Why It’s Time to Rethink Your Oracle Support Strategy
Global cost pressures are reshaping how organizations spend their IT budgets. Tariffs, inflation, and fluctuating exchange rates are driving prices up across industries. For CIOs and IT managers, this means one thing: every euro or dollar spent must now deliver measurable value.
Yet for many organizations, a large portion of the IT budget continues to disappear into Oracle annual support fees — an area where costs rise predictably every year, but value does not.
The Growing Weight of Oracle Support
Oracle’s annual support fees are 22% of the net license cost — and those fees increase every single year, typically by 4% to 8%, often closer to the higher end of that range.
That means a company paying €1 million in Oracle support today could easily be paying €1.25 million within a few years, even if their Oracle footprint hasn’t changed at all.
What makes this worse is that many organizations continue to pay support on licenses they no longer use — systems retired years ago, modules replaced by SaaS applications, or test environments that were never decommissioned.
The Repricing Trap
When customers try to reduce support costs by removing unused licenses, they often encounter Oracle’s repricing policy (also known as Matching Service Levels).
This policy prevents customers from selectively terminating support: if you remove one part of a license set from support, Oracle recalculates your entire contract as if no previous discount ever existed.
The result? Instead of saving money, you could actually end up paying more.
This policy has locked countless organizations into maintaining support on products they no longer use — simply to avoid triggering repricing.
How to Break Free Without Repricing
Despite how restrictive Oracle’s policies may seem, there are legitimate ways to reduce support costs without triggering repricing — or even by moving away from Oracle support altogether.
• Move to a third-party support provider
Third-party providers offer equivalent support services at significantly lower prices, often 50% or more below Oracle’s rates. You also pay only for the products you actively use, rather than every license ever purchased.
The trade-off? Oracle may respond with an audit to test your compliance. That’s where License Consulting can help — our Transition Service ensures your environment is clean, compliant, and defensible before making the switch, so you don’t end up facing a claim larger than your savings.
• Reduce support without triggering repricing
For customers who prefer to stay within the Oracle ecosystem, there are proven strategies to safely reduce support costs without repricing.
These methods are based on years of experience — and on a deep understanding of how Oracle structures its contracts and license sets. As former Oracle auditors, our experts know exactly how to operate within Oracle’s framework to achieve savings while staying below the radar.
Both approaches can deliver meaningful and recurring savings on annual Oracle support — helping organizations regain control over costs that were once considered fixed.
Why It Matters Now
In times of economic uncertainty, your CFO expects IT to deliver cost control — not just innovation. Support fees are one of the few areas where immediate savings can be achieved without operational risk, provided it’s done correctly.
The coming year is expected to bring further support fee increases, as Oracle and other vendors adjust prices to inflation and global cost pressures. Waiting until renewal time may simply mean paying more for the same coverage.
No Budget Needed: Our No-Win, No-Fee Model
At License Consulting, we make it easy to take control of your Oracle spend — even if you don’t have a budget allocated for it.
Our engagement model is simple: if we don’t save you money, you don’t pay us anything.
When we do achieve savings, our invoice is only issued after your new Oracle support invoice confirms those savings — meaning you pay us directly out of the amount you’ve saved, not from your existing budget.
And because these are recurring annual savings, the benefit multiplies year after year.
If we help you save €250,000 on Oracle support, that’s not a one-off gain — it’s a potential €1 million benefit over just four years that stays in your organization instead of flowing to Oracle.
Take Control of Your Oracle Spend
Most organizations can reduce Oracle support spending significantly without sacrificing compliance or business continuity.
At License Consulting, our former Oracle auditors help clients identify unused licenses, model repricing scenarios, and implement strategies to cut costs safely and effectively.
If your annual support renewal is approaching — or if you suspect you’re paying for licenses you no longer use — now is the time to act.
👉 contact us at info@licenseconsulting.com to schedule a free consultation and learn how much you could save — risk-free, no budget required.
