Oracle price hike 'playing into hands' of rivals - partner

Oracle raises prices on certain products by five per cent since December

An Oracle partner has said the vendor's decision to quietly boost prices by five per cent means it is "playing into the hands" of its rivals as customers look at alternatives.

Last Tuesday, Oracle sent UK partners its latest price list, which when compared with the December versions, showed a price rise in sterling across a range of products.

The documents, which have been seen by CRN, show that the cost of a processor licence for its core Database products - Standard Edition 2; Enterprise Edition; Personal Edition; Mobile Serve; and NoSQL Database Enterprise Edition - rose by five per cent in March, compared with December's list price.

Oracle declined to comment on the move, but CRN understands that the price hikes are down to the vendor evening out the impact of currency fluctuations.

Oracle partner Agile IT's director Steve Birdle said the vendor "buried bad news while no one is watching," and added that the move could turn customers off.

"Anything, in what is becoming a more commoditised marketplace, which increases the cost is not going to well -received by end users and will make them look at alternative options," he told CRN.

"There has been a lot of audit activity in the last few years and that has left a very bad taste among a lot of Oracle clients. They are often viewed as a necessary evil commercially - great products, but a difficult organisation to work with. Really, it helps partners like us - we have a strong relationship with our clients because they would rather deal with someone who knows the products and the licensing but is more on their side."

Bridle said "new kid on the block" TmaxSoft is competing hard against Oracle, and that it and other rivals will be "rubbing their hands" in the UK market due to the changes.

TmaxSoft's UK channel and sales manager Sanjeev Sanotra agreed and said: "Historically, Oracle have not had much competition in this field; they have been number one for a very, very long time. The thought process has been 'we'll do it and our customers will swallow it' because it is far harder to move off Oracle than to just pay the price rise. You can't see this as a one-off event because it is part of [the] well-oiled machine that is Oracle.

"It's a pain point and unless there is a pain point that needs solving, there is no place in the market. The more points of pain Oracle creates, the more points of pain I can personally make a resolution to."

Oracle declined to comment.