Echoing concerns expressed by user groups, Kerrigan said that innovative companies that move quickly to upgrade to the latest technologies "are obviously going to need" a higher level of support. "But the people in maintenance mode, what are they going to use, what are they going to need?"

Rimini Street CEO Seth Ravin is hoping this anger ends up filling his company's coffers. Calls have been coming in from some of SAP's largest customers, he said. "I can tell you we are talking absolutely with the top 10 and 20 in SAP's maintenance base in terms of dollars."

Rimini Street charges customers half of whatever they were paying in maintenance costs, Ravin said.

But it's an open question as to how quickly the company can cater to the market's demands. "The question we haven't yet answered is, will we be in a position to take care of everybody or take a small group of customers [initially] and then go gangbusters [in January 2010]," Ravin said.

While acknowledging there is a general shortage of qualified SAP talent, Rimini Street will be able to get enough support staff aboard because of its own business model, he said. The company currently supports Siebel, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards software.

"We don't put people on the road. We allow them to live anywhere in the country or outside of it if appropriate," he said. "We've really been able to get people with 10 to 15 years of experience or more. I think we're going to find the same thing in the SAP environment."

But SAP's Wohl downplayed the prospect of third-party maintenance making a serious impact. "Customers have shown a preference for wanting support to come from the manufacturer," he said.

And SAP will have no staffing problems, he said. "We start from the premise that we already have the world's largest support infrastructure," Wohl said. "We have a lot of confidence. If I was a third-party support company starting from scratch, I'd be looking at an uphill battle."