Oracle marks year end with UK partner shake-up
Vendor announces major changes to partner account management and segmentation strategy
Oracle is making a raft of major changes to the way it runs its UK channel, including in the areas of account management and partner segmentation.
On a call yesterday, Oracle executives ran partners through the details of the shake-up, which will come into force at the start of the software and infrastructure giant's fiscal year starting 1 June.
According to those on the call, partners will be designated one account manager for all their lines of business with Oracle from Friday. Previously, they would have dealt with different account managers for Oracle's hardware, technology and applications businesses.
They will now be able to influence how each area of Oracle's business counts towards their overall revenue target.
The vendor is also bringing in a new segmentation system, according to how it manages its partners. This cuts across its existing metal-based accreditation system.
From 1 June, partners will be classified as Strategic, Investment or Managed, depending on their size and level of interaction with the vendor, those present on the call told ChannelWeb. Those in the Strategic tier would include vendor partners such as IBM and the big SIs such as Computacenter and SCC. The bulk of Oracle's larger reseller partners will be classified as Investment partners, with smaller or more transactional partners set to be allocated to the Managed tier.
Alistair Kitching, chief operating officer of Esteem, viewed the overhaul as positive, arguing that the account management changes amount to a simplification of the old system.
"We now won't be agreeing business plans with multiple people but will have just one business plan," he said. "Secondly, it will mean you will no longer have three people trying to pull you in three different directions."
Dave Simpson, commercial director at Softcat, agreed: "Oracle is a large organisation that can be difficult to understand. Any simplification to the way they interface with partners is welcome."
ChannelWeb was awaiting Oracle's comments at the time of publication.