The impartial objective of Oracle’s compliance auditors: A 5 Million Dollar target
When I used to work at Oracle LMS, the paycheck of an auditor did not depend on the outcome of a customer case. There was indeed no financial incentive, in order to remain as impartial as possible. And it really worked.
If your financial books are audited by someone who’s paid depending on an additional tax bill, you would be deeply worried (and be living under a corrupted regime).
Nowdays, auditors get that bonus and have an annual target of approximately US$ 5.000.000 each. Oracle LMS employees will however defend their independent position, stating they are a division of Oracle Finance, and are no part of Sales. While this is true, it doesn’t mean that LMS is any longer impartial: For many years, Oracle’s headcount is funded by Sales. And yes, being funded by sales comes with a bonus package. It’s a no-brainer. A few quoted profiles from LMS employees on Linkedin say enough:
Manager, License Management Services – North America, East:
Experience:
-Managed a team of up to 9 consultants covering the LMS business for the East region of North America with a revenue target of $44 million.
-Ensured team resource scheduling, budget management, financial reporting and forecasting
-Exceeded a team goal by over 30% and was named as a Manager of the Year for the 2011 fiscal year
Iberia LMS Manager for Oracle Corporation
Main Responsibilities:
Responsible for Iberia ( Spain and Portugal) for the revenue achievement in the department
Manager, Central North America – License Management Services:
Experience:
Cultivate talented individuals to support the role of LMS as an objective, independent resource for Oracle’s licensing policies, current and historical business practices, and effective software asset management strategies, while effectively budgeting team resources and managing engagement strategies to reach an annual revenue target in excess of $50M.
As we expect Oracle to ask their staff to kindly update their Linkedin profiles, you can see some random offline versions as per September 12, 2012. We want to emphasize that we highlight Oracle’s audit process, and do not criticize the personal intentions of any professional working for LMS. Or, as Peter Drucker said: “The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.”
Profile: Manager Central North America – License Management Services
Profile: Manager, Global License Management Services at Oracle Corp
Profile: Country Manager License Management Services (LMS) for Oracle France
Profile: Iberia LMS Manager at Oracle Corporation
Many cooperate with audits in good faith, expecting a reasonable and friendly engagement. So more often than not we only get called in once the real intent becomes obvious. And yes, often the claim can be brought down with 90% and sometimes more. But if we would have been engaged form the start (while working in the background), many of the discussions could have been prevented in the first place. These scenario’s result in a much quicker, less frustrating, friendlier and smoother engagement with no unexpected financial surprises. Upon request, an ever increasing amount of customers will be glad to testify just that. So, if you receive an extremely friendly audit letter saying
- you got randomly selected by Oracle or an audit partner,
- that it’s a routine audit,
- you will get some great free advice during the engagement,
- it’s primary goal is to help you getting the most out of your Oracle investments:
Wake up. Company cultures are like country cultures: Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got. Ask other companies who got audited by Oracle. They’ll confirm that you shouldn’t bring a knife to a gunfight.
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[...] Read Certification of an Oracle ULA Agreement (or: Need to defuse a time bomb). It will help you understand where you might end up during an Oracle audit / certification process and how to use the process to your best advantage and avoid some traps. Follow this up with this article by the same authors - The impartial objective of Oracle’s compliance auditors: A 5 Million Dollar target. [...]
Do not believe the hype! Mr. Hessellink is full of crap and is making false statements to create his own FUD for his own personal financial gain
LMS consultants do not have revenue targets nor do they receive bonuses.
Word to the wise. Avoid these ‘licensing’ charlatans who are just around to leech of you. If you are unsure about Oracle licensing then study what is out there on the web or ask an ‘Oracle’ license expert. Yes I said ask Oracle!! LMS is filled with honest, trustworthy people with no skin in the game. Avoid this wannabe.
Hi Henry (originating from IP: 137.254.4.9 , inet-aumc06-o.oracle.com):
Let’s forget about your foul language for this one time. As you can see in our disclaimer we’ll be happy to discuss disagreements to learn from it.
So if we’re making false statements: How do you explain the Linkedin profiles? How could they be interpreted any different than we have done? If a 9 man team has a target of 44 million USD, the maths are quite easy. Can you proof that our statements are wrong, and that LMS has indeed no skin in the game? We’ll be the first to correct our opinion and even openly apologize for it. Until then we’ll have to work with the facts that we have.
With kind regards,
Mr. Hesselink
[...] Oracle gets more and more in a yawning gap as long as they are not clear in their licensing. Inside Oracle are voices who believe the situation needs to change. Sales people are likely not fully aware they are fooling their customers. They are wrongly educated by Oracle. On the other hand their salary is based on the revenue they make. An Oracle salesman has a relative low base salary on which bonusses are added when targets are made. Oracle LMS auditors get a bonus when they find not correct licensing of customers. Read more here [...]