Oracle Rewards! Oracle recently launched a new program selling ocean-front property in Arkansas. Bonus! North of the Arctic Circle in Alaska, they also have land available for purchase. Rewards and Credits! The deal is that for every acre you buy in Alaska, you get a credit toward your Arkansas property! Sounds like a good deal, right? Except however, when you fully understand that Arkansas is not on the ocean, and you have zero need for land in Alaska (no offense meant to Alaskans). Yes, they are not really selling land, but in classic Oracle fashion, they have put together a ‘rewards’ program that purports to lower your support costs but ...
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While recent articles proclaim Oracle is ‘Turning into a Cloud Giant’ and why their stock is should be considered a ‘buy’ (Barron’s, Feb 19th, 2021) – we say, “really?” While NET(net) does not pretend to be in the stock price benchmarking business, we can say based on experience that if Oracle is indeed becoming a ‘Cloud Giant’, then it’s probably bad for their customers. Historically, Oracle has grown new lines of business by pressuring customers into purchases they really don’t want or quite yet need but are left with few choices lest they become another audit victim. Consistent with that strategy, Oracle has thrown up some daunting ...
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If you thought Oracle audits were an issue in past years, buckle your seat belts for 2021. We expect Oracle audits to reach new heights of frequency and intensity over the coming months, specifically around Q2 2021. The driving factor is based on macro-market conditions that have been out of their control: Oracle has essentially been on hiatus for a year, not able to get on site and pester their customers about license compliance. Oracle customers have been more cost conscientious than in years past and have been more active in cancelling support for unused products. The global pandemic has caused many customers to delay or even scrap plans ...
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Now that we are quickly approaching Oracle’s H1 fiscal end (Nov 30), the time is right to revisit Oracle behaviors that can impact your bottom line in ways you may not have thought of previously, or at least haven’t had to think about in a long time. With COVID-19, remote workforce issues, and the myriad of other distractions facing organizations now, it is easy to forget how we can slowly be taken advantage of by suppliers. One of these areas of concern is around the increased cost, hassle, disorganization, and general anger created by Oracle’s siloed sales team(s). With the multitude of competing interests from one company vying for your ...
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Really, you must give credit where credit is due when it comes to creating new revenue streams. Oracle is seemingly the master at ‘making everything old, new again’ and conjuring revenue out of thin air where once there was none. With its acquisition of Sun (and by extension Java) in 2010, we should have known that it would only be a matter of time before a free platform was turned into a revenue stream. Over time, Oracle methodically added and modified the Java roadmap to lead us where we are now – the once noble and free Java SE is now lumped together with all the other Named User Plus and Processor licenses. With Java’s changes, also come ...
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As 2019 drew to a close, many of you may have missed a significant development that came out of the U.S. District Court of Northern California. On December 17th, the lawsuit brought by the Sunrise Firefighter’s Pension Fund against Oracle Corporation for misleading investors on their cloud business – was dismissed. They have until February 2020 to make some changes and refile the case, but what the real take-away from this case is that we can expect ‘business as usual’ from Oracle on the audit front. To get a real sense of just how egregious and critical the audit practice was (and is) to Oracle’s revenue machine, you need only read some of ...
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I’m sure your organization is used to fifty calls per week from Oracle. You likely have thirty sales reps calling everyone from custodial services to the Chief Executive Officer to gain more information from you: What’s your IT roadmap? Do you know we have a 'cloud' for everything? What is your cloud migration strategy? What is your budget? Can we have more of it? From the cold callers to the executives, Oracle sales are trained in tactics to acquire as much information about your organization as possible. Their endgame is simple: force you into a sale (probably cloud) or catch you out of compliance. And of course, your being out of ...
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Over the years, Oracle audits have become the bane of existence for many of Oracle’s customers, thanks in large part to Oracle’s reputed predatory behavior, especially in its LMS (License Management Service) Group, and the well-earned notoriety for its truculent account management practices in its sales organization. As we’ve often said, it’s not matter of if, but when you will get audited by Oracle. As we are seeing unfold now, the pace of these audits continues to accelerate. Below are some of the reasons we think there will be a continuation of aggressive audits for the foreseeable future. Cloudy Future As with most software providers, ...
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