Oracle tweaks extended support fees

Oracle on Monday said that it has waived extended support fees for its a bevy of products, including its E-Business Suite 11, 10, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.11, Siebel CRM 7.8 and Oracle database 10g R2. 

Extended support covers product and technology releases, updates, fixes and security alerts, regulatory requirements, upgrade scripts and technical support. 

The move by Oracle highlights the delicate dance enterprise vendors are doing with customers. The previous model for vendors was to increase maintenance fees every year. But customers are pushing back amid a weak economy. SAP had to retreat on price increases and Oracle is looking to avoid some of the shrapnel. 

By tweaking extended support fees (statement), Oracle is looking to keep customers at bay as maintenance and support costs are increasingly being questioned. Extended support, however, is the just one sliver of the overall Oracle support pie. In fact, Vinnie Mirchandani calls Oracle's move a condescending pat on the back. He argues that Oracle's real aim is to back off maintenance increases so you won't question whether the fees were too high in the first place. 

This is a small bone hoping the maintenance issue will disappear into the background. Good dog – now go back to your corner and keep writing those checks…

Also see: SAP software revenue skids in first quarter; Maintenance terms tweaked

Indeed, extended support may not be that big of a deal. Oracle offers premium support, a standard 5-year policy that covers maintenance and upgrades for the company's stack (database, applications and middleware). Extended support extends premier support for another three years for a fee. Another tier is sustaining support, which gives you access to support, call center inquiries and other knowledge base information. In other words, your mileage on Oracle's fee moves will vary greatly. 

First year extended support fees are waved for:

• The Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11/10 through Nov. 2011;
• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.11 through Dec. 2010;
• Siebel CRM 7.8 through May 2011;
• Oracle Database 10g R2 through July 2011;
• PeopleSoft Enterprise 8.9 through June 2011. 

The Oracle news comes out of the Collaborate 2009 conference in Florida. Among other items:

• Oracle put some meat on Beehive, which was announced at OpenWorld last year. Beehive is Oracle's collaboration software and the latest updates include Web-based software, better Web and voice conferencing and integration with common desktop software. Beehive will run you $50 per user with messaging, collaboration, and voicemail adding on additional fees. 
• The company also said that its E-Business Suite 12.1 was now available.