Sun Rises
Higher
Continued
For Will, the SDM, along with this focused team of service delivery engineers, has been critical to improving his team's productivity and efficiency. "The greatest value in having a dedicated team of experts is that you don't have to restart the conversation all over again every time you want to talk about an issue," says Will. "You already have the record of where you're at, and you carry on from there." As a result, problem resolution time at Sun has been significantly reduced. According to Will, upgrade issues that used to take months to resolve—prior to the Oracle Solution Support Center—now take days or even hours to fix. Another advantage of the SDM is the quarterly reviews they deliver, covering everything from best practices to performance assessments and more.
Sun also benefits from a number of proactive services, including performance and configuration assessments. Through these assessments, Sun is able to quickly diagnose issues, prevent future problems, and improve the efficiency of its IT resources. At the same time, Oracle's engineers get a chance to learn the idiosyncrasies of Sun's unique configuration. "It's a two-way process. The Oracle service delivery engineers learn more about us, and we use this information to fine-tune our performance within the overall environment," says Will.
Web Resources Play a Role
Sun also takes advantage of the education and training resources available through the Oracle Solution Support Center. Webcasts, face-to-face meetings, and a custom Web portal are particularly useful prior to and during important upgrades. "I've had nothing but positive comments from my team on how valuable these sessions have been," says Will. "Each seminar is tailored to the kind of things we're concerned about. And they get us up to speed quickly on product capabilities."
These resources, combined with preferential access to events such as Oracle OpenWorld, provide Sun with ample opportunities to influence future product design and to interact with peers. "It's gratifying," says Will, "to see that the next-generation technologies are in response to the needs we've identified at Sun."
Having worked closely with Oracle for more than three years, Will has seen Oracle Solution Support Center's value become more compelling over time—so much so that today he sees the Solution Support Center team as a seamless extension of his own group. The close partnership has helped better align his technology and business priorities, improve process efficiencies, and lower risks and costs. "Since we've engaged Advanced Customer Services and the Solution Support Center, we have seen a huge evolution in proactive and reactive services, which has contributed immensely to the successful upgrade of the Configurator," says Will.
Looking Ahead
In 2005, Sun signed an enterprise license agreement to upgrade most of its Oracle E-Business Suite applications. In addition, through Oracle Advanced Customer Services, Sun uses a range of Oracle services and the Oracle Solution Support Center. Today, the company is in the process of upgrading to Release 11.5.10 of Oracle E-Business Suite on a global single instance. This suite will replace older versions of Oracle applications currently deployed across the company. Sun is also evaluating Oracle On Demand to increase logistical efficiency, control costs, and accelerate product development.
For More Information
Oracle E-Business Suite
Oracle Support
Tom McNamara is a senior writer at McMillan (
www.thinkmcmillan.com).
