Oracle temporarily trims support fees for older software

Feeling pressure from recession-hit customers and rivals, Oracle Corp. Monday said it will give small, short-term discounts to enterprises that stick with aging versions of its software.

One analyst called the discounts, which work out to about 10% cuts, "not earth-shattering at all." Oracle ruled out broader, permanent cuts in its support and licensing fees.

Oracle's premier support program provides updates, fixes and technical help to software customers. Oracle charges an annual fee of 22% of the software's upfront license cost for support.

Once a version of the software has been available for five years, users are moved to extended support, which adds 10% to the support fee. That means extended support customers pay 24% of the license price per year.

Oracle is essentially letting customers whose software has hit the five-year mark to transition to extended support for a year -- and in one case, two years -- without a price increase.

The four applications eligible for a year of waived fee increases are Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i10, JD Edwards Enterprise 8.11, Siebel CRM 7.8 and Oracle Database 10g R2. PeopleSoft Enterprise 8.9 is eligible for two.

Oracle announced the temporary price cuts Monday at the International Oracle User Group's annual conference, COLLABORATE 09.

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