It’s Q1 for Oracle. What is your sales team up to?
Now that Oracle is in its new fiscal year, your sales team at Oracle is planning a strategy to maximize the revenue they can get from your company. They have a 4-quarter plan that starts about now and goes through to 31 May, 2023. I’m sure sometimes you have been frustrated by the behavior of your Oracle sales team: too aggressive, maybe pushy at times, inflexible, etc. However, understand that they are motivated by aggressive revenue goals that at times get under your skin. Each sales rep has a goal for each account they have, and they work out a plan to attain that goal.
Their first objective is everything cloud: to sell as much Oracle cloud solutions as possible. Then they focus on ULAs, and finally tactical license sales. If all that fails, they may resort to looking into whether you should be audited as a way of meeting their revenue goals. As they have a plan for you, you should have a plan for them. What are your plans for Oracle in the next 12 months? Take back control of the sales process. You are the client, though Oracle sometimes forgets that. Determine when and how you will engage with Oracle sales. It should be on your terms with your goals and objectives in mind – not Oracle’s. Oracle sales will fill the vacuum and take control of what you need if you are not preemptive in the process. If you have a plan to deal with Oracle upfront, you will find the process, the outcome and the value of any engagement will be much more in your favor than if you leave it to them to control.
Written by Dan DeVenio, Palisade Compliance Vice President & Chief Client Officer.
This one thing could be the difference between a clean audit and a big Oracle bill.
Tell me if you’ve seen or heard this before.
Oracle sends out an audit notification letter, and 1. Doesn’t define the scope of the audit, or 2. Proceeds to define the scope as “All Oracle Products”. One look at Oracle’s list of products and you’re likely to find more than 700+ of them. As we know, Oracle is always looking to make their next acquisition and this list is only likely to get longer over time. So, does this mean that Oracle is going to audit all 700+ products? Database? Middleware? Applications? Java?!
It doesn’t matter how long I’ve been doing this; Oracle customers always seem to overlook this one very important point and are always willing to begin the audit without obtaining a clear understanding of the exact scope of the audit. I don’t blame them, though. They’re trying to do the right thing. The question remains: how can you manage a high-risk audit project without having a complete understanding of the specific areas and/or teams the audit may affect?
There are many ways to formally define the scope of an Oracle audit. Despite Oracle’s new and improved letterhead, this type of broad scope remains part of the same templatized language that is still sent out today. If you every receive an Oracle audit notification letter, please do yourself a favor and ensure you define and limit the scope of the audit so you know what you are getting into. If you are unsure how to do this, or just want to be certain you are following the best path for your specific situation, give us a call so we can help you define the scope in a way that brings predictability to an otherwise very unpredictable situation.
Written by Ryan Bendana, former Palisade Compliance Director of Delivery & Advisory Services.