Often times, customers don’t realize there is plenty of opportunity to reduce the Oracle audit findings at any stage – even the final report stage. In fact, this is an excellent point to take full stock of the entire audit, review all the data provided, walk through the Oracle report and revisit every minute detail. Remember – audits are based on facts. And cusotmers are entitlemed to all the facts that Oracle is basing its findings on and should not simply accept Oracle’s conclusions at face value. Unfortunately, sometimes Oracle takes tremendous liberties in interpreting facts and contractual details to its benefit. Customers can (and should) be prepared to handle this expertly and with clinical precision.
This is not always easy and requires expert level Oracle licensing knowledge, as well as an intimate understanding of how Oracle and Oracle’s License Management Services (LMS) operate internally. At a minimum, customers should request all the data from Oracle and request a detailed explanation of each datapoint contributing to the audit findings.
Following this, customers should be prepared to have a detailed value-based discussion with Oracle at a strategic level and not just about resolving the audit (this of course assumes that the customer has further need for other Oracle software). Doing so will enable the customer to get a more useful and usable outcome from the audit, instead of just ending up with a forced cloud sale from Oracle to promote its portfolio of cloud offerings.
If you are nearing the end of an Oracle audit and need expert support through the audit resolution stage to reduce and minimize audit findings, our team of ex-Oracle auditors are here to help. Reach out to us for a consultation.