How to move to Oracle Software as a Service

In the past year we have seen an increase in customers transitioning from Oracle on-premise to Oracle cloud for SaaS applications, such as EBS. It has taken me a while to understand how to best perform this transition and now with extensive experience, I feel confident enough to write about this topic.?

For Oracle licensing agreements the focus has been on making sure that your licensing agreement is

a) Strong to protect yourself against future noncompliance claims from the vendor. b) Provide contractual flexibility to reduce Oracle support fees.

I wrote a short guide a few months ago, you can read it here: “6 must have contracts terms in your Oracle licensing agreement”

In this article, I am sharing a high-level guide on how to transition to Oracle Cloud. If you make a mistake it is possible that you could be wasting millions by signing a poorly constructed SaaS agreement.

We have released an e-book "top 10 Oracle contract terms to negotiate in your SaaS agreement"

If you want a copy please like the article and comment below "please share a copy with me"

3 goals for companies considering moving to Oracle SaaS

• Review your on-premise licensing to understand which features you are using and then map it to Oracle Cloud Service.
• Align the cloud services start with your implementation and go live date.
• Price protection for future expansions and renewal.

No second chance

• Oracle SaaS is non-refundable and non-cancellable. If the cloud transition does not go as you thought, you will not get a refund:

Important questions ask yourself:

Is it possible to take you on-premise environment to the cloud?

Have you performed customizations?

Have you performed a Proof of Concept?

Bottom line

If Oracle Cloud for some reasons does not fulfil your requirements, you will be stuck with the solution or in worse case, it’s money wasted. Make sure that you have performed enough testing before signing the cloud agreement. Oracle can grant you a free Proof of Concept. Also, talk to other customers who have made the move to learn about the shortfalls of Oracle cloud.

Matching on premise usage with cloud service

Are you sure of which Oracle on-premise licenses that you use?

Oracle usually looks at the on-premise licenses you have and then pick the matching cloud services. Below are 2 common mistakes:

Mistake #1 Companies are not using all the software they have licenses for (shelfware) and the company have purchased cloud services that they do not need.

Mistake #2 Companies are using a module or product on-premise, which they forget to include when negotiating their SaaS agreement.

Recommendation: Perform a licensing review before moving to the cloud. If you share too much information with Oracle during this phase you will be in a poor negotiation position if/when you want to move ahead and sign a cloud agreement.

5 Key contract terms you must negotiate in your Oracle Software as a Service contract.

Oracle Shelving Transition period

This contract term will provide you the option to run the on-premise environment without paying technical support. In simple terms you can save 1 year of your technical support fees. It is a generally a good move but there are some pitfalls the customer needs to be aware of. Please review the contract language before doing so.

Services delay period

If you do not include this in your Oracle SaaS agreement, the cloud services will usually start a week or two after you sign your Oracle cloud services agreement. If you request this contract term, your cloud services can start closer to your go live date. You will not waste the first few months of the cloud services agreement.

Renewal protection

Oracle standard renewal offer is 10-15%, Oracle can go much lower than that. Remember it is only valid if you renew with minimum same number of users you had in the initial contract.

Price hold

You want a fixed price for adding more users to the cloud services you will be using. If you do not have such price hold, you have no negotiation leverage if you would need to buy additional users.

Rebalancing Cloud Services

If for some reason your Oracle SaaS service does not go live, or you are unable to move your on-premise solution to Oracle SaaS. You can request to have the option to use your cloud services for other SaaS services. This contract term will give you flexibility and avoid potentially wasting a multiyear commitment.

I discussed this yesterday in our seminar on how to negotiate with Oracle, we had over 250 people registered. You can watch the 4 minutes about where i discuss the above.

I hope this helps. Contact me if you need any further help from an Oracle licensing expert.

About Redress Compliance

Redress Compliance is the only independent Oracle Licensing Services Provider. We earn no money from reselling Oracle software, we have no agreements with Oracle, we are also not dependant on delivering Oracle technical consulting. Our only source of revenue is what our clients pay us for Licensing Advice.

We help companies with Oracle Licensing Reviews, License Audit Defence, Oracle ULA services and other Oracle licensing and contract consulting.??

Other Oracle Licensing Articles

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5 steps for how to improve the effectiveness of your Software Asset Management Tool,?click here for help.

If you want to avoid renewing your ULA against your will, i recommend reading this article?"how to avoid a forced Oracle ULA renewal"

A more comprehensive guide is available by reading this article:?"How to master your Oracle ULA agreement"

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