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UK Government Signs New Deal With Oracle

Posted by samzenpus on from the sign-on-the-dotted-line dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has signed a deal with Oracle that should allow it to cut down on spending and licensing costs with the software provider. The three-year partnership will see the two collaborate to deliver services to public sector bodies including the National Health Service. A few weeks ago the government announced it would be cutting back on its use of Oracle software, but the new deal instead extends the existing agreement. CCS CEO Sally Collier explained: "The enhanced MoU will deliver savings across government and allow easier and more effective procurement of Oracle products and services. It lays the foundation of a more collaborative relationship between government and Oracle."

3 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Market in action by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oracle is largely indifferent to consumer complaints because most of their consumers are big organizations that are often captive to their products.

    But... if you're willing to eat the pain to get their attention, apparently you can get through to them that they're behaving like jackasses.

    They have ways of leveraging the lock in. Once company I know of bought various products, one of which they found unsuitable and didn't use. When license renewal came up they asked nit to renew that product. Oracle's answer was "sure, but that was part of the negotiated package. If you don't take that you only get the standard discount, so it will cost you X $1,000s extra not to take that package". So the company carried on paying license and support for something it didn't use until the next round of purchasing when they could renegotiate.

  2. What a waste of money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Governments using our money should be using F/OSS exclusively and funding F/OSS projects if one doesn't quite suite their needs.

  3. well played by sad_ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    license/support costs for oracle products were too high, oracle didn't care. release rumor that you'll drop oracle and use alternatives. get better license/support deal as a result. well played, but you still lose (as long as you stay with oracle).

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.