In our recent series of third-party support case studies, we’ve discussed different industries that have been severely impacted by the national lockdown like air travel organisations. Today, we’re discussing manufacturing, and our customer Premier Modular.
Manufacturing and distribution have also been negatively affected. Given that suppliers and retailers have been hit hard, manufacturers have faced losses from every side. It has become the top priority for organisations to save money wherever and however they can, but without damaging their futures.
Vendor support and maintenance fees are significantly overlooked by organisations, and they’re often a surprisingly high percentage of the total cost.
Oracle and SAP charge 22% of the total licence cost for their support. One of our third-party support case studies, Premier Modular (WACO UK Ltd) is a manufacturer of building solutions. It decided its vendor’s price just wasn’t worth it anymore.
How to avoid Oracle’s upgrades
Premier Modular is an Oracle customer, using a combination of E-Business Suite 11i and Oracle Database 10g as the foundation of its systems. Being a manufacturer, the organisation regularly collaborates with external companies, so it needs its systems to remain stable and functional. Premier Modular didn’t need or want Oracle’s regular upgrades or the disruptions they would cause.
It just wanted a system that worked.
Premier Modular wasn’t interested in upgrades and wanted to stick with what it had. Because it was running very stable systems, it had no need for the latest versions with their limited improvements.
The manufacturer raised a few incidents per year with Oracle, but was still charged the same expensive fees. These fees were only increasing each year with auto-renewals and “expired software” levies.
Understandably, Premier Modular’s long-term IT roadmap involved moving away from Oracle. It wanted a manufacturing-specific provider that would allow it to modernise more appropriately. However, Premier Modular struggled to justify the cost of the migration, given the money lost in Oracle’s fees. Getting its costs down was a crucial priority.
The Support Revolution solution
Premier Modular joined Support Revolution back in 2013. It was eager to keep its current systems, cut costs, and ultimately prepare for the planned modernisation project.
We became something similar to an insurance policy for Premier Modular. It could use stable systems for as long as it wished for a fraction of what Oracle was charging. The organisation could feel safe in the knowledge that if it did need support, our 22+ years of experience could solve any problems that should arise.
In the time it has been customers of Support Revolution, Premier Modular has managed to avoid at least two major Oracle upgrades. It has also escaped two price jumps as its systems “went out of Oracle’s standard support,” and eight years of annual price rises.
Avoiding these expenses has meant massive savings for Premier Modular. It has been able to reinvest these savings towards its migration to the manufacturing-specific ERP provider.
For as long as it needs us, we will continue to support Premier Modular at a greatly reduced price until its migration project is completed.
Benefits of switching to third-party support
- We cut Premier Modular’s ERP costs by 50% and saved additional money by avoiding Oracle’s upgrades. This significantly improved its current ERP estate’s value for money.
- Premier Modular has successfully rerouted its IT roadmap to suit its needs, not Oracle’s. It has unlocked the necessary savings for future development.
- We’ve also provided the necessary legislative patches for Premier Modular while it was changing its banking processes. We kept it up to date and compliant as part of our support services. Oracle would not have provided legislative patches for its “sustaining support software.”
- In its time with us, Premier Modular has only needed to raise one or two issues per month. We have resolved these issues within our fast, right-first-time SLAs, and at a much fairer price.
Third-party support case studies
Premier Modular is just one example of how we’ve helped our customers. You can find other third-party support case studies on our Customers page.
We want to help organisations reinvest in their futures and protect their developments, especially now amidst the current crisis. During these difficult times, we’re here to help see you through.
Want to read more content like this? Sign up to our newsletter below and be the first to receive our latest content!
Sign up to our newsletter
