UK Oracle User Group backs CCL's open letter to Larry Ellison
Debra Lilley applauds seven changes as 'best practice' and says open letter was 'better balanced' than CCL's initial survey
The UK Oracle User Group has backed the Campaign for Clear Licensing's (CCL) open letter to Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, which urged Oracle to address a number of customer concerns over licensing.
The CCL sent a letter to Ellison and Oracle's board urging Oracle to make seven changes that it claimed Oracle customers would like to see. These included having more clarity over audits, ensuring that customer satisfaction and strategic value replace audit revenue as a key performance indicator (KPI), and for Oracle to re-engineer its products and licence programmes to reduce unnecessary risk. This was on the back of a CCL report that suggested Oracle customers were "hostile and filled with deep-rooted mistrust".
Debra Lilley, speaking on behalf of the UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG), said that she "actually applauds the seven steps as best practice" but added that she does not necessarily see these as direct indictments against Oracle.
Lilley said that the CCL's initial survey "was not as black as [CCL co-founder Martin Thompson had] painted, but she stated that the open letter picks up on a lot more positive things from Oracle which are "better balanced".
UKOUG's Lilley commented on all of the seven points of change that Thompson had suggested for Oracle, here are some of the highlights:
- That customer satisfaction and strategic value replace audit revenue as a KPI
Lilley suggested that users are very passionate when they feel wronged and immediately after an audit "there can be a lot of shouting". She said that the user group hears of audits that happen in the last quarter and are then seen as revenue generating. She believes the discussions need to be outside actual audits, with less emotion.
She thinks that Oracle needs to be given a chance to demonstrate that it is giving more to customers and this includes Mark Hurd's claims that the firm will employ 10 times more staff whose only role is to improve relationships with customers.
- Adopting the CCL code of conduct to make the audit process more transparent
Lilley said that she "smiled at this" point. "The CCL want Oracle and all software vendors to sign up to their CCL code of conduct, of course they do, it's not a bad thing but it isn't an indictment of Oracle specifically either."
- Educating Oracle customers
"This is where UKOUG can continue our work with Oracle to ensure that their customers understand more about the audit process," said Lilley.
"Oracle has the right to audit a customer to ensure they are licensed correctly but the metrics are often returned wrong because of bad housekeeping by a customer," she added.
Lilley believes that education is needed to ensure asset management and audits are properly understood.
"We can encourage this education not just from Oracle but also by our members being open and sharing their experiences. In the past year, we have had presentations from members and another blogged through their audit process; these stories help to dilute the myths," she said.
The UKOUG's approach is in stark contrast to the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG). Although Lilley defended some of Oracle's actions and called for patience in some areas, the president of the IOUG, John Matelski, distanced the group from the CCL report and open letter entirely. He backed Oracle to overcome the challenges it faces, and said he was "extremely surprised and dismayed to learn that there are still those in the customer community that would suggest their relationship with Oracle is predominantly hostile and filled with deep-rooted mistrust".