Five Alternatives to Enterprise Software Maintenance

Back in January, InformationWeek ran an article that talked about the criticisms, and praise, on the software maintenance model used by companies such as Oracle and SAP. Mary Hayes Weier quoted from several people, including Rusty Gaston, CIO of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco (who has ceased Oracle maintenance and is going with a third party maintenance service from Rimini Street), Oracle's Charles Phillips ("people keep coming back to the licensing model that's simple and has worked"), and others.

Toward the end of the article, InformationWeek added one of those cool box thingies for people who don't have time to read the whole article. But the box on page 4 quickly presented some alternatives to the current model - and their drawbacks.

5 Fast Fixes
ALTERNATIVES TO THE STATUS QUO

1. Open Source
You still pay an annual support fee, but lower up-front cost.Will you get new features and fixes fast enough?

2. Software As A Service
Again, still an annual payment and lower up-front cost. Customization, integration, data control can all be problems.

3. Third-Party Support
Cheaper, but usually a smaller company with less access to expertise, and you miss out on updates.

4. Negotiate New Terms
Tricky, since some vendors won't budge. But changing support levels and length of term may create flexibility.

5. Drop Support
Gulp. Can your inhouse team really handle any problems?