When Vendors Attack (Each Other)

In the new edition of Why New Systems Fail , I expanded many sections, including the one about support for enterprise systems. To make a long story short, historically clients have had relatively few options:

• Pay the software vendor 18-22 percent of the original license fee per year.
• Not pay for support (aka, “going naked”).
• Internally support its applications with a cadre of internal resources.  (This is rare but I have seen it.)

The Rise of Independent Support

In recent years, however, a new support option has become particularly popular with many clients of enterprise software vendors: independent support. Companies such as Rimini Street offer organizations running Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel, SAP, and other applications support for about half of what native vendors charge.

You may be asking, “Why would a company offer support on another company’s product?”

As with the answer to most questions in life, the answer is “money.”

This begs the question, “How profitable is support to enterprise software vendors?” While estimates vary…

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