Rival hits out at 'puzzling' and 'complicated' Oracle licensing models

"Oracle has some way to go to convince the market it is on their side,' says TmaxSoft's Kim Joe

Korean enterprise IT software firm TmaxSoft has criticised Oracle for "puzzling licensing models" and has welcomed the way some customers "are recognising its inability to provide clear licensing and easy-to-manage services."

The comments from TmaxSoft managing director Joe Kim follow a recent report by Flexora Software which saw Oracle score poorly, even ranked bottom of a number of vendors in many areas.

When asked if a vendor's applications are easy to manage, apply patches, maintain and upgrade, Oracle scored lowest. The dominant enterprise software vendor also scored lowest when customers were asked if the vendor's applications and services were reasonably priced.

The criticism follows an open letter published earlier this year which urged Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to improve customer trust and address licensing concerns.

"The enterprise software industry places so much emphasis on cost, benefit and ROI that one might think these are the only criteria upon which customers rate their vendors. But far from it - and looking at the findings of this report, Oracle has some way to go to convince the market it is on their side," said Kim.

"Oracle has long dominated the enterprise software market, but it's great to see that customers are recognising its inability to provide clear licensing, easy-to-manage services and also products that can achieve positive ROI," he continued, before hitting out at the way Oracle is perceived to do its business.

"Oracle's puzzling licensing models, along with its complicated implementation processes, are some of the main drivers behind this increasing frustration in the market," said Kim.

"Customers need to start looking to other vendors that can provide clear licensing structures that don't cause headaches for IT leaders. Increasingly, tighter budgets mean that CIOs require products that can essentially enable them to maximise on ROI, through productive and easy-to-use software.

"As we are seeing a new breed of innovative tech companies emerge from new markets, the market could look really different in five years' time. These new players understand customers' frustrations with Oracle and have the technical capabilities to offer viable alternative solutions," Kim concluded.