SAP Shifts Support Plans for Some

WALLDORF, Germany -- SAP AG last week announced that it has agreed not to force customers in Germany and Austria to shift to the company's fuller-featured but more expensive Enterprise Support program.

SAP had announced in July that it planned to move all customers worldwide to the new service as of Jan. 1.

In a statement, SAP said it will allow companies in Germany and Austria to retain their current support programs in order to comply with local laws that require the termination of "existing contracts to facilitate the switch to SAP Enterprise Support."

An SAP spokesman declined to say whether the company expects to change the requirement in other countries.

-- Chris Kanaracus,IDG News Service

Chinese Invited to Computex Taipei

TAIPEI -- Companies from mainland China will be able to exhibit at the Computex Taipei trade show for the first time next year, as part of an effort by the new Taiwanese government to improve relations with its neighbor.

The conference is slated to be held here from June 2 to 6.

Computex organizers have set aside 200 booths for Chinese companies, "many of them data communications companies," said Li Chang, deputy secretary general of the Taipei Computer Association, last week.

The announcement comes just months after Ma Ying-jeou was sworn in as Taiwan's new president.

-- Dan Nystedt , IDG News Service

Briefly Noted

Sony Corp. last week said that it plans to cut 8,000 jobs, or 5% of its worldwide workforce; close factories; and reduce electronics investment by nearly one-third because of the declining economy. Sony hopes to save ¥100 billion ($1.1 billion U.S.) in the fiscal year ending in March 2010.

-- Martyn Williams , IDG News Service