My note about Oracle on Friday has drawn a fair amount of commentary - but most focuses on insufficient innovation delivery at Oracle. My note was not just about innovation, it was also about base support and how it has or not evolved.
Indeed a couple of readers have told me. "We do not necessarily want innovation - we want industrial strength, reliable quality and service - from Oracle."
To which my question has been: Has Oracle shown in continuous improvement in the base product and service over the last 5, 10, 20 years you have had a relationship with them?
- In a world of SaaS and cloud driven almost-continuous availability and zero recovery time SLAs, have Oracle's support SLAs evolved?
- In a world where some of Oracle's customers like GE have shown amazing Six Sigma quality, where is Oracle's progress chart on software quality?
- In a world where help desk cost per incident has been nicely declining with self serve automation and offshore cost leverage, how has Oracle's cost per ticket performed?
Their answer - we really do not know.
Innovation is icing on the cake. For the $ 75+ billion customers have paid Oracle over the last 5 years they are at least entitled to the continuous improvement.
