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Computing Magazine: Oracle 'traps' to continue in 2019

 

Our CEO, Mark Smith, was interviewed by Computing Magazine about some of the latest traps he has seen Oracle use to confuse its customers.


He pointed out that Oracle has recently changed several of its support contract policies, which has confused and concerned customers. Smith said that:

“We expect Oracle will continue its current practice of trying to confuse customers into staying in contract.”

“In 2018, we have been told by many customers that Oracle sales reps have said that they cannot terminate support on one contract if they want to continue to use any Oracle software at all, citing Oracle’s ‘matching service levels’ policy. This policy in fact states that if you use two products from the same family on one system, not only do you have to licence them on the same basis, i.e. per processor, BUT have them on the same (matching) support service level (Premier, Extended or Sustaining). This does of course mean that smart customers can choose to have all Oracle products on one system supported at the same Premier level. But supported by Support Revolution instead of Oracle, and at a much lower cost.”

“Not only that, but this year, Oracle changed its policies so that support contracts now auto-renew rather than simply end once the contract is over, unless they give 32 days’ notice. Unsurprisingly, Oracle did not make a great deal of noise about this change in contracts. In 2019, businesses may find that they have signed up to contracts they simply didn’t want. Oracle has said that this is to ensure businesses don’t go without support during the renewal process. We’re not sure many would agree!”

Mark Smith, CEO of Support Revolution

Oracle’s traps continued

We expect Oracle reps to continue to try to bamboozle their customers using these underhand techniques. However, we also expect to see more customers fighting back. We expect to see customers insist that the Oracle rep confirms their assertions in writing. This is, of course, something they never do because it is not true.

Smith also warned customers of SAP that they are likely to adopt some of Oracle’s more aggressive auditing policies in 2019:

“Oracle has the reputation for being the licensing bad guy compared to its rival SAP. However, this may change in 2019. Following a change to its licensing model, the company has created a new audit team. It’s unlikely SAP would build this team for them to do nothing. We expect that a more aggressive auditing regime is on the way, especially given the multimillion-dollar fines that led to court cases against Diageo and Anheuser-Busch.”

Mark Smith, CEO of Support Revolution

Don’t fall for Oracle traps

We have recently published several guides on how to successfully move your Oracle Support to a third party. Save yourself at least 50% on your support and maintenance costs. We recommend reviewing these to better understand Oracle’s latest policy changes and the benefits of third-party support over traditional support:

Full article originally published in Computing Magazine on 3 December 2018.

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