• silicon.com
• Technology
• Networks

By Sonya Rabbitte, 27 March 2002 16:20

NEWS The Gartner Group has warned Oracle customers to check their database licensing fees after claims that sales staff have imposed extra charges without the consent of top management. A report from the analyst house claims that sales teams have pushed the most expensive licensing options to customers, tried to pre-sell customers more licences than they required, cut discounts and insisted that data warehouses from other vendors required Oracle licences. Gartner said: "Oracle sales staff are imposing extraneous licensing fees on customers. Although Oracle's corporate management may not condone this practice, Gartner believes these reported fee impositions are highly inappropriate." The warning from Gartner comes just a week after analysts at the Meta Group complained about changes to Oracle's named user licensing terms, which required customers to license users of non-Oracle databases, where there was a transfer of information to or from an Oracle database. Meta claimed its clients were being billed up to $2m extra in fees and urged customers to take Oracle to court rather than pay up. Both analyst houses have said the move is a blatant attempt by Oracle to boost flagging revenues. The Gartner report noted that Oracle's database revenue has fallen between one and 17 per cent year-on-year over the last four quarters. But George Roberts, executive vice president of Oracle's North American sales, said the company did not 'condone' or 'encourage' the sort of sales behaviour mentioned in the analysts reports. In a statement he said: "Unlike other companies Oracle publishes its pricing and licensing terms on its website so that customers can review or validate them at any time." "It is a top priority for our sales force to always consider customer needs first, regardless of the economic climate." While Roberts has urged customers with grievances to contact the company, the Gartner Group recommended that its clients who use Oracle software seek legal advice on the extra charges. "The use of aggressive sales tactics by Oracle is not unprecedented. Gartner believes that such tactics and business practises are among the problems affecting Oracle's credibility and as a result its revenue growth," the report concluded.