Oracle orders up partners

Software giant claims new ordering model will cut bureaucracy and red tape for casual Oracle partners

Oracle has claimed its smaller resellers are set for a double boost following its launch of a simplified ordering model and a new SMB business intelligence (BI) offering.

The software giant’s license sales agreements will now only be agreed to at the point of delivery, which it said would cut bureaucratic overheads for partners who only want to sell Oracle occasionally.

Alan Hartwell, vice president channels UK and Ireland at Oracle, told CRN: “It sounds like a minor change but [the previous system] was a barrier to us growing the SME market.

“As we penetrate deeper into SME you get resellers doing relatively fewer transactions who want less of a bureaucratic overhead on that order, as do their customers.”

Oracle said the recent launch of its Remarketer programme, which is being headed by broadline distributor Northamber, has also made it more accessible to smaller, less committed partners.

The initiative, which was launched in March, allows partners to buy from distribution without signing up to the Oracle Partner Network (OPN).

“We have 1,200 UK partners on the OPN but we want to scale out to many more partners who don’t want that direct relationship,” Hartwell said.

“I’d like every single one of Northamber’s 10,000 partners to place on order as it’s a frictionless order process now. But it will take a while to lose the image of Oracle as a large organisation that’s difficult to deal with.”

At the same time, Oracle lifted the veil on its BI Standard Edition One offering for SMBs, which combines Oracle’s BI server with BI capabilities from recent acquisition Siebel.