Re:RE: Oracle Wants Users to Hand over Apps Management

My question is how many companies will switch over to Oracle's desires and them have that middle of the night crash. When that happens what will Oracle do, have you fill out an eTAR on Metalink & we'll get back to you? Yeah right. My CIO's opinion, & we're not doing Oracle Apps but PeopleSoft, is that when all hell breaks loose he wants someone right here that he can see is working on the problem & who he can hold responsible. All of these outsourcing things look real sweet on the surface, but when you get down to the "I want 24x7 dedicated support" the cost of a skilled on staff DBA is 40% of what the ASP wants. Or to put it mildly when an ASP came in here pitching hosting our PeopleSoft stuff, you could hire a crew of 5 DBA's for their price with $$$ to spare. I'm not sure of the actual amount but I was told it was in excess of $750,000 per year.

Dick Goulet

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Author: "MacGregor; Ian A." <ian_at_SLAC.Stanford.EDU>
Date:       3/27/2002 9:41 AM

I wonder what percentage of sites with ERP systems have not modified those systems to meet requirements not provided by the ERP suite as delivered? I wonder how many sites have modified the ERP system rather than change their business practices? In short what percentage of sites could take advantage of Oracle's offer? I suspect the answer is fairly low; Maybe Oracle should more target SAP sites using Oracle as a backend; SAP is more firm in instructing its clients to change their ways. However, it is safe to assume there are sites which may be interested in outsourcing.

Companies pay Oracle the costs of licensing the software and for support. They also pay the costs of someone to administer it, tune it, patch it. Companies also needs machines and disk to run it on, backup systems, UPS's, routers, etc; I admit not all these things are Oracle specific. The things listed in the first sentence of this paragraph represent a revenue stream for Oracle; those in the second do not. Oracle would like to change that. They want to convince apps customers that having Oracle host the ERP systems will reduce costs. Oracle must also convince customers that outsourcing the customers' ERP systems will not result in a detrimental loss of control over those systems, an extremely difficult task. Bear in mind, Oracle's job is to make money for its investors, not to provide life-time full employment for applications database administrators.

The same thing holds for DBA's on general purpose databases. If Oracle can eliminate the need for highly-paid DBA's they will be able to sell more software. This is, however, much more difficult to do. Oracle keeps adding new features which demand more skillful DBA's. I wouldn't scoff at Oracle's efforts. Who knows what the future may bring? My opinion is that we are safe for at least 10 years.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 5:03 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

I think that we are all looking at the article with clouded eyes, perhaps even teary eyed over the loss of financial stability if Oracle houses all of the APPS-DBA work.
 Think about what Oracle has proposed. They will house and administer all of the APPS databases. They can then provide one mega system that they can tune to work for all APPS. There will be no continual patching to make the APPS work on all of the various hardware and OS levels that are in the world today. It would make Oracle's life a lot simpler if they only had to provide one version. They could get all of the bugs out and the stability would be rock solid. It would be the outsourcer's dream. Of course there would have to be some sacrifices made by the users because there would be development only for the most popular options. As Henry Ford said " You can have any color you want as long as it is black".
 I fore see some companies opting for this option if the price is right and the stability is demonstrated beyond question. It would make good financial sense to outsource if it can save the company millions of dollars( salaries, benefits, hardware, software, time, etc). They all add up and can make a big difference in todays economy. Some companies will choose the path of least resistance where the immediate focus is on the bottom line. Some companies will look to the horizon and make there decision with the future in mind. How is to say that one big system is not the way to go? It would provide standardization in the database world that is so fragmented today. You would know how the performance of your application would always be the same. It would make the business have a level playing field in regards to database and applications.   

 Believe me I do not want to retire yet. I love my career choice and the challenges that are presented to me and the obstacles that I have overcome. I know that there are a lot of hurdles ahead of me that I have to learn and understand and over come.
 Personally I hope that the majority of the companies do not buy into Oracles offer. I still enjoy working.
ROR mª¿ªm

>>> Waleed.Khedr_at_FMR.COM 03/26/02 04:54PM >>>
At least you need the DBA to report bugs, open tars and apply patches!

Regards,

Waleed

Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of the company -----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 1:29 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Oracle has been saying for years that you wil no longer need DBAs. I suppose it's possible, although the database gets more and more complicated each release, as more and more new features that can shoot themselves in the foot are added.

On the other hand, SOMEONE will need those DBAs. Oracle? And isn't this
just a little bit like that monopoly that Larry was so insistent on toppling?

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