March 21, 2016

23 مارس 2016 | ليسلي لوفتس | Director, Marketing – EMEA

Oracle is in the process of co-locating about 40 of its European support centres in Romania. IT journalists that follow Oracle are speculating various motives for this ‘rationalisation’ initiative, including cost cutting or even as part of a rush to the cloud. Links to, and excerpts from, some of the journalist articles are included below.

Spinnaker Support delivers ongoing Oracle support for hundreds of enterprises from its operation centres in London, Denver, Singapore, and Mumbai with their “follow the sun” model. A number of our Europe-based customers are relieved to know that Oracle’s exodus to Romania will not disrupt their high level of service. They appreciate the concierge style support we provide and recognise the benefits of dealing with local engineers, that know their unique environments, and that have about 20-years of direct experience with E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, JD Edwards, and Siebel systems.

It must be difficult to watch trained, trusted Oracle support resources be displaced. We have spoken with a number of these displaced ex-Oracle engineers, and they have expressed dismay with the direction Oracle is taking the support organisation.

Articles on Oracle’s Support Move

The Register reported in نوفمبر 2015 that Oracle is set to close down its UK software support centre.  It was reported that this is part of Oracle’s global ‘rationalisation’ plans, which would result in the loss of 1000 support staff across Europe. The only Oracle support centre in Europe to remain open is Romania. One source comments “The company is axing experienced tech people for inexperienced, cheap labour.”

A report by Matthew Broersma, in TechWeek Europe stated Oracle’s cuts are targeting experienced employees with relatively high salaries, who will be replaced by more than 60 junior staff in Romania. Oracle support employees have reportedly been angered at the handling of a layoff that will see Western European jobs cut in favour of cheaper hires in Romania.

Earlier this month, Simon Sharwood reported in The Channel Register that the remaining experienced support staff have been asked to assist the more recent support hires. Oracle staffers told The Channel Register that the people hired in Romania are much less experienced than the operators they are replacing. Anonymous Oracle sources are also unhappy with the fact that they are now not only servicing customers but their colleagues as well, adding to their workload. There is a real fear that customer service is suffering as a result of the changes.

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