Oracle Plans Channel Program Tweaks

For one thing, the database kingpin, which is trying to expand its franchise into business applications and Web application servers, will now segment its partner designations along product lines.

"In the past, if you're an ISV for the e-business suite or 9i [database, you got the same benefits. But in reality, those things are very different. Their go-to-market is very different," said Julie Tung, vice president of global alliances and channels at Oracle, based here.

In addition, partners wanting to resell Oracle products will now be required to join the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) for a fee of $1,995 or else source the software through a value-added distributor.

The OPN portal will require partners to describe themselves,as an ISV or integrator, for example,and list which products they're interested in. And depending on those choices, they will have access to specific Oracle data. The changes will be unveiled next week and detailed at Oracle World in November, the company said.

"Any improvements they make to the infrastructure using their technology to personalize things, make information more pertinent, are positive," said Wade Sutton, vice president of enterprise software and storage sales for the Hall-Mark Division of Avnet Computer Marketing.

The OPN requirement pleased Seth Feeley, sales director at Cintra, a New York-based Oracle integrator. "They should make it more difficult for people who are not serious to partner," he said. "We find ourselves competing with companies who don't know the first thing [about databases selling at very low margins."

Oracle will also do more to defray costs of training and education with a new "You Pass We Pay" program, Tung said.

Oracle fields three levels of partners. The base Program Member level does not require a partner to have any certified professionals on staff, but Oracle will pay for two people to take the certification test. The next tier, Certified Partner, now requires two certified professionals on staff and Oracle will pay for four certification tests. The top-level Certified Advantage Partner must have four professionals on staff, and Oracle will pay to test six. The goal is to encourage partners to up their skill sets, a spokeswoman said. The tests typically cost $125 a shot.

In addition, the vendor is recruiting key regional systems integrators into a new Accelerator Level program that will give them the benefits of being Certified Partners but without having to meet the membership criteria for a year, Tung said.

Other new benefits expected to be announced next week include: the introduction of a tool called iMigrate that eases the task of migrating from other software to Oracle's offerings, the creation of a team of 75 Oracle employees to assist ISVs in those migration efforts, and new go-to-market initiatives.

Acutely aware of bad press generated in the past year over its licensing and pricing policies, Oracle appears to be striving to clarify these issues with partners and customers. Jacqueline Woods, vice president of pricing and licensing strategy for Oracle, last month inaugurated Webcasts with partners to clarify licensing issues. "Last month we went through named-user licensing and what the changes are and what they mean," Woods said. Nearly 200 partners participated, she said.

That move came just weeks after Oracle posted its software price lists on the Web.

Woods also said her group at Oracle is extending an existing online inquiry program so customers with questions about Oracle licensing can discuss their options on the phone with a licensing expert. This program is primarily for customers who have already made the choice to use Oracle products, she said.

"This is a customer advocacy program," said Woods. "At the end of the day, no one knows our licensing better than us, and I've seen cases where customers would have been better served if they'd asked different questions ... rather than going to an analyst, for example."

Woods maintained that her team members are not compensated on deals going through them, or on a deal's size. However, several analysts said they had a hard time believing Oracle personnel would be likely to counsel users as to the most cost-effective way to buy the company's own software, if that meant going through a partner.

Oracle was under fire several months ago when analysts from The Meta Group and Gartner said the company was auditing companies' software use and reinterpreting existing licenses to extract more revenue from software used in "multiplexing situations." (See related story.)

Oracle, long noted for its aggressive direct-sales force, has been trying to bolster its channel efforts for months now. Last year, Oracle opened up most of its enterprise sales to partners. At that time, partners were able to participate in sales into companies with revenue up to a billion dollars. Before that, partners sold into companies with revenue up to $200 million. (See related story.)

While partners lauded that decision, it turned out to be largely theoretical, as enterprise deals for virtually all software had evaporated in the bad economy. "It was almost a moot point," said one observer.