SAP has said that staff had downloaded Oracle documents, in an admission that could harm the reputation of the German enterprise applications giant. However, experts said that careful handling could actually enhance the firm’s image.

In a formal response to a legal complaint filed by Oracle in March, SAP said that its TomorrowNow third-party software maintenance subsidiary had authorisation to download some documents but other downloads, for fixes and support documents, were “inappropriate”.

On a conference call last week, SAP chief executive Henning Kagermann said, “Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred. I want to reassure our investors, customers, partners and employees that SAP takes any departure from the high standards we set for all of our businesses very seriously.”

Kagermann added that he was “surprised and disappointed” Oracle had not approached him before going to court.

However, SAP said no information passed between TomorrowNow and parent company SAP, and that SAP did not have access to Oracle intellectual property, because SAP had intentionally “maintained a firewall” between the two units.

Recent scandals such as HP’s spying campaign on journalists and board members suggest SAP is unlikely to lose significant business on the back of the admission.

David Porter, head of security and risk at operational risk specialist Detica, said that SAP will not suffer if it handles the Oracle case correctly.

“If you react quickly, you can even turn these events into a positive. It’s like going to a restaurant and having a bad meal. If the restaurant then apologises, offers you a free meal and sends flowers, you might be impressed and go there again.”

Porter added that the case also underlines the need for firms to mark electronic documents as confidential in the same way they would do in the paper world.

“It may be that technologists need a good dose of old-fashioned librarian skills,” he added.

Oracle itself has flirted with reputational risk in the past, most notably in 2000 when it admitted hiring private detectives to sift through Microsoft’s rubbish.