Oracle User Group fires back at suggestion that customers have 'hostile' relationship with Oracle

UKOUG believes Campaign for Clear Licensing findings to be 'very harsh on Oracle'

The UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG), which represents over 1,050 organisations that are all customers of Oracle, has fired back at suggestions that the vendor's approach to licensing and auditing has resulted in customer relationships that are predominantly "hostile and filled with deep-rooted mistrust".

The suggestion came from Martin Thompson, the founder of the Campaign for Clear Licensing (CCL), a not-for-profit organisation that looked into Oracle's licensing and auditing practices.

In a survey of over 100 Oracle customers worldwide, CCL found that that vast majority (92 per cent) believe that Oracle does not clearly communicate licensing changes. Many felt that their enquiries often result in a failure to secure accurate information from Oracle, as Oracle's own License Management Service (LMS) often does not know who the best person is to answer a query. Only 22 per cent of those surveyed believed that LMS was helpful during an audit, contract renewal or negotiation process.

The UKOUG's Debra Lilley said that although the organisation accepts the statistics, it believes the findings to be "very harsh on Oracle".

However, she admitted that UKOUG's members found Oracle licensing complex.

"Oracle has a list price, but will apply a discount to a bundle of items and this is the issue when people want to change the bundle, and as a result they can be left with shelf ware," Lilley said.

Of more concern to the UKOUG was that the LMS had a reputation as "the audit police".

CCL's Thompson added that the feeling of mistrust is so entrenched at some organisations that they were "fearful of speaking [to CCL] in case of any audit repercussions".

The UKOUG's Lilley responded by stating that the UKOUG hosted a "special" event earlier this year to help its members to understand the licensing policies better and manage their licence estate in such a way to ensure compliance.

She said that although there was frustration from end users at the event, "there was not the feeling of Oracle are hostile and filled with deep-rooted mistrust that Thompson suggests in his findings".

She added that before the UKOUG-hosted meeting there was a concern that Oracle might be recording who was speaking so delegates only had first names on badges, with no surname or organisation.

However, she claimed that as the meeting went on "suspicions were reduced and people were more open".

She emphasised that in the past UKOUG's communities have worked with Oracle over policies that were regarded as being unfair to users and claimed that Oracle "does listen to user groups as demonstrated by application and middleware support extensions".