USD 2M
in annual Oracle support cost savings
SoftwareOne case study
SoftwareOne Oracle advisory cuts $2M from support costs
A large European financial institution lacked the detail and experience to negotiate savings on Oracle costs. SoftwareOne helped the company solve a major compliance issue and achieve millions in annual support cost savings.
Despite hiring external consultants, a large European financial institution could not get the detailed data it needed to successfully negotiate savings on its licensing and support costs with Oracle. SoftwareOne conducted a detailed review which revealed savings of USD 2M in annual support costs. It also uncovered a large compliance issue which could have cost the company tens of millions of dollars in compliance fines.
Learn how SoftwareOne successfully carried out negotiations with Oracle to cut annual support costs, eliminate the financial risk of non-compliance, and helps the company continuously save on Oracle licensing costs.
USD 30M
of Oracle compliance risk settled to a one‑off payment of USD 1M
Continued advisory
SoftwareOne manages the relationship with Oracle
- Client
- Financial institution
- Industry
- Finance
- Services
- Oracle Advisory Services
Failure to reduce Oracle costs, exposure to compliance risk
The company had tried to reduce its Oracle costs by negotiating directly with Oracle and by engaging third-party consultants, but neither approach succeeded. The challenge was to reduce the company’s support costs which were almost in the tens of millions of dollars per year and were index-linked, therefore kept increasing. The company suspected a significant amount of support costs were incurred for unused software alone. Driven by the goal of achieving significant cost savings, the company knew it needed to lean on external expertise in Oracle licensing and engaged with SoftwareOne.
After initial conversations with SoftwareOne the financial institution issued a request for proposal that led to the engagement of SoftwareOne as an Oracle advisor for three years. Following a detailed assessment, SoftwareOne found USD 2M spent on Oracle support was for ‘shelfware’ – Oracle software the company was not using. SoftwareOne also discovered that the majority of the company wasn’t using Oracle software as defined in their agreements. While it had an Unlimited License Agreement, it had only properly defined a very small number of its legal entities which make up the company meaning it was in breach of its license.
Successful negotiations
SoftwareOne successfully negotiated a change in customer definition with Oracle to remove this huge compliance risk. It also helped the company’s software asset management team better understand Oracle licensing and, because SoftwareOne has taken over full responsibility for that relationship, is saving the team time it can use to focus on other critical business aspects.
If this licensing breach had been uncovered by an audit, the customer would have faced fines and costs of nearly USD 30M. SoftwareOne successfully negotiated a reduced settlement for only USD 1M.
SoftwareOne was able to define the commercial negotiation strategy for engaging with Oracle and also conduct discussions with a cool head. It knew who to speak to within Oracle and ensure that C-level stakeholders within the financial institution backed the strategy. It was also able to review and revise contractual terms and conditions based on deep knowledge and benchmarks of what Oracle offers other companies working in the same space.
SoftwareOne continues to work with the customer to optimise and reduce its Oracle consumption with the aim of further reducing support fees in the upcoming months of the agreement.
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Full compliance and substantial savings
SoftwareOne eliminated compliance liabilities of USD 30M for the financial institution, negotiating a one-off payment of just USD 1M. It was also able to cut annual support costs by USD 2M and sees how more savings can be possible in the remaining time of the advisory contract as service usage is optimised.
Because SoftwareOne covers all Oracle products including applications, and because it is now fully responsible for the complete relationship, the financial institution will be in an even stronger position for re-negotiating next time the contract is renewed. SoftwareOne has deep Oracle experience going back decades and a methodology that matches Oracle’s audit process so that it provides accurate results every time.
While the financial institution’s software asset management team has learnt a lot about Oracle licensing, it no longer needs to worry about it day to day and can instead focus on aspects more likely to bring and extend business value.
Knowing and understanding software licences is not a one-time job, SoftwareOne monitors 11,000 separate URLs every day to spot any change to licence terms and conditions. It also has the benefit of knowledge gained from thousands of other negotiations it has carried out for other customers to get the best price result and the lowest possible compliance risk for every customer.
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