How Reed Avoided the Upgrade Cycle and Improved Its
Support Model

Reed is one of the largest recruitment agencies in the world and the first to establish its recruitment website in the U.K. The organisation relies on its IT infrastructure to ensure millions of its customers can gain access to jobs and candidates.

The Problem

Owing to its large Oracle estate, Reed were spending significant sums on supporting its Oracle systems but struggling to justify the considerable support bill for much of its Financial, HR, and Payroll applications.

These systems were older, but stable and worked for the business as they looked to migrate their systems eventually to another vendor.

But, being older systems, Reed faced considerable pressures from the vendor to upgrade to continue receiving premium levels of support.

This led to them seeking alternatives to Oracle support.

The Solution

After examining their options and engaging with several third-party support providers (including those based in the US), Reed decided on Support Revolution.

Not only were Support Revolution able to guarantee at least a 50% reduction in their Oracle support bill (while still retaining a premium level of support – even for older systems the vendors no longer supported!), but Reed found the team a lot more engaged and easier to work with.

Support Revolution worked closely with Reed to transition it from Oracle Support as quickly and as smoothly as possible. With our service in place, we provided them with the necessary patches, which unlike Oracle were tailor-made to suit their systems, and any customisations they had in place.

As a result, Reed could be assured in the knowledge that these systems would remain secure, with Trend Micro’s Deep Security, while they looked to migrate the rest of their systems to another vendor.

The Benefits

Efficient and tailored patching

Reed still needed to receive support and patches as normal, to keep its systems functioning and compliant.

Support Revolution provides security patches for its customers slightly differently to Oracle. The difference is that we work directly with our customers and provide only the patches they need that fit perfectly with their setup. Our virtual patching method acts as a shield, protecting the entirety of the customer’s software estate before the threat can get to its systems.

These patches are applied on a weekly basis, compared to Oracle’s quarterly patch updates.

Cost saving

Reed reduced its Oracle support bill by over 50% by moving to Support Revolution. These savings could then be reinvested back into other projects or future migrations.

Greater Flexibility

Reed was able to keep the same familiar systems, continue receiving legislative patches, and avoid unwanted upgrades, all for a greatly reduced price with a high-quality service.

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