Oracle doesnt have customers, it has prisoners.
And that's an outcome of the hugely common, but faulty idea that "we're not an IT company, we should use an expert IT company for our ERP". Speaking with some knowledge of this, the small number of companies who manage to use third party ERP successfully are bricks and mortar retailers. They demand -and get- code held in escrow, change of control provisions, commitments on price inflation, and exit without penalty clauses, as well as a keen price and strong guarantees on performance. The reason for this is that they have expert purchasing teams and engaged directors who ask the right questions.
Whereas, a government, energy sector, or telecoms buyer, nope. Their purchasing team is often very, very good within their sector specialism....but outside it they're worse than a four year old negotiating a sweet purchase. And it's these outfits who are the prisoners. Even doing daft stuff like buying up-and-coming ERP systems without realising the corporate dynamics of the sector mean that it will be borged, sunsetted, and they'll be even worse off....
Biting the hand that feeds IT
