Six Steps Before Moving Across to Oracle 3rd Party Support Provider

The demand for third-party support and support-optimisation advisory services is rapidly growing. Many support ventures used to be just theoretical experiments, but now Oracle customers are switching to third-party support and saving money.

 

This post is intended to share advice for those who are currently considering switching to Oracle third-party support. 

Who, exactly, should think about third-party support in the first place?

Who should think about moving to third party support? Obviously, this is not for Oracle customers thinking about making a large investment with the company.

 

Oracle applications and database users seem to be the sweet spot:

• JD Edwards, Oracle Ebusiness Suite, PeopleSoft and Siebel
• Oracle middleware and database

And customers that fall into one or more of the following categories:

• For customers who are leaving Oracle, third-party support is a great way to cut costs.
• If you only use Oracle for archiving.
• Third-party support can be used to negotiate your Oracle support cost.
• If you never make support requests in the first place. 

 

How to make the transition to third-party support?

When switching to oracle third-party support, we recommend that clients take the following six measures: 

 

Review entitlements 

Make sure you're up to date on your inventory. While you can believe you have it under control, it is a good idea to speak with Oracle and compare notes - so many clients are shocked by this. Others may argue that any communication with Oracle requesting inventory information will result in an audit. However, this is not the case. If that were the case, Oracle would not be doing anything else aside from audits.

 

Ensure Compliance 

Review your license entitlements for the products that a third party would support. This must be achieved using LMS-style scripts, and an Oracle license expert must review the data.

 

Contract Reviews 

Although the license review in step two may have helped you resolve any compliance issues, you must also assess any possible license growth and protect yourself with a license buffer. You will be put in a lousy negotiation position if you go back to Oracle asking for additional licenses.

 

Negotiations with all support vendors

The great news is that you can choose from a variety of support vendors. Make sure you don't miss out on the chance to find the best price and quality match. When compared to Oracle, any vendor can give you a significant discount on support - usually starting at 50% off. You may be able to go much, much further depending on your setup (current support team, products). 

 

Return to Oracle

Return to Oracle once you have a solid offer and ask if they can match the bid. They are unlikely to do so the first time, but you may be the lucky one. It helps to return to Oracle at a later date under your own free will as it will place you in a far stronger negotiating role.