Month: March 2016

Oracle Support Europe; Consolidating in Romania

23 مارس 2016 | ليسلي لوفتس | Director, Marketing – EMEA

Oracle is in the process of co-locating about 40 of its European support centres in Romania. IT journalists that follow Oracle are speculating various motives for this ‘rationalisation’ initiative, including cost cutting or even as part of a rush to the cloud. Links to, and excerpts from, some of the journalist articles are included below.

Spinnaker Support delivers ongoing Oracle support for hundreds of enterprises from its operation centres in London, Denver, Singapore, and Mumbai with their “follow the sun” model. A number of our Europe-based customers are relieved to know that Oracle’s exodus to Romania will not disrupt their high level of service. They appreciate the concierge style support we provide and recognise the benefits of dealing with local engineers, that know their unique environments, and that have about 20-years of direct experience with E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, JD Edwards, and Siebel systems.

It must be difficult to watch trained, trusted Oracle support resources be displaced. We have spoken with a number of these displaced ex-Oracle engineers, and they have expressed dismay with the direction Oracle is taking the support organisation.

Articles on Oracle’s Support Move

The Register reported in نوفمبر 2015 that Oracle is set to close down its UK software support centre.  It was reported that this is part of Oracle’s global ‘rationalisation’ plans, which would result in the loss of 1000 support staff across Europe. The only Oracle support centre in Europe to remain open is Romania. One source comments “The company is axing experienced tech people for inexperienced, cheap labour.”

A report by Matthew Broersma, in TechWeek Europe stated Oracle’s cuts are targeting experienced employees with relatively high salaries, who will be replaced by more than 60 junior staff in Romania. Oracle support employees have reportedly been angered at the handling of a layoff that will see Western European jobs cut in favour of cheaper hires in Romania.

Earlier this month, Simon Sharwood reported in The Channel Register that the remaining experienced support staff have been asked to assist the more recent support hires. Oracle staffers told The Channel Register that the people hired in Romania are much less experienced than the operators they are replacing. Anonymous Oracle sources are also unhappy with the fact that they are now not only servicing customers but their colleagues as well, adding to their workload. There is a real fear that customer service is suffering as a result of the changes.

Contact us to learn more about our Oracle support services.

 

 

 

Customer Satisfaction in Action; Third-Party Support Done Right

March 17, 2016 | Matt Stava | CEO

A customer recently called me and conveyed how pleased they were with our third-party support response, tenacity, and expertise.  This customer had logged a Priority 1 “P1” ticket two weeks earlier that had just been resolved and closed.  The P1 issue involved a network connectivity crash that occurred during a weekend migration project. Although the crash was subsequently identified as outside the scope of Spinnaker Support’s contractual obligations, my engineers from India, UK, and USA worked around the clock for 12 straight days. They were part of a collective team that included customer and other vendor resources who collaborated until all issues were resolved and successful migration was achieved. The old adage that “an ERP application gone wrong can bring you to a screeching halt” was a reality we all faced together.

“Together” is the operative word here. We apply this word in every customer engagement to address every issue.  We face all issues, whether large or small, with a togetherness that is second-to-none in the industry.  How do I know this?  We hear it time and time again from our customers, whether in person, on phone conversations and emails, or as evidenced from annual customer satisfaction survey results. In our most recent survey we rated a 98.3% customer satisfaction score, where 99.2% of total respondents indicated they would recommend Spinnaker Support to other users/companies.

The exact reason why I love our company is togetherness … of our employees while they deliver world-class third-party support to keep customers running when things go wrong.  This is the lifeblood of what makes us so unique and refreshing in the industry.  My message to all employees and customers is that “together” we’ll get through the easy and hard issues.

Back in 2008, I founded Spinnaker Support with the clear mission of reaching 100% satisfaction and referenceability. Pursuing perfection has become our ISO quality policy. It is never safe to rest on our laurels and think 98.3% is good enough.  It is not. We will relentlessly strive to reach my goals of 100% … together.

Customers remain highly satisfied with our third-party software support

March 11, 2016 | Michelle Wilkinson | Director, Marketing

Our customers have spoken. The Spinnaker Support 2016 customer satisfaction survey has drawn to a close and final results are tallied. Overall customer satisfaction rate ticked up to 98.3%. We received high marks from customers for quality of service, speed of response, and timely issue resolution. Our software engineers were rated highly for their application of functional and technical expertise to identify, respond, and fix issues – and to provide guidance for a myriad of technology-related topics like compliance, interoperability, security, upgrade path, and cloud migration.

This year’s satisfaction survey, which covered calendar year 2015, drew a record number of respondents. All third-party software support and managed services lines were represented, including SAP, JD Edwards, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, and Siebel. Ticket volumes surpassed the 10,000 mark for the first time in 2015. Although we are busier than ever before, our service quality continues to improve

99.2% of total respondents indicated they would recommend Spinnaker Support to other users/companies. Additionally, many respondents expressed willingness to provide a positive quote or case study regarding their experience with us. The voice of the customer is paramount to help grow awareness of Spinnaker Support and of the third-party software support alternative in general.

Future Plans 

Surveyed customers were asked about their 6-18 month SAP or Oracle system plans. Such information helps ensure that we deliver a steady, timely cascade of high-value services.

  • 49% of respondents plan no changes.
  • 31% plan to migrate to a new system (some are already in process).
  • 11% plan to upgrade.
  • 9% plan to expand the footprint of their existing system version.

Respondents provided positive comments regarding the quarterly proactive calls they have with their Account Support Leads (ASLs). These calls are often used to discuss new service offerings or how a customer’s future plans might impact system support. One customer commented that “the quarterly proactive call is my comfort food.” We plan to expand this program in 2016 ensuring all customers are taking advantage of this benefit.

Conclusion 

This is one of my favorite times of the year. Hearing directly from the customers about how pleased they are with our service reinforces to me why I work for Spinnaker Support. What drew me here and keeps me here is what is at the core of the company values – provide the best service with the best employees. We know there will always be room for improvement, and the customers give us guidance on where to focus our efforts.

Below is an infographic summarizing this year’s results.

Spinnaker Support IG

Manage UK public sector IT costs with third-party software maintenance

Storm clouds gathering over Westminster

Storm Clouds over Westminster

3 March 2016 | Mike Sagar | Vice President, Sales – EMEA

George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, wants government departments to reduce budgets by up to 40%

BUT……

The Government is also committed to improving Public Services.

IS THAT POSSIBLE??

Reducing budgets that have already been placed under exhaustive scrutiny while striving to improve the quality of services to the stakeholder community is no easy challenge. Some would argue that paradoxically it’s impossible.

A recent article in Computer Weekly, authored by Rory Canavan, poses various options for managing public sector IT costs as one way to approach the budget cuts. One example discussed is turning Oracle off and migrating to a lower cost platform – but he points out the “eye-wateringly” accurate project management that would be required. It isn’t a given that such a migration would effectively reach the goal when considering new implementation and learning curve costs.

Another example discussed is implementing a software asset management (SAM) best practice might drive cost savings while preserving a desired level of service. Such a practice can result in building and maintaining a software catalogue. This catalogue would inventory assets and could help identify licenses that have never been used. The inference suggests savings in ongoing software support costs should this “shelf-ware” be removed from the support contracts.

A SAM catalogue could also better position an organization for a third-party software maintenance alternative. The third-party market has grown in popularity in the private sector where it has proven to cuts costs by at least 50%, often even more when the shelf-ware is taken into account.

Spinnaker Support can help many government organisations achieve the seemingly impossible; a reduction in costs with an improvement in service. This program is backed by Crown Commercial Services awarding Spinnaker Support a place on the Enterprise Application Support Services Framework Agreement 1032.

This Framework Agreement provides pre-approved savings of at least 50% on SAP, JD Edwards, and Siebel annual software support. However, cost reduction is not the only benefit to a third-party software maintenance alternative; at the same time, Spinnaker Support often improves service levels with faster response times from local support engineers with nearly 19 years of application experience.

An endorsement by Spinnaker Support customers as to the quality of service provided: 98.3% satisfaction rating per the 2015 annual customer satisfaction survey.

We would never claim to have a solution that is right for every installation, although we can quickly determine if our service can be a valid option. The potential savings can be dramatic; and we would welcome any opportunity to determine if we can help.

Learn more about our third-party software maintenance option for the UK public sector.