option called Enterprise Support has opened the door for third-party support providers.

"For certain types of customers, third-party support offers a great opportunity for them to save on costs, get better quality support, and continue their investment for a longer horizon than they otherwise could," said Pandey.

Along with annual maintenance, netCustomer is offering up to 100 hours of free on-demand services that customers can use any time during the year. This offer is good through June 2008.

netCustomer officials say their maintenance and support package is already discounted by over 50 percent compared to the vendor support: "Combined with on-demand services such as custom reports and troubleshooting, customers could save up to 75 percent on their support costs.”

Details from new court documents show potential legal quagmires for both third-party maintenance and support providers and their customers. Will the case rock the whole third-party maintenance business? No, say TomorrowNow's rivals.

netCustomer's strategy for the future success depends on "not cutting corners," she says, when it comes to servicing its customers. "We have always followed extremely stringent measures when it comes to IP protection, copyright protection and security," Pandey says. "And following that process you still can create a really healthy third-party market over the next few years."