Company Profile

Product:      Certero SAM Managed Service

                    Certero for Oracle                   

Industry:      Finance 

Devices:        5,000+

Locations:    Global

The Challenge

Like many large organizations, the customer had a lengthy contract history with Oracle, which included many clauses specific to the business and was only understood by a single individual that had looked after the contract long–term. This created a risky single–point–of–failure for the business requiring them to trust the individual’s knowledge of both the bespoke contract and the use of all Oracle software.

Upon the inevitable departure of the individual, the business was facing a potentially financially risky, information ‘Black Hole’ with the vendor, they had:

• Minimal visibility of what Oracle products were deployed and in use
• No clear understanding of the contract and their license entitlement
• No assurance that the individual previously in charge had adequate knowledge to maintain compliance correctly
• No tools, expertise, resources or strategy to manage the vendor going forward
• Previous audit experiences with other vendors highlighted a cultural lack of control over software licensing

The Solution: “The Knowlege & The Detail”

Engaging directly with Certero as a trusted SAM partner would mean that the business could proactively take control of their Oracle licensing and refine their strategy, without the pressure and risk of being in an audit situation with the vendor.

Deploying the Certero for Oracle solution was an obvious choice as it would provide total discovery and visibility of all known and potentially unknown Oracle instances in use, as well as maximum detail beyond even Oracle’s own LMS scripts. This would assure there were not any unpleasant surprises when they were next audited and avoids a common error many businesses make.

As Certero is an Oracle LMS/GLAS verified solution, the output of Certero for Oracle will also be accepted by Oracle when they next evoke an audit, which provides two key benefits:

• No need to run additional time–consuming scripts
• The customer will have full, sustained visibility of their full Oracle inventory –unlike when scripts are run and the output goes directly to Oracle to be interpreted.

With Certero for Oracle providing the ‘detail’, the next issue was the lack of ‘the knowledge’ of both the contract entitlement and Oracle’s complex licensing rules. This was provided again directly and independently by Certero under an Oracle SAM Managed Service. Vastly experienced Certero SAM consultants worked with the customer to provide:

• A clear and communicated understanding of the Oracle Contract and Entitlement
• Analysis of the solution output and entitlement to generate an ‘Effective License Position’ (ELP), highlighting any potential under and over licensing and financial exposures
• Qualification that the individual who had managed the contract had misinterpreted it as suspected and a significant potential risk was present
• Deep analysis of the risk and expert guidance on how to atone for the error in the most beneficial way for the business’ on–going strategy
• Clarification on where the SAM process had failed and what processes and governance was needed to retain control following the ELP exercise
• On–going help and expertise with managing and optimizing their Oracle licensing.

Business Outcome

Though the process had identified a dangerous lack of control and a significant exposure of $1.3M (USD), with the help of Certero’s SAM and contractual expertise, options were identified to maximize interpretations of the many bespoke clauses within the contact and draw upon the Certero for Oracle solutions’ detailed insights into usage, to mitigate large portions of the potential exposure.

An opportunity was also identified to reduce this exposure through an agreement in place with a parent company, all of which combined to reduce the $1.3m financial exposure by 84%. As the customer did not have any Oracle licensing expertise, this represents a saving that they would have almost certainly had to pay had they been audited and not invested in help from Certero.

As the business was looking for the most cost–efficient way to address the issue and move into a position of sustained control, this was evidently achieved and achieved quickly and painlessly in under 3 months. Having the required Oracle ‘Knowledge & Detail’ provided directly by a true, independent SAM Partner in Certero. This allowed the business to keep the Certero for Oracle solution in place for continued, real–time BI and reporting, whilst also having a documented and communicated understanding of Oracle contract and obligations.

The Certero Managed Service then went on to assist with implementing and testing internal Policies & Procedures for on–going Governance & Control over Oracle licensing, with or without the continued service.