Executive Summary
- This article is designed to gauge interest in new research into SAP and Oracle 3rd party support.
- We outline the research and questions that have yet to be answered around SAP and Oracle 3rd party support.
Introduction
Before undertaking research, we are increasingly obtaining input for potential new research. This article will describe potential research into SAP and Oracle 3rd party support.
About the SAP and Oracle 3rd Party Support Market
Prior to writing this article, we went back and reviewed the major 3rd party support articles available to readers in Google search results. Our conclusion is that the SAP and Oracle 3rd party support market is generally lightly covered. One of the exceptions to this was the 2019 first time publication of Gartner’s Market Guide for Independent Third-Party Maintenance for IBM, Oracle, and SAP Software. This was in our view, one of Gartner’s better reports, however, it presented the move to 3rd party support as a primary cost-driven affair, and what was left out entirely was the estimation of the support quality provided by SAP and Oracle.
Overall, the report, while being accurate in many respects, it also left many areas uncovered that would have helped their clients better understand how 3rd party support works. In our view, there were many subjects that Gartner did not want to cover because they receive so much income from SAP and Oracle. And as with most Gartner reports, it was written at a very high level, without first-hand experience in using SAP or Oracle support.
The 3rd party support study we envision would both cover areas that Gartner did not want to cover and cover the area at a level of detail that Gartner did not and will not likely in the future.
SAP and Oracle 3rd party support study would answer the following questions.
Item #1: How is SAP and Oracle Support Consumed?
SAP and Oracle support has a particular lifecycle that results in the support being progressively less used (on average) as the time passes from the application or database’s go-live. Understanding this is critical to understanding the value of 3rd party support.
Item #2: SAP and Oracle Support Coverage
Gartner left out the vast chasm between what SAP and Oracle support covers and what 3rd party support covers.
Gartner is not alone in condensing the difference between vendor support and 3rd party support as being primarily about cost as the following quotation from ComputerWeekly illustrates.
By using a third-party maintenance provider, businesses can manage their costs and reinvest their savings in those areas of business that are of strategic importance.
This study would illuminate this topic and bring a dose of reality that is often missing from other coverage.
Item #3: A Deep Dive into Who Are the Primary 3rd Party Support Providers
Gartner did little to investigate the composition and capabilities of the primary 3rd party support providers.
Here is one example from the report.
Support Revolution, founded in 1998 and with 20 years as an Oracle and SAP partner, offers technical maintenance and support services for all Oracle and SAP products. Support Revolution offers consulting services for Oracle and SAP, including implementation, upgrade, managed services and hosting in Amazon, Microsoft and other clouds.
This is quite boilerplate and is almost an abstract from the company’s website.
In fact, much of the coverage in the Representative Vendors section looks like it was written by a computer. This type of coverage is easy to write, but it does not explain the nuances of what sets each vendor apart.
Item #4: Potential Custom Additions
There may be questions you have that you would like added to the research. There is the option of adding custom questions.
The SAP and Oracle Expertise of the Researcher
- A long term SAP consultant with decades of experience in SAP will write the research has written multiple books on SAP, and has a large SAP network and sources from all over the world that provides information to Brightwork. When the research is shared with individuals outside of the company, it will not be possible to assert that the author is not knowledgable in SAP.
- The Oracle portion of this study will be written by the same author, but with the support of multi-decade experienced Oracle resources. As can be seen from the Oracle Database Study link provided below, Brightwork has considerable research already into Oracle.
- Naturally, pro-SAP and pro-Oracle resources will of course attempt to redirect the conversation back to SAP/Oracle or SAP/Oracle partner created material. The difference is that in most cases, there is no countervailing analysis provided, and SAP and Oracle uses a multi-entity method of making it appear as if marketing information is the industry consensus.
Getting Accurate Information on SAP and Oracle
Individuals or entities write nearly all material written on SAP and Oracle with a pro-SAP or pro-Oracle financial bias. And we have demonstrated the high degree of inaccuracy in the information provided about SAP and Oracle to the marketplace.
Brightwork gets to the truth of SAP and Oracle.
The objective is not promotion or demotion, but accuracy.
Accuracy is both what competing vendors and SAP and Oracle customers are sorely lacking. In most cases, the reality of SAP and Oracle products is only learned after the purchase and many months into the implementation.
Our Previous Research
Here is an example of the research in our Brightwork Study in Oracle Database Usage.
(Please do not forward this research to link to anyone else. It is also licensed and is only being provided for you to observe an example. It has a redemption cap set.)
What You Can Expect from the Research in Terms of Management, Access, and the Licensing Arrangement
This is research that is not for public consumption and is only accessible by those that buy a license.
We cover details of the research articles related to how they are accessed, license restrictions, and other important details in the article Brightwork Licensed Research.
Conclusion
We are sharing this article to gauge interest for a study into 3rd Party Support that would be password protected and shareable by our customers.
References
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252470433/Why-it-makes-sense-to-use-third-party-to-keep-the-IT-lights-on
*https://go.forrester.com/blogs/10-03-16-sap_3rd_party_maintenance_an_alternative_for_me_part_two/
https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3957130/market-guide-for-independent-third-party-maintenance-for