Month: June 2017

Leverage Third-Party SAP Support to Gain Better Service, Pricing, and Flexibility

June 29, 2017 | Shawn du Plessis | Vice President, Global SAP Support Services

September 30th is an important date for organizations that run SAP. It is the deadline by which SAP users must notify SAP of their intent to terminate their annual maintenance/support agreement to avoid being auto-renewed for the following year. By exercising the right to cancel (sending the termination notification), SAP users gain 90 days to negotiate better price, terms, and conditions with SAP, or to switch to a third-party support provider like Spinnaker Support.

In any event, leveraging a third-party SAP support alternative is a smart way to get what you want from your SAP support vendor and the side benefit of gaining the flexibility of more transformational options going forward.

Now is the perfect time to start the process of evaluating your options. Here’s a game plan you can follow:

  1. Determine how much you can benefit by switching to third-party support.
  • Work with Spinnaker Support to determine what we would charge you for annual SAP support. Ask yourself what you could do for the business with the savings.
  • Compare the quality of support you’re getting from SAP versus what you’d get from Spinnaker Support. Concierge service versus self-support – which do you prefer?
  • Determine what you would lose by making the transition. Weigh the pros and cons.
  1. Get your affairs with SAP in order before you notify them of cancellation.
  • Analyze your current SAP licensing agreement(s). Address any gotchas should you decide to cancel.
  • Reconcile your license count to ensure you’re not using more licenses than you’re paying for.
  • Analyze open support tickets you have with SAP. Get open issues resolved.
  • Make sure you clearly understand the SAP roadmap for your version(s) of software. When will it be ready for you?
  • Learn your SAP support contract cancellation rights and procedures. It’s a simple process if you follow the rules.
  1. Get your internal team prepared before you notify SAP of support cancellation.
  • Alert your senior management team of your intention to cancel SAP-provided support. Have your reasons and justifications ready.
  • Alert your IT staff. Be prepared to defend your decision to cancel. Leverage Spinnaker Support to help you address questions and concerns.
  • Your finance and legal teams will be needed. Get them ready.
  • Instill an internal communication strategy during the due diligence phase. Don’t notify SAP prior to official cancellation.
  1. Prepare for an SAP counteroffensive.
  • When SAP is alerted of your intention to cancel their support, be ready. What might you hear from SAP?
    • “You will owe support back fees should you re-engage.”
    • “You cannot buy new licenses while off vendor support.”
    • “Tax and regulatory updates will be inferior.”
    • “Third-party support is illegal.”
    • “You are more likely to get audited if you switch.”
    • “SAP support cannot be delivered without SAP.”
  • For these threats, there are numerous cases where each is completely false. Calm SAP down and get them to the negotiating table. You have 90 days to reach a fair support agreement, if your intent is to stay with them.

If you follow the four steps outlined above, you will undoubtedly gain better SAP support for less cost and achieve a higher degree of flexibility going forward. Plus, you will save yourself headaches once you notify SAP of your intent to cancel their support.

We are here to walk you through our SAP support offering in more detail. Contact us at 877-476-0576.

Spinnaker Support Receives Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year

June 26, 2017 | Lee Mashburn | Vice President, MarketingLee Mashburn accepting Gold Stevie Award

On the evening of June 20, 2017, I was proud to attend the 15th Annual American Business Awards ceremony. Spinnaker Support was honored with a Gold Stevie for Customer Service Department of the Year in the Computer and IT category. A Gold Stevie is the highest honor a company can receive in any single category, as voted upon by an independent panel of judges.

Based on feedback from the judges, there were a number of reasons why Spinnaker Support achieved the highest score in the category, including:

  1. Fastest growing vendor (47.8% growth in FY 2016) in a fast growing market.
  2. Strong and stable financial position – superb balance sheet and profitable for last 33 quarters. Built to last.
  3. High customer satisfaction based on the fast speed of response to critical issues, timely resolution of those issues, and technology advisory services that help advance customers towards their most important IT and strategic roadmaps.
  4. An impressive customer list, which includes many of the world’s most recognized and admired companies. Our customers are located in more than 100 countries and represent virtually all industry segments. Since inception in 2008, Spinnaker Support has supported more than 1,000 organizations.
  5. World-class, end-to-end SAP and Oracle application support processes, all ISO 9001:2015 certified. Earlier this year, Spinnaker Support became one of the very first service providers to achieve this new level of certification.
  6. Unique blend of services, including third-party support, application and technical managed services, and consulting. Increasingly more of our customers are leveraging two or more of our primary service offerings to gain better application support, pocket or redirect savings to more strategic or transformational initiatives, to reduce vendor count and associated finger pointing, etc.
  7. Our world-class software support engineers, who now operate from seven regional support hubs located in Denver, London, Moscow, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, and Tel Aviv. These engineers earned a 98.6% satisfaction rating in our latest customer survey. In the same survey, 98.5% of customer respondents would be willing to recommend Spinnaker Support to prospective customers.

On behalf of the finest SAP and Oracle support engineers on the planet, serving a thousand recognized and respected customers, I proudly accepted the prestigious Gold Stevie Award. We will work even harder in the coming 12 months to get back to the stage for yet another Customer Service Department of the Year trophy.

Top 6 Questions About JD Edwards Third-Party Support

And Why We Were Named One of the Most Promising Oracle Solution Providers

June 21, 2017 | Karen Blazek | Director, Product Marketing

At the end of 2016, Spinnaker Support was recognized as one of the 100 Most Promising Oracle Solution Providers by CIOReview. CIOReview aims to give the readers insight on major Oracle solution and service providers that have demonstrated strong capabilities in helping organizations navigate this complex, yet promising landscape. Our Oracle JD Edwards support practice is where we started, and since 2008 we have continued to build one of the most unique and respected JD Edward service units in the industry. From the article in CIOReview, Bob Harland, VP of Oracle Global Support Services is quoted:

“Spinnaker Support’s model and approach from the beginning were set up to provide a high ROI blend of services while ensuring that we always protect the intellectual property of the customer and the software vendor.”

So, what are the top questions prospects always ask about our JD Edwards third-party support? And why you need to hear the answers to determine that third-party support is right for you!

1. How can Spinnaker Support contract support for an average of 62% less than Oracle support?

Large vendors like Oracle charge highly inflated support fees that gain them 90+% profit margins over the cost to support JD Edwards customers. Oracle utilizes these profits to fund new research and development.  Your JD Edwards support dollars could be allocated for innovation not even driven for the JD Edwards products, i.e. Fusion and Cloud. Spinnaker Support is a service delivery company that doesn’t require the same huge profits from their support agreements since we deliver a service and are not funding future software products. On top of that, Spinnaker Support gives customers concessions for their unused products and licenses to further drive down costs.

2. Will Oracle allow us to come back on support when ready? Will Oracle charge us hefty fines and penalties that would outweigh our savings?

Spinnaker Support is unaware of any customer that was EVER charged back fees or penalties after being off support for more than 2 years. Oracle’s typical practice will be to ‘re-license’ the JD Edwards software to customers and treat them as a net new sale. Oracle isn’t going to turn down new sales and revenue. We have several customers that have gone back to Oracle after years of support with Spinnaker Support and/or have bought additional products/licenses when they are off maintenance with Oracle.

3. How will I get access to security updates or required critical fixes?

Spinnaker Support has access to the same public vulnerability databases as Oracle, SAP, and other vendors, and we use these databases to drive our security alerting process. Our legal team of experts is constantly monitoring and accessing the very same security vulnerability information.  Our customers typically receive their security patches or critical fixes quicker than you have experienced with Oracle. Click here to access our Third-Party Support and Information Security White Paper.

4. Will I lose my entitlement to upgrade? Or access to available patches?

Yes, if Oracle delivers a new major release after E1 9.2 or World A9.4, you would not have access to download that future release as long as you’re off Oracle support. However, as of today, you have access to all currently published updates and releases available on the Update Center or Software Delivery Cloud. As part of the Spinnaker Support Onboarding process, our experts create a searchable archive of your company’s licensed, uninstalled upgrades, patches, and related materials in case you wish to deploy them in the future, while always protecting Oracle’s intellectual property rights.

5. How do I take advantage of new technology and IT initiatives required by the business if no longer under Oracle Support?

Utilize our managed services or consultative services – over 40% of our customers use a blend of our service offerings. We are currently upgrading a long-time JD Edwards EnterpriseOne customer from 9.0 to 9.2 and implementing IoT and E1 Pages for their end users. Spinnaker Support will help you evaluate the enhancements that are important to your business, then deploy and test them so you stay ‘code current’ and ahead of your competition.

“We triage the situation and un-blur the line between level three and level four, taking ownership of the problems until resolution,” states Mark Kreutz, VP of Global JD Edwards Support Services.

6. How will I be able to replace all the knowledge and white papers that will no longer be available to me on My Oracle Support?

Spinnaker Support offers advisory services as part of your regular support fee. With one quick phone call, you can speak directly to a support expert, technical expert, or even a developer to advise on strategic projects or just simple process improvements. You will be transitioning to a concierge support model and will no longer be pushed to a self-service only model operated by Oracle.

These answers are why a distinguished panel of CIOs, CEOs, VCs, analysts, and the editorial board of CIOReview selected us to be among the 100 Most Promising Oracle Solution Providers. Contact us today to join the over 400 JD Edwards customers who have benefited by gaining higher quality support while saving an average of 62% compared to Oracle-provided maintenance!

Cancer Research UK Selects Spinnaker Support for Siebel CRM Support

Immediate savings to be redirected for increased funding of life-saving cancer research

Bourne End, United Kingdom, June 8, 2017 – Spinnaker Support, the fastest growing provider of third-party maintenance and managed services for Oracle and SAP applications, has been chosen by Cancer Research UK for third-party Siebel CRM support. Cancer Research UK is one of the world’s leading cancer charities dedicated to saving lives through research. The switch to Spinnaker Support from Oracle support significantly reduces annual maintenance fees and ensures best-in-class service from a highly knowledgeable and responsive support team.

“We continuously seek innovative ways to keep our costs down in order to free up more funding for research projects that will discover ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer,” stated David Minton, Head of Business Applications Cancer Research UK. “We believe that the transition from Oracle Support to Spinnaker Support for our Siebel CRM products will result in high quality service at a substantially lower price point.”

“It is a great pleasure to support Cancer Research UK’s Siebel applications,” stated Nigel Pullan, Vice President of EMEA and APAC for Spinnaker Support. “We will focus on keeping their Siebel system available and adaptable so they can focus on ways to beat cancer.”

About Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK runs Siebel CRM version 8.1.1.14, leveraging Siebel Sales, Marketing, Siebel Analytics, Mobile, Dynamic Catalog, Siebel Contact Center, and other modules.

  • Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives
  • Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for their life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on donations
  • Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors, and nurses.
  • Cancer Research UK’s ambition is to accelerate cancer survival rates by 2034 to 3 in 4 people for at least 10 years, up from 2 in 4 today.

For further information about Cancer Research UK’s work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Spinnaker Support

Spinnaker Support is the fastest growing provider of third-party maintenance, managed services, and consulting – providing a unique blend of services for organizations that run SAP or Oracle. Our maintenance customers gain better support while saving an average of 62% on their annual maintenance fees. Savings are often redirected to fund and accelerate innovation, transformation, and cloud migration. Customer resources focus less on ERP system issues and more on delivering cutting-edge IT solutions that support business strategies. Our customers are 98.6% satisfied. We also deliver tailored managed services, allowing reduced vendor count for less cost. Our consultants engage in strategic projects that drive continuous improvement, development, and migration of Oracle and SAP enterprise applications with the unique surrounding technology environments in which they operate.