We've all had these types of situations happen, right? When we've either done something really, really stupid and realized we had to fix it pronto or there would eventually be hell to pay. Or we've ignored a small-ish problem and it's now on the verge of blowing up into something much, much worse.
That's essentially what happened to Oracle, and why, at its International Oracle User Group's annual conference, executives announced a small, short-term pricing discount for enterprise software customers sticking with aging versions of Oracle applications.
In essence, the temporary discounts work out to about a 10 percent reduction in fees for some older versions of Oracle's ERP and CRM apps: a collection of geriatric JDE, E-Business, Siebel, Oracle Database and PeopleSoft software.
A resounding "Gee...um, thanks, I guess," could be heard from locked-in and frustrated Oracle customers everywhere desperate for help amid a worldwide recession. It's a kind gesture, I suppose, but that's really it?!
"We saw what is going on in the market. We are all facing the same pressure as our customers," Juergen Rottler, EVP for Oracle customer services, told Computerworld. (Oracle gets compassionate. Did visions of Mother Theresa just come into your mind, too?)
Really, Juergen? I wonder how many of your customers' businesses are sitting on approximately $7 billion in cash and are able to tap into annual revenue streams anything like the outrageous maintenance and support fees that deliver 90 percent profit margins to the bottom line? (Oracle has those two, in case you're wondering.)
Doesn't sound like a lot of the companies I know today.
Capgemini to offer cloud help ...
"The technical services group of Capgemini has traditionally helped companies with system integr ..."
Infor's Flex upgrade program t ...
"ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor Infor says its customers are warming up to Flex, a ne ..."
SOA Grows Up -- and Out
"Not too long ago, IT organizations turned to service-oriented architecture primarily as a way t ..."
RightNow tries to change SaaS ...
"CRM vendor RightNow announced a new SaaS (software as a service) pricing and licensing model on ..."
Cloud Computing's Three Revolu ...
"I've gotten a lot of feedback on parts one and two of this three-part series on "The Three Revo ..."
"Ah that's not so surprising because I was expecting the same. China i best ..."
army rations
"You have a nice blog here! I will be saving this page to my favorites for s ..."
army rations
"I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just adde ..."
army rations
"Nice post, now for new good news……..
David Thomson is a famous autho ..."
Richard
"How about roundup?"
Oscar
The Oracle temporary price breaks reminded me of these famous (or infamous, rather) reactions of businesses and non-business organizations over the years:
- Apple's "that's life in the technology lane"-inspired rhetoric that eventually led to a cut in the price of the iPhone from $600 to $400, and an "in-store credit" to those early adopters.
- How Microsoft has dealt with the Vista public relations nightmare.
- Mark Zuckerberg's and Facebook's handling of the "Terms of Service" debacle in 2009.
- JetBlue's response to the Valentine's Day ice-storm debacle in 2007.
- And last, but not least, President George W. Bush's and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The "glass half full" person in me would say that at least Oracle is doing something (especially since SAP had just scaled back the immediate increases on its new maintenance fees).
But the "glass half empty" person sees this as both a half-hearted acknowledgement of the excess in maintenance fees and a half-hearted, condescending attempt to actually help customers through unprecedented times.
As ERP guru and Deal Architect founder Vinnie Mirchandani writes in a blog on the Oracle price cuts, "This is a small bone hoping the maintenance issue will disappear into the background. Good dog—now go back to your corner and keep writing those checks."
So, IT pros, the question is, are you going to gnaw on your bone quietly or bark back at Oracle?
Do you Tweet? Follow me on Twitter @twailgum.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Business Continuity: A Guide to Choosing the Right Technology Solution
Putting a Value on Assets: Ensuring you get true value out of IT through good IT asset life cycle management
Computerworld Strategy Guide: Business Intelligence
Overtaken by Events? The Quest for Operational Responsiveness | A Survey of Global Energy, Telecoms, and Logistics Businesses
Gartner's Magic Quadrant for PC Configuration Life Cycle Management Tools
File Integrity Monitoring: Compliance and Security for Virtual and Physical Environments
CIO2CIO Research Study | State of the Market: Application Performance Management
Solving the Desktop Dilemma with User-Centric Desktop Virtualisation for the Enterprise
Zones provide focussed content from CIO and leading technology partners.






















Comments
glass half full
there would eventually be hell to pay. Or we've ignored a small-ish problem,[url=wowgoldteam.com
]wowgold[/url] and it's now on the verge of blowing up into something much, much worse.
Post new comment