4 ms·

The head scratcher is no one likes being an Oracle customer. I've never met one.

by ProAm 8y ago

scottlocklin 8y ago
Believe it or not, I have. They're usually all-in, and they basically outsource their tech stack to Oracle pretty much completely, rather than trying to build an in-house team on open-source stuff, which has a lot of other kinds of risk baked in. Since the culture is sales oriented rather than tech oriented, they can concentrate on their main mission.
giardini 8y ago
They apparently like it better than being a IBM DB2 customer or a Microsoft SQL Server customer or a Sybase customer or a Teradata customer or a ...[I think you get my point]. Oracle is good at extracting the maximum profit from their sales. They're aggressive about sales and policing usage and they don't often cut customers slack. They've learned that clients will try to give them the shaft and they do their best to not get shafted. They're good capitalists as well as the best database developers in the world.
- sodosopa 8y ago
  We run all of those and Oracle is the one we just thankfully retired. It is also very telling that people are moving from Teradata and Oracle to Sailfish.
- mr_overalls 8y ago
  Wow. Today I learned that "capitalist" means "treating the customer as the enemy" and "legitimized exploitation". Honestly curious - have you absorbed these attitudes from an MBA program, or did you develop them more organically?
  - giardini 8y ago
    I did not say that but I've said this before and it is well worth repeating: *“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” - Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations" This is almost a definitive description of capitalism both by its origin and by its very nature.
- okmokmz 8y ago
  >Oracle is good at extracting the maximum profit from their sales. They're aggressive about sales and policing usage and they don't often cut customers slack. Sounds like a horrible company to work with. Most of the people I know that use Oracle services/products due so because they are stuck with them
  - giardini 8y ago
    Most of the people you know that use Oracle would likely quit if their CFO or CIO came in and told them to migrate away from Oracle. Oracle's stuff works and works right. Furthermore, expertise on Oracle tools is well-compensated and consequently it is common for Oracle expertise to leave for higher-paid jobs (also using Oracle) should a firm cease to use Oracle. My point is that, despite a proliferation of free and open software, companies still often _pay_ for good software that works correctly. And Oracle extracts their pound of flesh w/o taking a single drop of blood. Oracle's is a very strong business model that is no accident and results largely from having no peers.
kickopotomus 8y ago
Oracle primarily targets large enterprise customers outside of tech. E.g. the US government and banks.
duado 8y ago
If your company has very little software capabilities it can be good to have an out of the box solution from Oracle. Clothing brands, heavy equipment dealers, etc.
gamblor956 8y ago
Most large companies are Oracle customers, especially now that Oracle also owns NetSuite. Oracle is known as a DB company to the tech world, but to everyone else it's known for its ERP software (i.e., corporate financial systems software).

The head scratcher is no one likes being an Oracle customer. I've never met one.

by ProAm 8y ago

The head scratcher is no one likes being an Oracle customer. I've never met one.

Believe it or not, I have. They're usually all-in, and they basically outsource their tech stack to Oracle pretty much completely, rather than trying to build an in-house team on open-source stuff, which has a lot of other kinds of risk baked in. Since the culture is sales oriented rather than tech oriented, they can concentrate on their main mission.

giardini 8y ago

They apparently like it better than being a IBM DB2 customer or a Microsoft SQL Server customer or a Sybase customer or a Teradata customer or a ...[I think you get my point]. Oracle is good at extracting the maximum profit from their sales. They're aggressive about sales and policing usage and they don't often cut customers slack. They've learned that clients will try to give them the shaft and they do their best to not get shafted. They're good capitalists as well as the best database developers in the world.

sodosopa 8y ago
We run all of those and Oracle is the one we just thankfully retired. It is also very telling that people are moving from Teradata and Oracle to Sailfish.
mr_overalls 8y ago
Wow. Today I learned that "capitalist" means "treating the customer as the enemy" and "legitimized exploitation". Honestly curious - have you absorbed these attitudes from an MBA program, or did you develop them more organically?
- giardini 8y ago
  I did not say that but I've said this before and it is well worth repeating: *“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” - Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations" This is almost a definitive description of capitalism both by its origin and by its very nature.
okmokmz 8y ago
>Oracle is good at extracting the maximum profit from their sales. They're aggressive about sales and policing usage and they don't often cut customers slack. Sounds like a horrible company to work with. Most of the people I know that use Oracle services/products due so because they are stuck with them
- giardini 8y ago
  Most of the people you know that use Oracle would likely quit if their CFO or CIO came in and told them to migrate away from Oracle. Oracle's stuff works and works right. Furthermore, expertise on Oracle tools is well-compensated and consequently it is common for Oracle expertise to leave for higher-paid jobs (also using Oracle) should a firm cease to use Oracle. My point is that, despite a proliferation of free and open software, companies still often _pay_ for good software that works correctly. And Oracle extracts their pound of flesh w/o taking a single drop of blood. Oracle's is a very strong business model that is no accident and results largely from having no peers.

kickopotomus 8y ago

Oracle primarily targets large enterprise customers outside of tech. E.g. the US government and banks.

duado 8y ago

If your company has very little software capabilities it can be good to have an out of the box solution from Oracle. Clothing brands, heavy equipment dealers, etc.

gamblor956 8y ago

Most large companies are Oracle customers, especially now that Oracle also owns NetSuite. Oracle is known as a DB company to the tech world, but to everyone else it's known for its ERP software (i.e., corporate financial systems software).