How Redress Compliance helped Avis — operating across 165 countries with 10,000+ locations and 500,000+ vehicles — save $8 million over three years by transitioning Oracle WebLogic support to a trusted third-party provider following ULA certification.
Avis, one of the world’s largest car rental companies, operates across 165 countries with over 10,000 locations and a global fleet of more than 500,000 vehicles. Headquartered in the United States, Avis relies on a mix of modern and legacy systems to manage reservations, fleet logistics, partner integrations, and customer-facing applications.
Oracle WebLogic and related middleware components — the backbone of reservation, fleet, and partner integration systems
Successfully certified — perpetual licence rights to WebLogic and related components secured
Approximately $2.7M per year to Oracle for ongoing WebLogic support despite minimal support utilisation
After certifying the ULA and securing perpetual rights, Avis continued paying Oracle approximately $2.7 million annually for support on a largely stable environment. Avis engaged Redress Compliance to explore how to reduce or eliminate these support costs while maintaining system stability and ensuring licence compliance.
For an overview of post-ULA support options, see Third-Party Oracle Support: Savings or a Trap?
With the ULA certified and WebLogic licences secured, Avis still faced a major obstacle: the continuing cost and rigidity of Oracle’s annual support model.
Although WebLogic was no longer evolving rapidly, Oracle continued to charge support fees based on the original ULA footprint — regardless of actual usage or need.
The systems running WebLogic were stable, had no pressing upgrade plans, and received limited benefit from Oracle’s patching cycle or support portal.
Avis considered negotiating reduced support coverage or partially terminating support for non-critical environments. Oracle made clear that only full support renewals were permitted.
Avis needed clarity across financial, operational, legal, and compliance dimensions before making a major support change — particularly for such a foundational middleware platform.
IT was interested in alternatives, but procurement and finance teams required validation and structure before considering third-party options.
Redress conducted a structured support assessment that explored three possible paths:
Engaged Oracle to request tailored support reductions or revised pricing based on actual usage. Oracle refused to budge.
Examined whether specific environments could be carved out of support. Oracle confirmed this was not allowed under current terms.
Detailed comparison of third-party offerings for WebLogic — security patching, SLA terms, and regulatory compliance.
Redress benchmarked all cost models, weighed business impact, and advised on the legal implications of each option.
To ensure a defensible transition, Redress performed a licence optimisation exercise across the certified WebLogic footprint:
Confirmed certified scope and perpetual rights documentation was complete and defensible.
Aligned current deployments to licence types and processor counts, ensuring nothing was outside contractual terms.
Produced a defensible baseline critical for operating independently — especially when Oracle’s own records are often unclear or incomplete.
Redress hosted joint workshops with IT, procurement, finance, and risk management teams, presenting side-by-side cost-benefit analysis, real-world examples of successful WebLogic support transitions, and risk mitigation strategies including fallback support models and patching roadmaps. These sessions were key to aligning internal decision-makers and clearing the path for executive sign-off.
Once the decision was made, Redress helped execute a phased, non-disruptive transition:
Selected a third-party support provider with experience supporting WebLogic at scale.
Negotiated favourable terms, onboarding timelines, and SLA commitments.
Documented all entitlement and deployment evidence to withstand any future Oracle enquiry.
Designed ongoing governance processes to monitor compliance and usage going forward.
For a detailed walkthrough of support transitions, see our Oracle Third-Party Support Advisory Service.
Full elimination of Oracle WebLogic support costs, replaced by a third-party provider at a fraction of the price.
Cumulative savings with zero service degradation. Avis turned a rigid cost obligation into a flexible, cost-efficient model.
Clear entitlement documentation maintained throughout. All perpetual licence rights retained with no compliance exposure.
Avis manages upgrades and versioning on its own terms. Equal or better SLAs through the new provider, with improved responsiveness.
“We were paying Oracle millions each year for support that barely changed our day-to-day. Redress Compliance helped us rethink that entire model. They provided us with options, clarity, and confidence — and the switch to third-party support for WebLogic is saving us $8 million over the next three years. It’s one of the best decisions we’ve made in IT cost management.”
— Head of Global IT Procurement, Avis Budget Group
Yes. Once you certify a ULA, your perpetual licence rights are secured regardless of whether you continue paying Oracle support. You retain full rights to use the software at the certified quantities. The only thing you lose by dropping Oracle support is access to Oracle’s patches, updates, and support portal. Many organisations find this acceptable for stable middleware like WebLogic that doesn’t require frequent patching.
Absolutely. Third-party support is a well-established, legal practice. Your perpetual licences belong to you. Oracle cannot prevent you from using an alternative support provider. What matters is that your licence entitlements are properly documented and that your usage stays within the certified scope. Redress Compliance always ensures this documentation is airtight before any transition. For more detail, see our guide on whether Oracle third-party support is legal.
Third-party providers deliver custom patches and security fixes for your specific environment. They don’t distribute Oracle’s official patches (those require active Oracle support), but they develop equivalent remediation — often faster than Oracle. For stable middleware like WebLogic where patching cadence is slow, this is typically more than sufficient.
Oracle’s audit rights are tied to your licence agreements, not your support contract. Even after dropping support, Oracle can still audit your deployments. This is why having clean, well-documented entitlements is essential — and why Redress builds a full compliance documentation package before any transition.
Organisations typically save 50–60% on support costs when transitioning to a third-party provider. Avis achieved $8M in savings over three years — effectively eliminating the entire $2.7M annual Oracle support bill for WebLogic. Savings vary by deployment size and complexity, but the range is consistent across hundreds of enterprise transitions we’ve advised on.
Redress Compliance can help you assess third-party support, cloud options, and hybrid strategies — tailored to your licensing rights.
This case study is part of our Oracle Third-Party Support Guide pillar. Explore related case studies and guides: