IDG News Service first reported Wookey's hiring on Monday, citing a source with knowledge of his plans. An SAP spokesman declined comment at the time, saying SAP would have nothing to say regarding the matter until it briefed its own employees.

Wookey will be an executive vice president at SAP, reporting to executive board member Jim Hagemann Snabe, SAP said Tuesday.

"John spent 12 years at Oracle as senior vice president of applications development and is one of the most respected and renowned software applications experts in the world," SAP said in a statement. "We are very excited he has chosen SAP as the next stage of his career."

SAP spokesman Saswato Das said Wookey would not be available for interviews Tuesday.

Wookey's work will have no bearing on Business ByDesign, SAP's nascent on-demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) product for the midmarket, Das said. "Anything that's related to large enterprises, he'll look at."