The Power of You

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June 25, 2001 (Computerworld) -- Congratulations, you did it. The collective power of irate IT customers finally forced Oracle to listen. Last week, the database bully beat an overdue retreat from its exorbitant pricing models ["Oracle Retreats," Page One, June 18] and eliminated the widely despised Universal Power Unit pricing. The shift to per-processor pricing put Oracle in line with the way rivals IBM/Informix, Microsoft and Sybase charge for their enterprise database systems.
"It's about time," one Oracle reseller told us.
It's also about the power of you. Especially those who were willing to go on the record with Computerworld and vent your objections. This was feedback that Oracle refused to hear for the past year, but you persisted.
I can attest to how annoyed Oracle officials have been with user pricing complaints and our aggressive coverage of them. Three months ago, in a classic kill-the-messenger response to reporter Dan Verton's March 19 story ["Users: Oracle's Prices to Blame"], the database giant yanked all of its advertising pages from Computerworld. Actually, Oracle's initial punishment was to pull its ads not only from Computerworld but also from any publication of our parent company, International Data Group.
A flurry of meetings took place between IDG publishers and Oracle reps, naturally enough. Publishing ventures are heavily supported by what advertisers pay. But no editors were called on any carpets, eloquent testimony to IDG's long tradition of separation of "church and state" (editorial and advertising).
A few weeks after its initial fit of temper, Oracle relented and returned its ads to other IDG publications. But the ban has stayed in place for Computerworld. Oracle probably hoped the punishment of lost ad dollars would shut us up and show us who's got the power. Well, we believe our readers have the real power.
To prove that, we commissioned our own exclusive survey of 355 customers from all the big database vendors. The results showed what you told us all along: Oracle's products are good, but its pricing was way out of whack.
We're grateful for all your help with our Oracle pricing stories. While it hurt our business side, it felt great on our editorial side. It felt like the power of you.
Maryfran Johnson is editor in chief of Computerworld. You can contact her at maryfran_johnson@computerworld.com.

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