April 02, 2020

April 2, 2020 | Larry Goldman | Senior Director, Product Marketing

The worldwide viral pandemic has many IT organizations cruising full sail into dangerous and uncharted waters. While some have implemented their established Business Continuity Plans, others are finding the unprecedented winds of change to be beyond what they imagined. IT leaders are reviewing their budgets, staffing options, and contracts to identify possible sources of immediate savings and restructuring.

For this reason, we’ve seen a sharp uptick in interest in third-party support, especially from organizations that have made a hefty, long-term investment in Oracle products. As they continue to run their stable, reliable, and customized systems such as E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Siebel CRM, PeopleSoft, and Oracle Database, these businesses are paying hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in support fees – and questioning if this annual budgetary hit is really necessary.

If you’re an Oracle customer, investigating alternatives to Oracle-provided support cannot begin soon enough because time may be running out for you. Many Oracle support agreements are set to automatically renew at the end of Oracle’s fiscal year, on May 31. That means the time to decide on continuing Oracle support is now.

Why Third-Party Support Is a Popular Cost-Saving Alternative

Our nearly 1200 customers will tell you that in many cases, Oracle’s limited and expensive support is not only unnecessary, but it’s also counterproductive for your IT team. For example, many of the products previously mentioned are primarily covered under Oracle’s Sustaining Support, which offers little more than an upgrade right. Sustaining Support offers no security patches, no global tax and regulatory updates, no support for customizations, and little help for interoperability issues.

If you are holding off on investing in a new Oracle product or switching away from Oracle altogether, paying these high annual fees is not in your best interest. Spinnaker Support’s third-party software support replaces Oracle’s annual maintenance and support for at least half the cost of Oracle-provided support and provides more services through an assigned support team and highly personalized service. It means responses in less than 15 minutes from engineers that know your systems, and a support partner that cares about keeping your software up and running at peak performance.

First, Cancel Your Auto-Renew

No matter what you choose to do regarding your Oracle support, one favor you can do yourself is to address Oracle’s Auto Renew. Starting in 2018, Oracle rolled out its “Auto Renew” strategy, where Oracle now automatically renews your support contract unless you opt-out 32 days prior to the end. Oracle may have included this setting in your latest agreements or made the shift for you.

As many contracts expire on May 31, we highly recommend that you log into your Oracle support account immediately and check your settings for all your support agreements. If Auto Renew is checked, then contact your Oracle support rep and have it turned off. This will help you to retain your renewal flexibility and negotiation leverage with Oracle as you consider third-party support.

Next, Download Your “Prep Kit” to a Faster Transition

Because IT leaders only have so much time to explore alternatives like third-party software support, we’ve created a “Prep Kit” to help you sort fact from fiction, establish a realistic timeline for a quick transition, and build a solid business case for making the switch.

This eBook includes links to resources, pro tips, and a five-step process to speed up your efforts:

Download the eBook and get started immediately.