Profit Magazine - November 2007

HIGH TECH | SUPPORT

have cascading effects, so you have to understand the impact on everything down the line, from the operating system to the supporting applications. The team gave us this context, which simplified the process and eliminated the risk of unplanned disruptions.”

UPGRADING WITH EASE

Beyond the planning stage, the Oracle Solution Support Center team works closely with Sun throughout the upgrade cycle to ensure maximum results. During the transformation and testing stages, for instance, the Solution Support Center team identifies patch sets that provide improved reliability, performance, and certification compliance. They then provide patch assessment reports with detailed recommendations on dependencies, merging techniques, required patches or version levels from other vendors, patch application sequence guidance, and more. “This holistic approach makes our upgrades much smoother and more efficient, saving us a lot of headaches and expense,” says Will.

Helping Sun save time and money is one of the functions of its dedicated service delivery manager (SDM). A full-time resource available to all Oracle Solution Support Center customers, the SDM provides support management and expert advice to ensure that upgrades go smoothly. With a deep understanding of the customer’s business and technical needs, the SDM acts as guru, counselor, and solution provider, calling on an extended team of service engineers, developers, and subject-matter experts as needed. “Before undertaking any software upgrade, we work closely with the Solution Support Center team to assess the risks involved. They’ve been instrumental in helping us flag issues in advance and ensuring quick resolution if and when problems do come up,” says Will.

For Will, the SDM, along with this focused team of service delivery engineers, has been critical to improving his team’s productivity and efficiency. “The greatest value in having a dedicated team of experts is that you don’t have to restart the conversation all over again every time you want to talk about an

>>SNAPSHOT
Sun Microsystems
www.sun.com
Annual revenue: US$13.07 billion
Employees: 34,600
Oracle products and services:
Oracle Premier Support; Oracle
Advanced Customer Services;
Oracle Solution Support Center;
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition;
Oracle Real Application Clusters;
Oracle E-Business Suite, including
Manufacturing, Financials, Projects,
Customer Relationship Manage-
ment, Advanced Procurement, and
Human Resources Management

issue,” says Will. “You already have the record of where you’re at, and you carry on from there.” As a result, problem resolution time at Sun has been significantly reduced. According to Will, upgrade issues that used to take months to resolve—prior to the Oracle Solution Support Center—now take days or even hours to fix. Another advantage of the SDM is the quarterly reviews they deliver, covering everything from best practices to performance assessments and more.

Sun also benefits from a number of proactive services, including performance and configuration assessments. Through these assessments, Sun is able to quickly diagnose issues, prevent future problems, and improve the efficiency of its IT resources. At the same time, Oracle’s engineers get a chance to learn the idiosyncrasies of Sun’s unique configuration. “It’s a two-way process. The Oracle service delivery engineers learn more about us, and we use this information to fine-tune our performance within the overall environment,” says Will.

WEB RESOURCES PLAY A ROLE Sun also takes advantage of the education and training resources available through the Oracle Solution Support Center. Webcasts, face-to-face meetings, and a custom Web portal are particularly useful prior to and during important upgrades. “I’ve had nothing but positive comments from my team on how valuable these sessions have been,” says Will. “Each seminar is tailored to the kind of things we’re

concerned about. And they get us up to speed quickly on product capabilities.”

These resources, combined with preferential access to events such as Oracle Open World, provide Sun with ample opportunities to influence future product design and to interact with peers. “It’s gratifying,” says Will, “to see that the next-generation technologies are in response to the needs we’ve identified at Sun.”

Having worked closely with Oracle for more than three years, Will has seen Oracle Solution Support Center’s value become more compelling over time—so much so that today he sees the Solution Support Center team as a seamless extension of his own group. The close partnership has helped better align his technology and business priorities, improve process efficiencies, and lower risks and costs. “Since we’ve engaged Advanced Customer Services and the Solution Support Center, we have seen a huge evolution in proactive and reactive services, which has contributed immensely to the successful upgrade of the Configurator,” says Will.

LOOKING AHEAD

In 2005, Sun signed an enterprise license agreement to upgrade most of its Oracle E-Business Suite applications. In addition, through Oracle Advanced Customer Services, Sun uses a range of Oracle services and the Oracle Solution Support Center. Today, the company is in the process of upgrading to Release 11. 5. 10 of Oracle E-Business Suite on a global single instance. This suite will replace older versions of Oracle applications currently deployed across the company. Sun is also evaluating Oracle On Demand to increase logistical efficiency, control costs, and accelerate product development. <>