May 13, 2015

May, 13 2015 | Kurt Moydell | Vice President, Sales – Americas

Steven Zolman of Net(net), Inc. recently wrote a blog worthy of a David Letterman top 10 countdown titled, “Top 5 Ways Oracle Makes You See Red.”  Despite the fact that he chose to let Oracle off the hook by limiting his focus to 5 commonly expressed customer complaints, Steven’s observations bear witness to the fundamental reasons Oracle customers are adopting third-party software maintenance and support services for their enterprise applications from  Spinnaker Support. The rapid growth of our Oracle maintenance practice is a direct result of the high cost – low value proposition delivered by Oracle to its customers every day.

Steven should know; he is the Chief Services Architect for NET(net), a global business consultancy exclusively specializing in full service IT investment optimization. As such, it is Steven’s role to help NET(net) clients find and keep more economic and strategic value out of their IT agreements.

In his blog, Steven addresses in depth the 5 most common complaints heard, but here is an overview:

  • 5. Bundling of Support – customers are forced into an all-or-nothing approach, bundling technical break/fix product support with product upgradability, which often does not align with the business requirements of an organization.
  • 4.  Re-Pricing Provision – used by Oracle to strongly discourage their customers from right-sizing their environments. Canceling licenses or products an organization is not using will effectively mean the customer loses all discounts originally given, re-pricing the annual maintenance fees based on list price.
  • 3. Matching Support Policy – forcing customers to continue to a high level of support on unrequired licenses or end of life products, only to risk de-supporting critical system environments.
  • 2. Binding of Legacy Maintenance – making it nearly impossible for customers to escape punitive maintenance costs for legacy systems that aren’t being used.
  • 1. Oracle Audits – the number one way Oracle works to maintain control of its highly profitable support revenue streams.

In reading his remarks, Steven understands and articulates Oracle policy and the resulting negative impacts expressed by the Oracle user community. It is an insightful read that is worth your time.

To learn more about how third-party support as an alternative to Oracle Support can alleviate all of these issues while being delivered at a fraction of the cost, click here.