Interesting info about Oracle
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 23:45:57 -0400
Message-ID: <vf7l7nsqdfbmb3_at_news.supernews.com>
[Quoted] I am looking to buy database software and tools. I ran into this [Quoted] article. Should one avoid Oracle and go to cheaper alternatives like PostgreSql (http://postgresql.org)? I thought this was an interesting article.
Thanks
Oracle tactics draw ire
By Noam Levey
[Quoted] Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - Under fire for pushing California to sign an enormous and costly software contract, Oracle has defended the deal as a bargain and insisted that it would never mislead such a valued customer.
But California is not Oracle's only dissatisfied major customer. From Georgia to Canada, public officials and private companies are complaining that the Redwood Shores software giant misled them, too.
The state of Georgia forced Oracle to renegotiate a major software deal after state officials concluded they would not save as much money as Oracle promised.
In Toronto, city officials are trying to shed a deal that they say burdened them with thousands of database licenses they don't need.
In Ohio, state officials pulled the plug on an Oracle deal after they decided that Oracle had inflated the state's need for software.
And just last week, an Ohio jury ordered Oracle to pay $13 million for selling software that didn't work to a firm that makes auto trim.
Oracle, which remains a popular software vendor nationwide, declined to comment. It is working with California to void the state's deal. Oracle representatives have said the company wants to satisfy California officials.
But as company officials prepare to testify in two weeks before a legislative committee investigating the state's multimillion-dollar deal, Oracle is being forced to defend its sales practices not only in California but elsewhere.
And technology analysts have stepped up warnings to software buyers to exercise care in dealing with Oracle and its famously high-pressure sales teams.
``Oracle has a long tradition of aggressive sales and pricing tactics,''
said Betsy Burton, an analyst for Gartner, a prestigious
Connecticut-based market research group that has been critical of
Oracle. ``But the fact is that today they are losing business to
Microsoft and IBM because of their tactics.''
Assemblyman Dean Florez, the Bakersfield Democrat leading the legislative inquiry, said Wednesday that he plans to take testimony next week from other states that have had run-ins with Oracle.
The state of California for decades has relied on Oracle database software to track data from criminal justice records to payrolls. But the company's efforts last year to sell the state on consolidating its software purchases have come under increasing scrutiny since a Mercury News investigation last year.
Last month, the state auditor concluded that the $95 million to $123 million contract, initially promoted as a way for California to save more than $100 million, could cost the taxpayers millions of dollars for unneeded software.
The auditor singled out Oracle for its ``high-pressure sales tactics,'' particularly pressing officials to complete the deal before the end of Oracle's fiscal year.
And the company's tactics came under further attack two weeks ago when e-mails released by the legislative committee investigating the deal showed that sales representatives from Oracle and another firm plotted to hide information from skeptical state officials.
Oracle has vehemently denied it did anything improper. The company points to its own analysis of the contract that shows that it could save taxpayers more than $100 million over the next decade.
Oracle also can point to other satisfied customers. Montana, which signed a similar, though much smaller, software deal with Oracle three years ago, is having no problems with its $5 million contract, according to Tony Herbert, the state's deputy chief information officer.
``It's worked for us, and we're sticking with it,'' Herbert said.
``Oracle is aggressive in trying to sell its products, but we don't
begrudge them that.''
There are customers that do, however.
Last year, the state of Georgia, which signed a sweeping agreement with Oracle amid promises that the deal would save the state millions of dollars, forced the company to renegotiate after Oracle dropped the price of its software soon after the contract was signed.
The price cut, which the company had not disclosed to the state, significantly eroded the promised savings. The state recovered the savings after reworking the deal.
[Quoted] In Toronto, meanwhile, city officials are trying to unravel a $13 million deal with Oracle that officials say stuck the local government with thousands of databases licenses it will never need.
``I feel like Oracle took advantage of us,'' said David Miller, a
Toronto city councilor looking into the controversial deal. Miller said
Oracle salespeople appear to have pressured bureaucrats to sign the deal
before Dec. 31, 1999, while city officials were distracted by
preparations for Y2K. Miller said city officials are trying to kill the
deal.
Ohio also ran into problems with Oracle last year when the company pressured state officials to buy thousands of licenses before May 31, the end of Oracle's fiscal year, according to CNet.com, an Internet tech news site which also reported the problems in Toronto.
Ohio reportedly avoided committing the same mistake California did when it double-checked Oracle's projected savings and found that the company vastly over-estimated the number of database licenses the state would need.
CNet reported that the state found that Oracle's figures were 15 times higher than what the state estimated it would need this year.
Also in Ohio, American Trim, a Lima company that produces trim for the auto and appliance industries, is involved in dispute with Oracle involving allegations of faulty software and fraud.
The company sued Oracle in 1999, contending that it paid $1.8 million for software that didn't work. And last week, a federal jury awarded the company $13 million, including $10 million in punitive damages against Oracle.
Oracle plans to appeal.
But technology analysts have warned Oracle will continue losing business unless it changes its approach.
In August, Gartner issued a blistering report on the company's sales tactics. ``The issue is a loss of credibility,'' the firm reported, citing its pricing strategies and other actions. ``These missteps enforce the perception in users' minds that Oracle is difficult to work with and, worse, would take advantage of its customers when it is under pressure to increase revenue.'' Received on Sat Jun 21 2003 - 05:45:57 CEST