California + Oracle = $95 Million Fiasco

bahtama writes: "The Sacramento Bee is reporting that California apparently signed an agreement to purchase 95 million dollars worth of Oracle software that they really didn't need and that will not save them as much money as promised. They apparently purchased 270,000 licenses, which is more than all the state workers, including prison guards and others who would never need it." How do you think Oracle would treat the whole country?

Comments

Oracle cheating? not quite...

[japhmi]

If the poster would actually read the article, they'd see that the company Logicon sold the Oracle software to the state, not Oracle themselves.

Re:Oracle cheating? not quite...

[hal200]

Perhaps you should have kept reading...and I block quoth (emphasis mine):

In a written statement attached to the audit, Gage wrote, "In hindsight, it may have been more prudent to delay execution of the agreement" until the savings claims could be evaluated.

A lawyer for the Department of General Services, meanwhile, was given only a few hours to review the contract.

The breakneck timeline was imposed by Oracle, the audit says.

"There was obviously a crushing need to hurry to get this thing done" to boost Oracle's reported earnings at the end of its fiscal year, Bowen said. "The state shouldn't be in the business of propping up any company's balance sheet, period."

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Oracle's involvement in this particular clusterfuck...If they hadn't been so intent on proping up their 4th quarter numbers, the contract would most likely have gotten the review, and probably the subsequent shrieking gales of laughter it deserved.

Of course, a large helping of shame goes to the Gov't of Calif for letting Oracle/Logicon railroad them like that. This is the sort of thing 'due process' is meant to avoid.

Blame Oracle?

[The Slashdolt]

If you read the article, it wasn't Oracle who should be blamed for this. It was the sales people from Logicon Inc who scammed them.

What's ironic here...

[s390]

is that the CA Dept. of Information Technology (DoIT) that committed this colossal blunder was established just a few years ago precisedly to eliminate IT mismanagement and waste in State Agencies. I'm surprised Cortez (DoIT Director) still has a job, but that might not be true much longer. The legislature is considering abolishing the DoIT.

Re:at least the government waste

[Tackhead]

> Oracle pays very little in taxes, thanks to our wonderful loop-hole ridden tax system.

Bullshit.

1Q01: $903M income before tax, $320M income tax expense.
2Q01: $1.32B income before tax, $470M income tax expense.
3Q01: $785M income before tax, $275M income tax expense.
4Q01: $845M income before tax, $295M income tax expense.

Your political bias is showing. (OK, so's mine. Guilty as charged. ;-) But corporations pay assloads of tax too.

Re:I live in California

[TheConfusedOne]

Well, it certainly looked informative. I found the numbers a bit interesting and followed your link. On page 379 (Table S-3, Budge Summary) of the FY 2001 Budget document from your gpo.gov link I found the following:

(2001 Estimates)
Discretionary: $634
DoD $279
non-DoD $355

Mandatory: $993
Social Security: $355
Medicare and medicaid: $342
Means-tested entitlements: $111
Other: $123

Total: $1,835
(All number in Billions)

So we've got 15% for DoD (355/1835)
and 6% for means-tested (111/1835). So you got half of it right but distorted the other half. Non-DoD and Social Security were more than DoD and Medicare/Medicaid was almost as much.

So, it's an interesting chain you've strung but it doesn't hold together.

Re:Golden opportunity for the Golden state

[G-funk]

PosgreSQL can do anything Oracle can

Ah. Everytime I hear "X can do everything Oracle can" it makes me smile.

You know why oracle charges so much money? You know why oracle's the second biggest software company? Sure it's partly marketing, but mainly Oracle markets itself. Oracle is the most powerful, scalable, and generally rock-steady-makes-toast-cuts-potatoes-in-3-styles database in the world by a long shot bar none.

Comparing postgressql to oracle is like comparing the JET engine and a .mdb file to SQL Server 2000. It's a joke and makes you look like an idiot to people who know anything about databases.