Detailed Information on Criteria Validation

Oracle Exastack Ready Eligibility Criteria

• Oracle PartnerNetwork Specialized membership at Gold level or higher
• Membership in corresponding Knowledge Zone (Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux, Oracle Database, Oracle Application Grid) and at least one employee at the OPN partner must declare interest in receiving Knowledge Zone communications
• Completion of the Oracle Exastack Ready online application (available within each applicable Knowledge Zone)
• Provision of an active URL which describes partner application and verifies that such application is commercially available and supports the latest major release (PDF) of corresponding Oracle product
• Publication of a current Solutions Catalog profile for both partner’s company and solutions
• Provide name of 1 Oracle PartnerNetwork Support Specialist ¹
• Publication of a solution brief on the partner’s product website and OPN Solutions Catalog profile. The solution brief should outline the benefits of the partner’s application running on the corresponding Oracle Exastack product
• The OPN partner must maintain published support for latest major release (PDF) of the corresponding Oracle product within 12 months of general availability of the same Oracle product, and provide ongoing technical and support services to end customers for their applications.

In addition to the above criteria, the OPN partner and its application must comply with the following:

• Must be commercially available and licensable
• Must be included on the partner’s price list and published support matrix
• Must be regularly updated and versioned
• Must be at the application suite level and not at the application module level
• Must have a professional product support organization

The following platform partner product technologies are NOT eligible for Oracle Exastack Ready program:

¹ Must provide name of one Oracle PartnerNetwork Support Specialist or join the Oracle Collaborative Vendor Support Program (OCVS) or listed as TSAnet vendor. Partners are responsible for providing first-line support for their solutions. Oracle will provide support for Oracle products in accordance with Oracle's then current technical support policies.

Customer References Validation

In order to accept a customer reference as valid for Specialization criteria:

• The project must be one your company completed in the last 18 months.
• The project has to include products in the current version or the version just previous to the current version of the products covered in this Specialization. (Click here for Product Mapping to Specializations (XLS) and filter on this Specialization for the list of eligible products.)
• The same customer can be used for several references if each reference is an independent project.
• The same reference can be used for different Specializations if the products listed match each Specialization’s products.
• Internal implementation cannot be used as reference.
• Full information about the reference must be provided during the Specialization Application process.
• Oracle will verify each reference with the customer to confirm approval.
• The customer can be in a different country/geography from the Partner company.
• For Industry Specializations, the requirement is that the Customer Reference be in the respective industry (rather than based on eligible products in second bullet above)

Number of Transactions Validation

In order to accept a transaction as valid for Specialization criteria:

• The transaction must be registered in your company’s name in the applicable Oracle systems as a Resell, Non-Commission Co-Sell or Referral deal. Click here for a description of these transaction types and how they are registered. Please note specific requirement for United States and Canada within the Open Market Model (OMM) Policy Document available on that page.
• Transactions are measured by Application Specific Full Use (ASFU) license, Embedded Software License (ESL) or Full Use license sales booked in Oracle Order Management. The transaction may include closed Non-Commission Co-Sell or Referral deals that the partner has registered with Oracle in the Open Market Model.
• The transaction must have been completed in the last 24 months.
• The transaction must include products covered in this Specialization. (Click here for Product Mapping to Specializations (XLS) and filter on this Specialization for the list of eligible products.)
• The same transaction can be used for different Specializations if the products listed match each Specialization’s products.
• The transaction can be conducted in a different country/geography from the Partner company.
• For Industry Specializations, qualifying transactions must be completed with customers in the respective industry, irrespective of the products included in the transaction.
• Internal transactions may not be used to meet criteria.

Pre-requisite Specializations

If pre-requisite specializations are listed in a Specialization’s Business Criteria, those Specializations must be successfully completed before the Partner can apply for that Specialization.

Competency Criteria Validation

In order to accept a Specialist as valid for Specialization criteria, the individual fulfilling the requirement must have taken the applicable Specialist Assessment test and passed. The list of acceptable Specialist designations can be found in each Specialization Criteria Table under “Competency Criteria”.

You can find links to the specific assessments on the “Get Specialized” section of the OPN Competency Center. From there, you may search to find the Specialist Assessment that matches the name of the Specialist requirement listed in the Competency Criteria. The assessments are typically associated with a Guided Learning Path that provides recommended training that will help individuals pass the assessments.

If there are multiple unique exam options (Exam A and Exam B) that count toward meeting the Implementation Specialist criteria, an individual may take more than one unique exam (Exam A and B) and count each one toward fulfilling criteria. For example, if an individual passes both Exam A & B the passed exams would be counted as two (2) toward fulfilling Implementation Specialist criteria.

Advanced Specialization

Advanced Specialization is a program element where specialized partners at the Gold, Platinum, and Diamond levels can showcase the depth and breadth of their global implementation resources. To qualify for an Advanced Specialization, eligible partners must meet standard business and competency criteria for a particular Specialization plus have on staff 50 or more Oracle Certified Implementation Specialists in that product set. Because Advanced Specialization demonstrates the partner’s depth and capacity, the count of 50 Certified Implementation Specialists must be based on 50 unique individuals passing the Certified Implementation Specialist exams, not on the number of exams passed, regardless of whether multiple exams count towards a single Specialization.

Utilizing Worldwide and Associate Resources to Obtain Specialization, Oracle Exastack Optimized or Oracle Exastack Ready Status

Worldwide OPN members at the Gold, Platinum, or Diamond level and their Associates at the Gold, Platinum, or Diamond level may count their collective resources to meet the business and competency criteria required for specialization, Oracle Exastack Optimized, or Oracle Exastack Ready status.

Specialization Guide and Product Mapping

View the Specialization Guide (PDF) for current status of individual Specializations as well as Oracle's current plans for additional Specializations. View the Product Mapping to Specialization (XLS) and set the filter to view products covered in a specific Specialization.

Qualifying Specializations

To be a "qualifying" version of a Specialization, a Specialization must be either in the most recent product version or, during the one-year period during which you must meet the criteria for the newest version of a Specialization, the version being "phased out" will continue to qualify you to receive Benefits for Specialization and meet the criteria for Platinum or Diamond status. If you have two versions of the same Specialization, only the most recently available Specialization will count as the qualifying Specialization.