The Client
A pan-European integrated energy utility operating across transmission, distribution, and retail electricity markets in five Northern and Western European countries. The organisation employs approximately 8,400 people and manages assets including 12,000km of transmission infrastructure, three renewable generation facilities, and a retail customer base of 2.1 million accounts. Annual IT spend exceeds £28M, of which enterprise software licences and support represent £6.4M.
The client had been an Oracle customer for 14 years. Its Oracle estate centred on Oracle E-Business Suite (R12.2) as the core ERP — covering financials, procurement, project management, and HR — with Oracle Database Enterprise Edition supporting EBS and a separate market data warehouse. Oracle Fusion Middleware provided the integration layer between EBS and operational technology (OT) systems, including SCADA interfaces. Oracle Java SE was deployed across the development toolchain and backend services.
The Situation
The trigger for the engagement was Oracle's proposed renewal at the annual review for 2025–2026. Oracle's account team presented a renewal package that included a 9% uplift on the existing support contract — raising the annual Oracle support bill from £2.88M to £3.14M. This followed a 7% uplift in the prior year. Across two consecutive renewals, the annual Oracle support cost had increased by 16% with no corresponding improvement in service quality or coverage.
The IT Director's response was to commission an independent review of the Oracle contract, which identified three compounding problems:
- Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2 was receiving only bug fixes and security patches — no new functional capability was being used from Oracle's annual support investment
- Oracle Database 19c on the market data warehouse was stable and had not required Oracle support involvement in 18 months
- Oracle Java licensing had been restructured in 2023 to a per-employee model, and the client was significantly over-deployed relative to actual Java usage
- Oracle Fusion Middleware components (WebLogic, SOA Suite) had been stable for over two years without requiring vendor support
The review concluded that the organisation was paying Oracle £2.88M annually for support that delivered minimal value, and that independent third-party support was a viable and commercially logical alternative.
The Challenges
OT/IT Integration Complexity
Oracle Middleware sat at the boundary between enterprise IT and operational technology systems (SCADA, EMS, DMS). Any disruption to the FMW layer during transition could affect grid monitoring systems. The TPS transition required specific attention to this integration boundary.
Regulatory Compliance (NIS2 / DORA-equivalent)
As critical national infrastructure, the client operates under NIS2 and sector-specific grid security regulations. Third-party software support arrangements require regulatory notification in some jurisdictions and needed documentation confirming that security patching protocols were maintained post-transition.
Oracle Java Licensing Reassessment
The 2023 per-employee Oracle Java model had created significant latent audit exposure. Before transitioning Java support to TPS, the deployment landscape needed to be rationalised — reducing Oracle Java to verified production deployments only, with the remainder migrated to OpenJDK or IBM Semeru.
The GoVendorFree Approach
GoVendorFree structured the engagement in three parallel workstreams, each addressing a distinct component of the Oracle estate.
Workstream 1: EBS + Oracle Database (Weeks 1–5)
The Oracle E-Business Suite and Database estate was the primary support scope. GoVendorFree conducted a comprehensive inventory of EBS modules in active use (GL, AP, AR, PO, PA, HRMS), customisation catalogue (42 custom reports, 8 interfaces, 3 extensions), and the Database 19c instances across production, UAT, and disaster recovery. A support transition plan was agreed that maintained Oracle's contract in parallel for a 3-week shadow period, during which GoVendorFree handled all inbound support tickets to validate coverage and response quality before Oracle's contract was terminated.
Workstream 2: FMW + OT Integration Review (Weeks 2–6)
The Oracle Fusion Middleware integration layer required specific attention given the OT interface. GoVendorFree's architecture team documented all integration flows between EBS and the SCADA/EMS systems via WebLogic and SOA Suite adapters. A support demarcation boundary was agreed with the client's OT team: GoVendorFree covers the Oracle FMW application server layer; the client's OT vendor covers the SCADA-side adapters. This demarcation was documented and included in the NIS2 compliance package.
Workstream 3: Oracle Java Rationalisation (Weeks 1–7)
Oracle Java was the most complex workstream. GoVendorFree's licence specialists worked with the client's development and operations teams to inventory all Java deployments — discovering that 340 of 890 Java instances were eligible for migration to OpenJDK without code changes. A further 210 instances were identified as IBM Semeru-compatible given the Power-based infrastructure used by some operational teams. The remaining 340 production Java instances were retained on Oracle Java SE with GoVendorFree TPS coverage, reducing the Oracle Java licence footprint by 62%.
The Results
Cost Breakdown: Before and After
| Oracle Product | Annual Oracle Cost (Before) | Annual GoVendorFree TPS | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2 | £980,000 | £294,000 | £686,000 (70%) |
| Oracle Database Enterprise (3 instances) | £620,000 | £186,000 | £434,000 (70%) |
| Oracle Fusion Middleware (WebLogic + SOA) | £480,000 | £168,000 | £312,000 (65%) |
| Oracle Java SE (340 rationalised instances) | £800,000 | £408,000 | £392,000 (49%) |
| Total | £2,880,000 | £1,056,000 | £1,824,000 (63%)* |
* Blended saving including Java rationalisation. Direct like-for-like TPS saving on retained licences = 61%.
The £1.76M annual saving (net of Java rationalisation implementation costs) was formally re-allocated to the client's smart grid investment programme, funding the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) across 180,000 residential accounts — a project that had been deferred for two years due to budget constraints.
"We had resigned ourselves to Oracle's annual increases as a cost of doing business. GoVendorFree showed us that was entirely unnecessary. The transition was smoother than any major IT change I've overseen in the past decade, and the quality of support is genuinely better than what Oracle was providing. The saving funds our smart grid investment. It's not hyperbole to say this has changed what our IT budget can deliver."— Group IT Director, European Energy Utility (anonymised)
Regulatory and Security Compliance
The client submitted a pre-transition notification to the relevant national regulatory authority under NIS2 Article 23 (significant change notification). GoVendorFree provided a comprehensive documentation package covering: support coverage scope, security patching protocols, CVE response SLAs, incident escalation procedures, and a technical architecture overview confirming that the OT/IT boundary was unaffected by the support transition.
The regulator confirmed acceptance of the arrangement without additional conditions. GoVendorFree's security patching programme for Oracle EBS, Database, and FMW has maintained 97%+ CVE resolution within the client's defined patching windows since transition. No regulatory non-compliance events have occurred in the 11 months since the transition was completed.
Oracle customer in energy, utilities, or critical infrastructure? We have the regulatory documentation and sector experience to make the transition work.
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