UK Oracle Partner Advisory Board

Minutes www.edenbrook.co.uk

PRESENT APOLOGIES DISTRIBUTION Mark Robinson David Burns, Attendees and UK Oracle Partner Advisory Board (MR), Edenbrook Accenture apologies Stuart Turner (ST), Mark Tritton LOCATION Oracle TVP, Reading. UK Oracle Accenture Tracey Dunlop John Nicoll PAGES 1 of 10 (TD), Edenbrook Eclectic Paul Gillott (PG), William Edmond, Symatrix Sapient, Paula Little (PL), Cap Gemini Paul Davies (PD) OCS David Griffith (DG), Oracle Fiona Martin (FM) IBM Borel Setten (BS), HP Fisal Khan (FK), 3i-Infortech

MINUTES/ACTIONS Action Due date 1. Introductions

A few new people joined the group for this session.

Paula Little (Cap Gemini), Paul Davies (OCS) and David Griffith (Oracle Apps A&C team).

2. Review minutes from last meeting All actions completed from previous meeting or update included within the minutes of this meeting.

3. UKOUG Partner SIG update (Fiona Martin) At the last meeting of the PAB (July 08) FM presented the metrics that are being used for the UKOUG Partner Forum to measure the levels of contentment within the Oracle partner eco-system as a whole.

The first of these surveys had taken place, and will be followed up on a quarterly updates – from this it should be able to determine if the eco system at large sees the relationship with Oracle as improving.

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MINUTES/ACTIONS Action Due date

Following the last UK PAB a copy of the survey questions was emailed to members of the PAB who were invited to add additional questions to the survey but it was decided that, at present, the survey should continue in its current form. When data from the next survey (due Dec 08) is available it will be possible to provide more analysis. A this time it may be necessary to amend the survey,

FM will present results back to PAB following next survey.

The next UKOUG Partner forum is taking place at the UKOUG FM Next UK PAB conference in December. Members of the PAB were reminded that they (Jan 09) would be welcome to attend.

MR will take the survey & metrics forward to the EMEA PAB who is currently deciding how to evaluate the success of the PAB in general. MR Dec 08 Update on EMEA Partner Advisory Board (MR)

4. MR gave an update on the EMEA partner advisory board conference call held in September 2008.

MR described apparent differences between other European countries and UK. For example, need for more skilling up of junior people initiatives not relevant for UK market. Also, seemed less contention between Oracle Consulting Services in rest of Europe than in UK.

No-one from OPN team available or briefed on proposed partner engagement model that had been described by Judson on call. MR did his best to describe. The slides on the new partner engagement model and certifications were emailed separately to these minutes. Confusion from UK PAB team as to whether the roll out was applicable to UK. Also, some of proposed items for platinum already part of partner engagement so unclear how it could be implemented in UK. All of UK team was concerned about the cost and disruption caused by new proposed certifications. MR to seek clarification of plans at next EMEA PAB. MR Dec 08 The next EMEA PAB is to take place on 2nd December 2008.

Partner excellence update (ST)

5. At the last PAB ST presented the initial version of the metrics that are to be used to asses Partner Excellence within Oracle.

The revised version of these metrics was presented to the PAB.

A query was raised as to how Oracle was to measure the satisfaction

MINUTES/ACTIONS Action Due date from a partner perspective, rather than purely internal perspective.

It emerged that this was done through an OPN survey sent from the EMEA. However, only a few members of the PAB had received this (it went out in September).

DG to speak to Penny Phillpot to determine who the survey had been sent to (both organisations and the person/people inside those organisations) and report back to the next meeting. DG Next UK PAB (Jan 09) How to partner better with OCS (Paul Davies)

At the last PAB meeting the topic of partnering/competing with OCS was 6. raised and slides/ paper distributed. In response to this PD was invited to present to the PAB.

PD’s role is to help partners interact with OCS to the benefit of both organisations.

PD confirmed that there are between 600 and 700 billable consultants in OCS within the UK, with an additional 700 based in India that are available to all Oracle locations.

OCS is viewed to currently have around 30% of the market share of available Oracle consulting.

25% of business for OCS comes through the partner eco-system in some form. In the last quarter 33% was generated by partners.

The acquisitions had made a big change in the landscape of OCS, and PD felt that this was an area of opportunity for some partners. The example of Hyperion was used – where PD had heard that OCS were running at capacity in this area and could not source any more projects.

However, this contrasted with partner experience, who, when coming across OCS within Hyperion accounts had found that OCS were still telling the clients that they should not engage with partners as OCS were the only skilled/experience source of consultants in this area.

PD confirmed that he would look into this and confirm back to the PAB.

PD confirmed that for a joint engagement between OCS and a partner, PD Next UK PAB (Jan 09) the project would need to be a minimum value of £1million, and that the earlier in the sales cycle that OCS were engaged, the more successful they engagement.

All agreed that trust was the main issue, with some partners not feeling confident that OCS would not decide to compete against them at the last

MINUTES/ACTIONS Action Due date moment – and examples were given where this had happed in the very near past. However, it was accepted that PD’s role was to help ensure that this didn’t happen, and to highlight both good and bad behaviour on both sides.

Some members of the PAB were unaware of PD’s role before the last meeting, so there was a general worry that the partner eco-system at large would also be unaware. However PD will be presenting at the OPN day in November – which should address this.

PD stressed the areas where OCS did not see themselves ever engaging PD Nov 08 – around BPR, Change Management, and Transformation etc. However, they would see themselves in architect roles in most joint projects. This still causes some reservations within the PAB, as it appears that there is not an acceptance that partners have the high level skills required for these roles.

In Oracle no-one apart from PD was compensated on consulting partner revenue. This was contrasted with organisations like Microsoft (where head of Microsoft Consulting Services does not get bonus if survey from partners is does not achieve 80% satisfaction).

PD offered to meet with partners outside of the PAB and explain his role in more detail – if required.

It was agreed that the role was a positive step for joint partner and OCS engagements, and that although the issue of trust remained that this could only be removed with effort on both sides. It was agreed that all would feedback regarding joint engagements at the next PAB and that all members would make PD aware of issues with OCS. ALL Next UK PAB (Jan 09)

Developing partner skills (PD/ST) - how can Oracle help to increase skills in partner base in new 7. acquisitions? - How can partners determine which new Oracle areas to focus their investment?

During the last PAB the specific area of skills transfer from OCS to partner community – specifically in the area of new products (whether ‘in- house’ or acquisitions) was a topic of conversation and concern.

There was a feeling that is was increasingly difficult for partners to skill up, and even where to decide to invest in skills, as Oracle produced little market intelligence around where it saw opportunities within its portfolio for partners.

PL explained that Cap Gemini had asked a similar question at an off-site

MINUTES/ACTIONS Action Due date workshop with Oracle. Oracle had committed to producing and sharing more market research around with area with CAP. PL offered to share this information with the PAB when available to CAP. PL Next UK PAB Subsequently, PL emailed to say Oracle was now unwilling to provide (Jan 09) this information externally. MR forwarded this information to UK PAB members to ST can see if he can get them to change their mind. MR to ST Next UK PAB raise at EMEA PAB. (Jan 09)

ST advised that within each Industry area (FS for ST) Oracle had MR Dec 08 determined the top 6 product sets that it saw as growth areas for FY09.

ST confirmed that he would circulate this information to the PAB. ST When available One further way of addressing skills transfer was to increase the interaction and joint projects between partners and OCS, specifically in the area of new products and acquisitions. PD confirmed that this was within his remit and would try and help in this area. To enable him to do this the partners would need to engage with OCS as early as possible within the sales cycle so that a joint proposal could be put to the clients. ALL ASAP

Again the issue of trust was raised, but it is understood that this will be increased with the number of successful joint engagements undertaken.

MR stated that at the same topic had been covered on the EMEA PAB conference call. It had been suggested that for new acquisitions that a budget be put aside at the time of the acquisition for partner enablement and training. As this currently was not addressed until after the merger, where no money could be found. This may improve things for future acquisitions.

Partner Management (DG)

8. At the last PAB it was discussed that a larger proportion of the Apps partners (according to the UKOUG Partner forum survey) were less happy with their partner management than those in the Tech community. This was backed up by PAB members Symatrix & Edenbrook who, at the time, were both without a partner manager and felt communication was poor in this area.

David Griffith was invited to attend this session of the PAB to answer queries and present what had been done to address these concerns.

It was determined that most of the unhappy partners had been managed by Sharon Castle, who was on maternity leave, for whatever reason, the cover arrangements for these partners had never been communicated to the partners and hence the vacuum that had been created.

MINUTES/ACTIONS Action Due date DG took an action to speak to the Channel Managers and find out directly from them who should be looking after Symatrix in Sharon’s absence (and other partners). DG ASAP DG explained that there was now an agreed list of managed partners for the Apps side of the business. He was under the impression that partners had been made aware of this – however this did not seem to be the case for members of the PAB.

DG explained that those partners managed out of the Alliances group are predominantly system integrators and would focus on co-sell/re-sell into Enterprise/Named Accounts.

Those partners managed out of the Channels group are predominantly resellers and would focus on re-sell into the General Business space.

DG stated that between Alliances and Channels they will also endeavour to cover any partners that are not on this list - either those new to Oracle or those that need renewed focus.

At November 13th OPN day they need to explain partner management and communicate better. Suggestion that Christoph would include in DG Nov 08 keynote for Apps.

ST noted that Horizon seemed to work well for Tech partners, suggestion that perhaps needed equivalent for Apps.

Is the UK PAB team representative of UK partners?

MR raised the concern that the members of today’s meeting were, 9. generally speaking, SIs and we may be missing issues from ISVs or other partners.

It was agreed that the full PAB membership did cover all partner types and did not need to be amended at this time, it was just an issue of timing that some members were not available today.

FK, 3i-Infotech, a managed ISV partner observed that as far as his knowledge extended into the ISV market that they were happy with the partner management offered and supplied by Oracle. FK said that they had a proactive and helpful partner manager in place. FK confirmed that the questions in the OUG survey would adequately cover off issues which would be raised by ISVs.

FK did confirm that if small and no partner manager then were not necessarily getting help needed. With the continued absence of Electic/

MINUTES/ACTIONS Action Due date

Maxima and inability for anyone to contact them then suggested we invite another ISV to team to increase coverage in this area.

AOB 10. Next meeting 12pm on 8th January 2009 in Wraysbury Suite, Thames Valley Park, Reading.

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