Oracle attacked over customers' 'deep-rooted mistrust'

The Campaign for Clear Licensing writes a letter to Larry Ellison advising changes to licensing and auditing practices

The Campaign for Clear Licensing (CCL) has today written an open letter to Oracle's Larry Ellison, urging him to address the "deep-rooted mistrust of your core customer base", if the company wants to successfully migrate customers to its cloud computing services.

In the letter the CCL warns Oracle that if it does not allay customer concern over its licensing and auditing practices and improve trust and communication with customers, it may struggle to hit its target of more than $1bn (£660m) of cloud bookings in its next fiscal year.

In November the CCL published a report which surveyed more than 100 Oracle customers and found that 92 per cent felt the firm does not clearly communicate licensing changes. In addition, less than a quarter said the firm was helpful during an audit or contract-renewal process.

Now the CCL is warning Oracle that not changing its "predominantly hostile" customer relationships will hinder the vendor's ability to move customers to its cloud computing services.

For its last quarter results, ending 30 November 2014, Oracle's cloud business grew by 45 per cent to $516m, but the CCL points out that cloud services represent less than five per cent of Oracle's total revenue and that customer mistrust could "pose a dampener on long-term growth".

In the letter it stated: "We fear that if Oracle does not address these concerns then the company's ability to meet its stated $1bn cloud bookings target next year, together with the longer-term outlook for its cloud computing business, will remain in doubt."

"Failing to address these concerns will hamper Oracle's ability to persuade its customers to adopt its cloud computing services, as most are concerned that cloud computing services will lock them into Oracle even more than they already are," it added.

As well as the open letter, the CCL has published Top Priorities For Change, an advisory report made from a survey of 80 Oracle customers who were asked for positive ways Oracle could improve its audit processes and communications around software licence changes.

According to the report, the top priority for Oracle's customers was strategic focus, followed by audit clarity.

Oracle declined to give CRN a comment on the CCL report.