Recently I wrote a blog about stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime and today I have a little case study example to share.
A little over a year ago a company came to SLC as they had received an Oracle audit notice. They thought they had everything under control but wanted a little help. They were adamant that this was going to be easy since they were such a small Oracle shop. We gave them a quote, which was only slightly higher than they wanted to spend. They chose to go with a lower-priced competitor simply due to that slightly lower price. We let them know that we would be ready if they ended up needing our expertise.
Fast forward and after a long painful year, the audit was not over and that competitor said their services were limited to a 12-month engagement and if they wanted help they had to renew for another term! Now they did, and now had paid this vendor twice! Just a little quick note here – SLC engagements stay in place for the entire engagement no matter how long they last. So at this point, they had paid more than they would have paid SLC to begin with.
Here is the rub – after all this time, Oracle still had findings that were in the process of being negotiated down to just under $150K. The company came back to us to ask if this sounded fair and correct, to which the answer was a firm NO! The sad thing for this client is armed with our expertise and knowledge that we would have been able to reduce this finding to ZERO!
The client made the difficult choice to cut the other vendor loose and bring in SLC for the win – We agreed to work with them to see if we could reduce that finding and agreed to do this under a full contingency. This meant that they wouldn’t pay us unless we reduce that amount. After reviewing the findings, removing the errors both the client and the other vendor missed, we were able to assist the client in negotiating with LMS in order to reduce their cost by almost $100K.
“The engagement was seamless, and it felt like your team was always two steps ahead of Oracle in a crazy chess game. I could not have been more impressed with the quality and professionalism that SLC showed during this process” – CIO Large Paint Material Manufacturer
So now back to the title of the True Cost of Budgetary consulting – not to sound cliché here but you really do get what you pay for. This company paid for services twice to a budget consulting company out of San Francisco. Then paid SLC to correct this. Then paid Oracle a reduced amount. What this means is that they paid more than three times the amount of the original quote from SLC.
You might get a better deal from a less experienced consulting company or even think you can go it alone against Oracle, but the outcome will always cost you! Oracle is specially trained to get your money so don’t try to go against a giant without using experts that have been successful for close to 20 years and do nothing but help companies EVERY DAY deal with Oracle. No matter what they come at you with, we have seen it all
Think about the True Cost of Ownership (TCO) before you try to calculate your Return on Investment (ROI) – if you want to move a mountain of dirt, you could rent a dump truck and get the job done in less time with fewer issues – or you can save your money upfront and buy an inexpensive pickup truck.
Keep in mind, this client was very savvy when it comes to negotiating with Oracle but in the end, you don’t know what you don’t know!
-Evan Boyd, VP of Business Development
