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Oregon Suing Oracle Over Obamacare Site, But Still Needs Oracle's Help

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-hate-you-now-help-me dept.

jfruh writes Oracle and the state of Oregon are in the midst of a particularly nasty set of lawsuits over the botched rollout of Oregon's health care exchange site, with Oregon claiming that Oracle promised an "out-of-the-box solution" and Oracle saying that Oregon foolishly attempted to act as its own systems integrator. But one aspect of the dispute helps illustrate an unpleasant reality of these kinds of disputes: even as Oregon tries to extract damages from Oracle, it still needs Oracle's help to salvage the site.

11 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. grow your own exchange by BringsApples · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then I guess all of the folks of Oregon will just have to grow cannabis and self medicate till this thing blows over.

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
  2. Mistake #1 by maz2331 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Using Oracle. Even their flagship DBMS product is a nightmare to configure and try to get decent performance out of - unless one hires a 6-figure DBA to constantly babysit the damn thing.

    1. Re:Mistake #1 by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What is the better choice?

      That 6 figure DBA is just as qualified to maintain any of the free alternatives. So why pay Oracle?

      I maintain an Oracle app/DB and they're deprecating some major functionality and refuse to support older versions that do have it, so I'm supposed to come up with alternatives. I strongly favor an open/free alternative. My management came to me and said "But how do we get support?!?!" to which I replied "We haven't had support for over 10yrs, why start now?"

    2. Re:Mistake #1 by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What is the better choice?

      There are many better choices. There are fifty states, and Oregon's website is widely regarded as the worst, despite spending far more than almost any other state.

      Better choice #1: Spend $0, and just use the federal site. More than half the states are doing this, and none have regretted it. There is no rational reason for each state to run their own site.

      Better choice #2: Use a small lean team of state employees, so they have skin in the game because promotions and raises depend on their success. Starve them of resources, so they have no choice but to keep it simple and focus on basic functionality. This is what Kentucky did. They spent 3% of what Oregon spent. Oregon ended up with the worst site. Kentucky's is widely considered the best.

      Really bad choice: Use a contractor, that has a vested interested in a broken and bloated site, that needs lots of continuing maintenance.

      Absolute worst possible choice: Use a contractor with a long and horrible track record of late deliveries and busted budgets. I have never EVER heard of anyone that used Oracle as a contractor and was happy with the result. Using Oracle is like buying a book from Amazon that has 1.000000 stars after 600 reviews.

    3. Re:Mistake #1 by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, this is healthcare we're talking about. Pin and paper. Use the pin to prick your finger, and sign the paper.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    4. Re:Mistake #1 by F34nor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Same reason that Regence BCBS blew $500 million on their REMAC project trying to replace IBM mainframes with PCs. They listened to ass-hat consultants and ignored the nerds. If your computer consultant arrives in a suit and a Lincoln Town Car DON'T FUCKING LISTEN TO HIM.

    5. Re:Mistake #1 by canadiannomad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Much as I'm not a fan of Bill gates, mistake #1 is not following the rules of automation:

      The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

      -- Bill Gates

      --
      Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
    6. Re:Mistake #1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Or use PostgreSQL.

  3. Re:normal by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    this is how disputes over large projects between large organizations are almost always handled, nobody takes their ball and goes home just because something is disputed unless one or both organizations have a serious cult of personality issue.

    Right... I think everyone doing business with Oracle is Simultaneously working on a project, negotiating their contract renewal and in legal preceding. That's how Oracle works.

  4. Re:ok by Noah+Haders · · Score: 3, Insightful

    it's a shame oracle has never done a state or federal contract before; otherwise, they would know more about how to write a contract and scope of work. I'm sure the next time will go smoother!

  5. Re:ok by Noah+Haders · · Score: 3, Insightful

    i was shopping for a developer company to make a public website DB thing. I was getting all sort of stupid responses. One firm bragged that they use "waterfall", which means they would sign on to do $X worth of work but would not agree to deliverables because it's fluid and agile. is this what the industry's like? lactarded.