Case Study – Oracle Support Optimization: LVMH Saves €10.5M in 3 Years by Terminating Unused Oracle Licenses
Background
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury goods group, operates a diversified global portfolio of 75+ prestigious brands across fashion, cosmetics, watches, and wine & spirits.
With operations in over 80 countries and a workforce exceeding 190,000 employees, LVMH’s IT landscape comprises thousands of applications that support finance, retail operations, supply chain management, and e-commerce.
For over a decade, LVMH had licensed a wide range of Oracle technologies, including Oracle Database, WebLogic, and other middleware components, under a certified Unlimited License Agreement (ULA).
Although the ULA was certified several years ago, LVMH continued to pay €4 million annually in Oracle support, even as the Oracle footprint shrank through modernization and the decommissioning of legacy systems.
LVMH engaged Redress Compliance to develop a comprehensive Oracle support optimization strategy that would align spend with actual use—without disrupting core operations or exposing the business to license risk.
Read how you can reduce Oracle support costs.
Challenges
Although LVMH had already certified its Oracle ULA and retained perpetual rights, its support costs had become disconnected from reality.
Key challenges included:
- Massive Over-Dimensioning: The ULA certification included license quantities far beyond current needs, meaning LVMH was paying support on software it no longer used.
- Rigid Oracle Support Contracts: Oracle does not allow customers to partially terminate licenses or adjust support bills to match actual usage. This “support perpetuity” model forced LVMH to overpay year after year.
- Unclear Termination Path: Internally, there was confusion over how much of the Oracle estate was truly needed, and whether it was legally and commercially safe to cancel licenses.
- Procurement Fatigue: Despite several attempts to reduce costs through negotiation, Oracle’s only proposals involved more cloud commitments or bundling—not actual cost alignment.
- Need for Risk-Free Strategy: With critical systems still running Oracle, any support reduction plan had to be carefully designed, fully compliant, and operationally safe.
LVMH needed more than tactical advice. It required an end-to-end support reduction strategy backed by licensing expertise, commercial leverage, and risk control.
How Redress Compliance Helped
Redress Compliance delivered a multi-phase Oracle support optimization program, focused on licensing cleanup, cost reduction, and compliance protection.
1. License Assessment & Deployment Mapping
Redress conducted a deep-dive licensing assessment across LVMH’s global Oracle estate. We:
- Reviewed the post-ULA certification entitlement inventory
- Mapped active deployments against actual system requirements
- Identified unused and retired workloads that still generated support costs
The findings were clear: LVMH was using less than 5% of the licenses included in the certified ULA.
2. Optimization & Termination Strategy
With solid data in hand, Redress developed a support termination strategy that complied with Oracle’s contractual rules. We:
- Created a detailed license optimization report and roadmap
- Determined which entitlements could be safely terminated
- Calculated the minimum license quantities required to support current operations
- Prepared communication plans and audit defense documentation
Redress confirmed that 95% of Oracle licenses could be terminated without any impact on compliance or system integrity.
3. Stakeholder Alignment & Risk Management
We ran workshops with IT, procurement, legal, and finance stakeholders to:
- Explain Oracle’s support and licensing mechanics
- Present termination scenarios and savings models
- Address concerns around vendor retaliation, audit triggers, and continuity
This internal alignment was crucial in securing executive approval and ensuring coordinated action across departments.
4. License Termination Execution
Redress supported LVMH in formally terminating unused Oracle licenses and removing associated support obligations. We:
- Drafted termination letters and handled communication strategy
- Documented license entitlements and usage boundaries
- Built internal governance protocols to monitor Oracle usage and avoid future over-licensing
The process was executed by Oracle policies, and Redress ensured that every step was risk-controlled and defensible.
Outcome and Impact
The results were decisive and high-impact:
- €3.5 million saved annually by eliminating support on unused licenses
- €10.5 million in total savings over 3 years
- Support costs reduced by 87%, without impacting operations
- No compliance risk, due to a clean certification history and accurate termination
- Improved financial alignment, with Oracle spend now matching actual system use
- Greater internal control, as LVMH no longer relied on Oracle to “right-size” support
What Oracle positioned as “non-negotiable” turned out to be highly addressable with the right licensing strategy.
Client Quote
“Redress Compliance helped us break out of Oracle’s one-way support model. Their analysis was precise, their recommendations were actionable, and their execution flawless. We reduced our Oracle support spend by over €10 million without compromising compliance or control. This was a strategic win for both IT and finance.”
— Head of Group IT Procurement, LVMH
Call-to-Action
Paying Oracle to support software you don’t use? Redress Compliance helps global enterprises, such as LVMH, optimize their Oracle support contracts and reclaim millions in wasted spend.
Schedule your Oracle support optimization consultation today.
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Read our other Oracle Support Reduction Case Studies.
