Recently, Kay Williams at Madora Consulting interviewed me for their podcast series. Madora helps Oracle users understand the complexities of Oracle licensing and improve their licensing position. While Spinnaker Support doesn’t have a formal relationship with Madora, we do share a common goal of helping Oracle support customers optimize their Oracle spend.
Kay and I really got to the heart of how to reduce Oracle support costs using Spinnaker Support as a third-party solution. Below, you will find a link to the podcast where you will learn:
- Why a customer should choose Spinnaker Support as an Oracle alternative
- How Spinnaker Support’s costs compare to Oracle’s
- How Spinnaker Support actually works
- More about the process of transition from Oracle to Spinnaker Support
I very much enjoyed my discussion with Kay. My only regret is that we didn’t have more time to talk! That being said, I’d like to address some frequently asked questions Kay and I did not have enough time to address during our discussion.
What are the most common reasons customers switch to Oracle support alternatives?
Oracle customers move to third-party support for a variety of reasons, but the most common one is a lack of value. Customers don’t feel that they are getting the return on investment for the money they pay to Oracle each year.
While Oracle’s costs are rising, the quality of support is not rising along with those costs. In fact, many customers feel the quality of support has gone down. The consolidation of support centers to lower cost geographies signals that support will most likely continue the downward trend.
Lastly, new versions of Oracle do not deliver the relevance of the functionality as they did in the past. Today, most of Oracle’s investments are going toward cloud applications. For customers what aren’t ready to be pushed that way, there is a value in staying with their current version and moving toward a third-party support solution such as Spinnaker Support while reducing costs.
What is Oracle’s response to losing a customer to third-party support?
Oracle does accept third-party support as a viable alternative. However, Oracle does not like losing customers and has been known to threaten customers with financial penalties if they ever want to return to Oracle support. In our experience, we have not seen that happen; Oracle will welcome a customer back to the fold rather than lose them to a competitor.
How do Spinnaker Support’s services compare to the competition?
Spinnaker Support offers a broader range of services than our competitors. In addition to offering high-quality support and maintenance services, Spinnaker Support has a consulting division and divisions offering AMS and TMS services that customers frequently use as an extension of their maintenance services. Lastly, we make sure that our services remain in line with Intellectual Property laws and adhere to Global Tax and Regulatory Compliance standards. Spinnaker Support has never been sued and found liable by Oracle, or anyone else, for infringement or fraud.
