Oracle Siebel assessment
CASE
STUDIES
Services
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Oracle Siebel assessment
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License Audit Defense
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Contractual support
Customer
International telecom provider*
Related Products
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Oracle Siebel
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Background
One of the biggest international telecom providers experienced difficulties, though the ULA certification process for Siebel. After the certification process was completed, Oracle challenged the results and found huge unlicensed use of modules that were not included in the ULA. The customer was not aware of this usage, since Siebel licensing depends on the interpretation of measurement results. According to Oracle's interpretation, a shortfall of Siebel modules totaled was more than $80mm.
Challenge
The customer customized Siebel modules for his requirements. When the modules are customized, Oracle has to understand what standard modules have to be licensed. Since the customization does not allow to define it precisely, Oracle asks what standard module was customized, in order to map the customized module to the standard one.
The mapping procedure is more complicated than OEBS, since there is a mediator between modules and users called "views". The customer didn’t know exactly how to reply, as there were multiple possibilities:
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The 3rd company who made the customizations didn't provide this information.
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The customer's specialists knew how to customize, but were unsure of the licensing aspect.
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The task required expert involvement, as this was outside of their scope of business.
This information has a major impact on the cost of Siebel licensing. However, since the customer had no experience of this, he had to agree with Oracle mapping suggestions. Based on these suggestions, Oracle interpreted the measurement results and found many products that were not included in the license grant. Thus, Oracle claimed it as unlicensed use, with a request to resolve it according to the contract.
Solution provided
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Siebel licensing education: We provided education sessions to the customer to educate him on how to clean-up the system and how to identify where Siebel views are to be mapped.
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Siebel clean up: We helped the customer to clean up the system according to Oracle's formal procedures - eliminated users, remapped them to correct views, retrieved the unnecessary rights.
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Usage assessment: Using our knowledge and experience, we evaluated the usage of Oracle Siebel products as Oracle would do, identified potential non-compliance.
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Siebel views mapping report: We created a "mapping report" to support the customer with Siebel customizations.
Quote from the Head of Infrastructure and Internal Automation
Throughout the work period, the contractor team proved to be highly skilled professionals, with a great understanding of the customer’s requirements and unique expertise in Oracle software licensing.
Throughout the period of cooperation, the contractor proved to be a reliable and conscientious partner. We hope for fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation in the future.
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Solution provided (continued)
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Evidence of misinterpretation: We helped the customer to argue their position where the interpretation was based on incorrect suggestions.
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Re-run the measurements: Based on the fact that the Siebel system was not clean according the Oracle requirements, it was agreed to take further measurements on the clean system.
Result after the work
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Before our work Oracle claim was about $80mm for the unlicensed use of Oracle Siebel, according to Oracle's price list.
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After our involvement it was reduced to $255,000, according to Oracle's price list.
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The customer avoided costs of $8-10mm in real money for the Oracle Siebel products licensing.
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Author
Andrey Khodunov worked for Oracle for more than 15 years, 11 of them in Oracle License Management Services (LMS), an Oracle division that performs license audits and other software licensing services.
Performed hundreds of audits for large and small enterprises. Worked in different
industries, regions and with multiple teams in Oracle and customers.
After Oracle Andrey worked as Director of software licensing in a large company from the financial sector where he obtained a deep understanding of internal customer processes and the place of software license management.
Over 30 years in IT. Professional certifications: ITIL, PRINCE2, PMP, CSAM.
* This document describes a real customer case. To protect sensitive customer's information all direct identifiers, e.g., name, location and other details of the project have been removed.