Users and analysts welcomed Oracle Corp.’s Software Investment Guide, officially announced Wednesday, even though the about 40-page document has no new information.
The guide answers “probably 90 per cent of customers’ questions” on pricing and licensing, according to Jacqueline Woods, Oracle’s vice-president of Global Pricing and Licensing Strategy. “This is what customers have been asking for, a complete and comprehensive set of information and guiding principles that they can use to manage their software investment.”
Oracle’s pricing and licensing has been criticized this year by both users and analysts. Woods said the guide was not a direct response to that, but did say customer requests moved Oracle to create the guide.
“Customers, some of them, may have felt that we were not as clear as we should have been and we felt that it was important to provide that clarity,” she said. “There was a sentiment that people could not find the information, or did not know where it was or thought it was hard to get to. Now it is all in one place and organized in a fashion that is easy to go through.”
Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) President Tom Wyatt and Gartner Inc. Research Director Jane Disbrow reviewed draft versions of the guide. They both welcome it, but found nothing new in the document and see it as a collection of information that Oracle already published, but in various documents.
“I felt that is was a document that brought a lot of information from different sources into one particular area. This one document basically scanned 20 or 30 documents Oracle has. It provides a great resource for users to understand the terminology of software pricing and how that applies to an organization’s structure,” said Wyatt, whose main job is director of Oracle systems at SITEL Corp. in Baltimore, Md.
“I read through it and thought it was pretty much exactly what is already available on the Internet, just that it is now in one document that you can print out. There are no secrets in it, no surprises,” said Disbrow, who works out of Columbus, Ga.
Though the guide gives readers a better concept of Oracle’s pricing and licensing, a user “won’t be able to determine what the best way would be to license a certain environment by just reading the guide,” said Disbrow.
“Oracle is trying to make it more convenient to try and understand their pricing and licensing. I think their pricing and licensing is more complex than they realized,” she said. “The guide helps, but it is not the perfect solution. This is a high level overview and does not cover the level of detail so somebody could take it and price out a product.”
Wyatt disagreed, saying the Software Investment Guide could help a customer make up his own mind, without being coached by a salesperson.
“I appreciated the opportunity to not have to talk to a salesperson. As a user, I can be more prepared in dealing with my salesperson and potentially purchasing licensing through the Internet,” he said.
Rolf Scheuch, chief technology officer of Optiz Consulting GmbH in Gummersbach, Germany, which offers implementation and consultancy services around Oracle products, said Oracle’s sales force or an Oracle partner will still be needed.
“The pricing guide is a good idea, anything that helps make products and pricing more transparent will help. Nevertheless, I believe it will often be necessary for an Oracle partner or Oracle sales to analyze the current licensing situation at the customer and find the best solution,” he said.
Wyatt had only one pointer for Oracle; update the guide so it keeps its value. “The document should not become stale. If it is going to be an end-user tool, it is important that it is continuously updated,” he said.
Oracle’s Woods happily complied, saying the document is “evergreen” and will be updated for each new pricing metric and product.
The Oracle Software Investment Guide was first announced at Oracle’s European OracleWorld conference in June. [Please see Oracle to publish pricing guide this month.] It is scheduled to be available for downloading on Oracle.com in the first week of September.