- Norway
- £500m+
- Multinational
- 1,000+
- Oil & Gas
Following a merger, this organization has become a data-driven business operating across multiple countries and producing seismic images and 3D data describing the subsurface beneath the ocean floor. Oil organisations rely on this information to find oil and gas reserves.
The Problem
They needed to make critical savings or risk making additional redundancies, but Oracle wouldn’t reduce its costs.
This organization has been an unfortunate victim of the 2020 pandemic and global recession. Since March 2020, the organization has received no new contracts, and has been forced to make a 40% reduction to its office-based personnel. In order to help protect the organization, a company-wide OpEx review required the IT department to cut its costs.
They had already made a strategic decision to move away from Oracle and change its technologies within two years. Therefore, the organization didn’t want to pay to upgrade its current Oracle software, as this investment would only be lost once the Oracle contract closed.
They approached Oracle in a bid to reduce its costs on unused licences. Oracle declined. This left them facing another two years paying for a substantial support bill on a service that was hardly used; They raised three or four incidents per annum. Approaching the vendor in an attempt to make savings had proven unsuccessful, and there was no end in sight to the organization’s problems, as they had no idea when it would be able to obtain new contracts. If they couldn’t make significant savings, demonstrating OpEx savings through all departments, then the organization would be forced to make more redundancies.
The Solution
We transitioned them to our support within months, making savings straight away during the recession.
They knew that it could make use of third-party support, and its decision to choose us was weighted heavily on our 22+ years of experience and our rigorous SLAs. They also knew that we didn’t force upgrades in order to provide fixes. Working closely with them, we advised and navigated the organization through the transition of leaving vendor support, completing the transition within just three months.
We will maintain the organization’s software on its current versions, long past the support end-dates for as long as the require. If in two years, the organization decides it isn’t ready for new technologies and would prefer to wait for a more appropriate time, we can accommodate that. We are here to help the organization realize its business objectives.
With our support, the organization has achieved a significant reduction in its fees, helping them in its objective to find liquidity once more. The organization has also regained control of its software strategy, with no obligation of upgrades.
The Benefits
Savings and quality without compromise: They had been hit hard by the pandemic and recession, and was already forced to make the difficult, long-term decision to reduce its staff. By switching to Support Revolution, the organization has achieved huge savings in very little time and without having to compromise on the quality of its support services.
Savings to reinvest into the organization: Support Revolution has managed to save them almost 80% on its annual support fees. These fantastic savings can be reinvested back into the organization and its future technological development, rather than being lost to Oracle.
Freedom from forced upgrades: Oracle Fusion 11.1.1.7 was due to go out of support. To continue receiving Oracle’s Premier Support, they would have needed to upgrade to the next version. This cost wasn’t plausible after being hit by the recession, but this was the only solution the vendor suggested. It would have also been a pointless exercise, given that the organization planned to leave Oracle. With Support Revolution, we support products even if the vendor will not, allowing them to make savings not just on its support fees, but also by avoiding potential costs by being able to decline upgrades.
A solid support partnership: At almost an 80% saving, you’d have thought that there would be some sort of drop in quality to offer these cost savings. However, they can rest assured that all of its support tickets can be fixed by a dedicated support partner – one that offers SLAs on both response and resolution times. The organization knows it can rely on Support Revolution, thereby freeing up its internal teams’ time to prioritize the future project to move to a new ERP.