RE: helping Oracle help us

I agree that it is best for everyone if people try to help out by not opening unnecessary cases. However, I highly recommend everyone call their Oracle sales rep, and give them an earful. Speedbumps are normal, but it is not acceptable for support to be basically unreachable, especially when Oracle charges so much for support. If enough rank and file sales people get the word that this is something that diminishes the value of Oracle in their customers' eyes that will percolate up, and as with any sales-driven organization Oracle will recognize this internally.  

Thanks,

Matt  

Disclosure: we are Oracle partners  

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Mark W. Farnham Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 11:08 AM To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: helping Oracle help us  

Okay, so no one is going to confuse me with someone who likes flashy new pretty stuff.  

Now, what is the most productive thing we can all do starting right now to help get over this hump?  

First, though tempting, I reject the notion of making it a maximum pain in the butt and expensive for Oracle. Partly because I'm not personally vindictive (I gave up violence when that Harvard freshman quarterback started spitting up blood in real time after a quite legal but brutal hit. Well, push comes to shove and I'm not Gandi, but I try to avoid violence and it is mostly working so far since fall 1973.) But mostly because this is not a zero sum game and we the consumers of limping support are in this together.  

Second, a few folks have published browser configurations that seem to work. Some of my workstations work, some don't. One of the one that works is (ugh) Vista with the latest browser from the convicted monopolist and the latest adobe free reader I could find and whatever the flash was it said I had to have. That workstation is mostly for playing movies, so I don't really care much how I've polluted it with crap of the day. For the moment I'm using it if I have to log in to support. Someone wrote that google chrome or something was working. One note about my config - it did hang for about 10 minutes at "96%" the first time, and I had about given up. After that it was slow, it had none of my setup from previous support configurations, but it seemed to work for what I actually needed to check on (slowly).  

Third, if you don't really need to use support this week or so, don't. I know that is not an option for a LOT of shops, and I know it is a lot to ask. I'm not asking for the benefit of ORACLE. I'm asking for the benefit of all your fellow licensees. Now obviously you cannot compromise the support you give to your company in this regard. But my suggestion and request is to minimize to what you need.  

Fourth, we shouldn't forget this, and we should muster our demands for better behavior and better performance. Just not this week. The distribution of whatever hits the fan will not be uniform. Let's be part of minimizing the total amount that hits the fan. That can only underscore our credibility and influence about the future.  

Regards,  

mwf

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