Work through all 20 items. Mark each as compliant (✓), gap (✗), or unknown (?). High-risk items represent immediate cost reduction or compliance priorities. Download the Oracle Audit Defence Kit for supporting templates.
Section 1
Support Contract Baseline and Shelfware Identification
01
You have a current, accurate register of all Oracle support contracts — including CSI numbers, covered products, annual support fees, and renewal dates — as a single source of truth.
High
Expert note: Support cost optimisation is impossible without a comprehensive, accurate inventory of what you are paying for. Many organisations pay Oracle support on products that have been decommissioned, on licences they no longer use, and on CSIs whose structure no longer reflects the current estate. Start with a full CSI-level audit: confirm what is on support, what it costs, and whether the underlying deployment still exists. In our experience, 15–25% of Oracle support spend can be linked to products that are no longer in active production use.
02
You have identified the annual support fee uplift rate currently being applied to your Oracle contracts — and modelled the 5-year cumulative cost if that uplift continues unaddressed.
High
Expert note: Oracle's standard annual support uplift is 3–5% per year and is applied automatically at renewal unless negotiated down. An organisation paying £2 million per year in Oracle support today will pay £2.31–£2.48 million per year in five years without intervention. Over five years, the cumulative additional cost versus a flat-fee scenario ranges from £310k to £480k on that baseline. Model the 5-year compounding uplift for your estate and present this as the 'cost of inaction' in any internal business case for support optimisation.
03
Your Oracle support fees are benchmarked against market rates — using data from comparable organisations — to confirm whether you are paying list price, or a historically negotiated discount.
Medium
Expert note: Oracle support fees are negotiable, but most organisations never renegotiate once the initial discount is set at licence purchase. Over time, as renewal uplifts compound, the support fee can drift significantly above the market rate for a comparable licence estate. Benchmark your current support fees against data from 10–15 comparable engagements. Organisations that discover they are paying list price (or close to it) typically have 10–20% savings available through direct negotiation at renewal, without any structural changes to the licence model.
04
You have mapped all Oracle products on support to their actual deployment status — distinguishing between active production, dormant, and fully decommissioned products.
High
Expert note: Oracle's support billing is perpetual until you actively cancel. Products that were decommissioned years ago continue to generate support invoices unless the support was explicitly terminated and the associated licences were surrendered. Walk your CSI register against your active deployment landscape. Any product where the deployment is dormant or decommissioned is a candidate for support termination — subject to MSL policy compliance — generating immediate cost savings without any operational impact.
05
You have identified shelfware: Oracle licences that were purchased but never deployed, or deployed at a fraction of the licensed quantity, on which you are paying full support fees.
High
Expert note: Shelfware is endemic in Oracle estates built through large ELA or ULA agreements. Organisations often purchase Oracle capacity to accommodate projected growth that never materialised, or receive bundled licences in commercial negotiations that were never deployed. Each unused licence generates a support fee of 22% of its original list value annually — a straight cash outflow for zero operational benefit. Identify shelfware and design a termination strategy that complies with Oracle's MSL policy to eliminate these costs.
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Section 2
Third-Party Support and Licence Rationalisation
06
You have evaluated third-party support (TPS) as a cost reduction option for your Oracle estate — specifically for products that are stable, no longer require Oracle's latest patches, and are not being migrated in the near term.
High
Expert note: Third-party support delivers an immediate 50% reduction in annual support fees for Oracle Database, E-Business Suite, Siebel, and other on-premises Oracle products. At standard Oracle rates, a £1 million annual support bill drops to approximately £500k with TPS — a saving of £500k in year one. Over five years with Oracle uplifts, the cumulative saving exceeds £3 million on that baseline. TPS is most suitable for stable, on-premises Oracle deployments not subject to imminent cloud migration. Evaluate TPS eligibility for every major product line in your estate.
07
Your TPS evaluation has included a full MSL analysis to confirm which licence sets can transition to TPS without triggering MSL violations or repricing events on remaining Oracle-supported products.
High
Expert note: Moving to TPS without an MSL analysis is one of the most common causes of unintended Oracle compliance exposure. If products on TPS are in the same licence set as products remaining on Oracle support, MSL rules require that either all products in the set move together, or the TPS-bound licences are terminated. An independent MSL analysis — completed before any TPS decision — is mandatory to ensure the cost savings from TPS are not offset by reinstatement fees or repricing on the products that remain.
08
You have evaluated whether Oracle Premier Support can be downgraded to Oracle Extended Support (for products nearing end of Premier Support) and whether the Extended Support fee is justified versus TPS alternatives.
Medium
Expert note: Oracle's support lifecycle includes Premier Support (typically 5 years), Extended Support (additional 3 years at a premium), and Sustaining Support (unlimited duration but no new patches). When products move from Premier to Extended Support, Oracle typically adds a 10–20% premium. At that transition point, TPS becomes significantly more competitive. If any products in your estate are approaching end of Premier Support, model the cost of Extended Support versus TPS and make a strategic decision before Oracle's default renewal applies.
09
You have assessed the Oracle licence consolidation opportunity — reducing the number of processor licences in your estate by migrating to more powerful hardware, decommissioning underutilised servers, or consolidating workloads.
Medium
Expert note: Processor licence counts can be reduced by consolidating Oracle workloads onto fewer, more powerful servers. A migration from 8 older servers with 128 physical cores to 2 modern AMD EPYC servers with 96 cores each requires only 96 processor licences (at 0.5 core factor) instead of the previous 128 — a saving of 32 processor licences and 32 × annual support fee. Hardware consolidation projects often deliver both infrastructure savings and Oracle licence savings simultaneously, but require careful before-and-after licence calculations.
10
Your database environment has been reviewed for unnecessary Oracle options (Partitioning, Advanced Security, Diagnostic Pack, Tuning Pack) that are enabled but not actively used — since each incurs a separate licence and support fee.
High
Expert note: Oracle database options and management packs are frequently enabled by default or activated by DBAs for diagnostic purposes without awareness of the licence implications. Each option carries its own processor licence requirement and corresponding 22% annual support fee. A single Oracle Database Enterprise Edition server with Partitioning and Diagnostic Pack enabled can generate £100k+ in additional annual support fees versus a base Database instance. Run an options audit across every Oracle Database instance and disable any option that is not delivering quantified operational value.
Section 3
Negotiation Levers and Cloud Migration Savings
11
You have evaluated negotiating a direct discount on Oracle annual support fees at the next renewal, using competitive benchmarking and a credible alternative strategy as leverage.
Medium
Expert note: Oracle account teams have discretion to offer support fee discounts — particularly for large estates, long-term customers, and organisations that present a credible alternative. Discounts of 5–15% on annual support fees are achievable through direct negotiation, without any structural changes to the licence model. The key is entering the negotiation with benchmark data showing what comparable organisations pay and a genuine alternative option (TPS, cloud migration, or database alternative) that creates commercial tension.
12
You have explored Oracle's cloud migration incentives — specifically, whether Oracle will convert a portion of your on-premises support spend into OCI credits as part of a migration programme.
Medium
Expert note: Oracle increasingly offers OCI credit conversions as an incentive for customers to migrate workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Under these programmes, a portion of your annual on-premises support spend can be redirected to OCI consumption credits, effectively funding cloud migration from existing Oracle budget. If you have any OCI roadmap, explore this option with Oracle — but ensure the conversion terms are independently reviewed, as Oracle's OCI credit proposals often contain restrictions on usage, expiry, and eligible workloads that reduce their real value.
13
You have assessed the Oracle support cost implications of your cloud migration strategy — specifically, whether migrating Oracle workloads to AWS or Azure changes your licence obligations or eliminates support fees on retired on-premises deployments.
Medium
Expert note: Cloud migrations create support cost saving opportunities when on-premises Oracle deployments are genuinely decommissioned. If Oracle Database licences on retired on-premises servers are terminated, the associated support fees are eliminated. However, if BYOL licences are moved to cloud and the on-premises servers are retained (even dormant), support fees continue on the original on-premises licences. The cost saving is only realised when on-premises deployments are permanently decommissioned and licences are terminated in compliance with Oracle's policies.
14
You have reviewed whether any Oracle Universal License Agreement (ULA) or PULA in your estate is still delivering value, or whether certification and exit would produce a lower long-term cost.
High
Expert note: ULAs and PULAs can be transformed from expensive commitments into cost optimisation opportunities when exited at the right time with the right certified quantity. A carefully planned ULA certification that captures maximum deployment can convert an unlimited licence obligation into a fixed certified position — ideally timed when deployment is at or near peak, maximising the licensed quantity relative to the support fee baseline. If you have an active ULA or PULA, assess whether the current deployment count justifies the support fee, and model exit economics.
15
Your IT asset management team performs a formal Oracle support cost review at least annually — separate from the Oracle account team's renewal process — to identify optimisation opportunities before Oracle's renewal date.
Medium
Expert note: Oracle's renewal process is designed to minimise customer preparation time. Oracle typically provides renewal documentation 30–60 days before the renewal date, creating time pressure that discourages substantive renegotiation. Counter this by conducting your own annual Oracle support cost review 6–9 months before renewal — identifying termination candidates, modelling TPS transitions, and preparing negotiation positions with sufficient lead time to pursue the most advantageous outcome.
Section 4
Governance, Legal, and Execution
16
You have a documented Oracle support reduction business case — with financial modelling, risk analysis, and implementation timeline — that has been reviewed by IT, finance, and legal before any reduction actions are taken.
Medium
Expert note: Support cost reduction decisions have financial, compliance, and operational implications. A termination executed without proper MSL analysis can trigger reinstatement fees that exceed the savings. A TPS transition without legal review can create contractual exposure. Formalise your business case with independent financial modelling before acting: quantify the saving, identify the risks, and design a compliant implementation pathway. This documentation also protects the decision-makers if Oracle subsequently challenges any aspect of the support reduction.
17
You have engaged independent Oracle licensing specialists — not Oracle, not your reseller — to validate your support reduction strategy before execution.
High
Expert note: Oracle's account team will resist support reductions; your reseller earns commission on Oracle revenue. Neither provides independent advice on maximising your savings. An independent Oracle specialist operating exclusively on the buyer side will model the MSL implications, identify the most valuable reduction opportunities, and design a compliant execution plan. At Redress, we consistently identify support cost savings of 20–40% for clients who engage us before taking action — and we ensure those savings are realised without creating audit exposure.
18
You have confirmed that your proposed support terminations or reductions comply with Oracle's contractual notice requirements — typically 30 days before the annual renewal date.
High
Expert note: Oracle's support termination process requires written notice within specific timeframes — typically 30 days before the annual renewal date. Missing this window means the support renews automatically and the cost reduction is deferred by 12 months. Build Oracle's notice deadlines into your procurement calendar and initiate the termination process well in advance of the deadline. For large CSI structures, Oracle processing times can add additional delays that reduce the effective notice window to 45–60 days in practice.
19
You have assessed whether Oracle Java SE licensing represents a material and reducible component of your Oracle support spend — particularly following Oracle's 2023 shift to employee-based licensing.
High
Expert note: Oracle's 2023 change to Java SE employee-based licensing dramatically increased costs for many organisations. Annual Java SE costs for a 5,000-employee organisation under the new model can easily reach £500k–£1M per year. Organisations that have not reviewed their Java SE position since 2023 are likely either over-paying or inadvertently non-compliant. Java SE cost optimisation — through the OpenJDK migration, Azure or Amazon Corretto alternatives, or Oracle Java SE renegotiation — is one of the highest-value support cost reduction opportunities available to most enterprises in 2026.
20
You have a forward-looking 3-year Oracle support cost model that integrates planned infrastructure changes, licence terminations, cloud migration, and TPS transitions to project your total Oracle support obligation at each year-end.
Medium
Expert note: Oracle support cost optimisation is a multi-year programme, not a one-time negotiation. Changes made today (licence terminations, TPS transitions, cloud migrations) have compound effects on future support costs that are difficult to manage reactively. Build a 3-year support cost model that starts with your current support obligation and projects the impact of each planned change. This model serves as both a strategic planning tool and a board-level reporting instrument for Oracle spend governance.
"Organisations that engage us before their Oracle renewal routinely save 20–40% on support costs. Those that engage us after renewal — because Oracle applied an unexpectedly large uplift — start from a weaker position. Timing is everything in Oracle support negotiation." — Fredrik Filipsson, Redress Compliance
Interpreting Your Assessment Score
Count fully compliant items. Unknown answers should be treated as gaps for scoring purposes.
17–20
Strong Position
Controls mature. Schedule annual review to maintain as your estate evolves.
12–16
Moderate Exposure
Material gaps identified. Prioritise HIGH-risk items immediately and commission an independent review within 90 days.
0–11
High Exposure
Significant risk present. Do not engage Oracle commercially until independent specialists have assessed your position. Contact Redress immediately.
Oracle Support Cost in 2026: The Case for Action
Oracle's annual support model is structured to grow indefinitely. The 22% annual fee, compounded by 3–5% annual uplifts, means that an organisation paying £2 million in Oracle support today will pay approximately £2.5 million in five years without intervention. The tools to reduce that cost — licence termination, TPS transition, ULA exit, direct renegotiation — are all available to any Oracle customer. What is frequently missing is the independent expertise to identify the right combination of tools, execute them in the correct sequence, and avoid the compliance traps that Oracle has built into each one.
Redress Compliance operates exclusively on the buyer side. We do not resell Oracle products, and we do not receive commercial benefit from Oracle or any TPS provider. Every support cost reduction strategy we design is optimised for the client's financial interests. Contact us today to begin an independent Oracle support cost assessment.