Why we cancelled our Oracle Gold partnership

We set up PDG Consulting (the predecessor of Support Revolution) in 1998 to work alongside Oracle and SAP as consultants and systems implementers. Becoming an Oracle Gold partner was a pivotal step in our development. We grew a solid pool of technical talent and experience in both Oracle and SAP ERP.

But while we quickly became an Oracle Gold partner, it didn’t take long for the sheen to wear off…

We’ve maintained our Oracle Gold partner status for years without much thought. But we already have the experience and team which we’ve built over the past 22+ years. So why are we continuing to partner with an organisation that we actively disagree with on so many fronts?

Based on this principle, we’ve decided to cancel our Oracle Gold partnership.

We have a lot of reasons for this, but the three main ones that are relevant to our customers are:

1. We dislike how Oracle does business with our customers

It started when we heard complaints from our customers of bullying tactics from Oracle sales reps. It ended when we started to realise just how over-priced and under-performing Oracle Support was. This is why we founded Support Revolution in the first place.

A good example of this has emerged recently in exposés by The Register and Computing.co.uk. It regards a lawsuit filed against Oracle:

  • Oracle relied on improper sales practices to railroad its customers into purchasing the company’s Cloud offerings. One such practice was to ‘audit’ customers’ use of the company’s non-Cloud software licences, and charge those customers hefty penalties unless they agreed to shift their business to Oracle Cloud programs.”
  • The company’s use of audits was well known within the industry, but the extent to which the company was using threats of audits to coerce customers to purchase Cloud products was not known to investors, and expressly denied by the company.”
  • In addition to threatening customers with audits, the company also decreased its customer support for certain on-premise and hardware systems. This was in an effort to drive customers away from such systems and into Cloud-based systems. The company also strong-armed customers by threatening to dramatically raise the cost of legacy database licences if the customer chose another Cloud provider.”

2. The Oracle PartnerNetwork adds no value

It’s not hard to become an Oracle partner. You just need to offer the right services, fill in a form, and pay a subscription. There are no substantial validation checks from Oracle when you become a partner. You just need to provide a few client references that aren’t properly followed up.

Oracle proudly states it has over 25,000 partners worldwide. But is that a good thing?

We’re proud of our 22+ years of experience, helping our customers to establish and grow their IT systems successfuly. But are we proud of our Oracle partnership? Does it improve our ways of working? Does it provide extra tools or expertise?

No. We’ve just been validating Oracle’s claims of the quality of its partner network. It’s something that offers no value to us or our customers.

3. We were restricted as an Oracle partner

Like many of Oracle’s customers, we felt restricted by what we could and couldn’t do. What unwritten rules might we break that would cause them to launch a licence audit or review of our partner status?

By cancelling our partnership, we can explore more services and options for our customers than we could before. We can also ensure that your estate and practices remain legal and within your licence agreements with Oracle.

What this means for you

There will be no change in service. We still have our 22+ years of experience and the same team to provide fantastic support that’s at least 50% cheaper than Oracle. Not only that, we think that our history as an Oracle Gold partner gives us a unique insight into how the vendor does business.

So what are you waiting for?

If you’re not already a Support Revolution customer, use the savings calculator tool below to find out how much you can save on support. Once we’ve done the initial calculation, you could be transitioned to us in as little as two to three months.

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