Roche Pharmaceuticals – $1.5M in Savings by Replacing Siebel Support with Third-Party Alternative
Background
Roche, a global pharmaceutical and diagnostics leader headquartered in Switzerland, employs over 100,000 people across more than 100 countries.
Known for its pioneering work in cancer treatments, biotechnology, and data-driven diagnostics, Roche operates a complex and highly regulated IT landscape that supports R&D, commercial operations, supply chain, and customer engagement.
One of the legacy applications embedded in Roche’s commercial operations was Siebel CRM, which was licensed and supported by Oracle.
While still operational in some business units, Siebel had become a low-change, stable system, with no major upgrades or customization efforts planned.
Despite the platform’s limited use and strategic importance diminishing, Roche was still paying Oracle’s full annual support for Siebel—nearly $500,000 per year. Roche engaged Redress Compliance to explore its options for optimizing Siebel-related spend without risking compliance or operational continuity.
Read how to move to Oracle third-party support.
Challenges
Roche’s challenge was clear: it needed to maintain Siebel for the short to mid-term.
Still, it could no longer justify paying premium Oracle support fees for a legacy platform that had effectively reached a steady state.
Specific issues included:
- High support cost with declining value: Annual Siebel support fees exceeded $475,000, yet Roche hadn’t logged a critical support request or applied major patches in over two years.
- Lack of vendor flexibility: Oracle refused to decouple Siebel support or reduce the price, claiming full entitlement coverage was non-negotiable.
- Audit and compliance concerns: Roche’s internal teams were cautious—any transition away from Oracle had to be fully defensible, risk-managed, and compliant with licensing terms.
- Evaluating complex alternatives: Between Oracle negotiations, licensing review, internal legal scrutiny, and unfamiliarity with third-party support models, Roche needed a specialist to untangle the options.
- Stakeholder hesitance: Business units relying on Siebel demanded assurance that service quality and system reliability would not suffer.
Roche required a strategic, low-risk way to cut costs—ideally without waiting years to decommission Siebel.
How Redress Compliance Helped
Redress Compliance launched a focused engagement to support Roche in evaluating all support reduction paths while maintaining full compliance and business continuity.
1. License and Deployment Optimization
Redress conducted a full licensing assessment across Roche’s Siebel deployment. This included:
- Mapping Siebel modules and usage by region and business unit
- Verifying entitlement coverage and matching against active deployments
- Identifying inactive components still under support billing
This analysis revealed that several modules were no longer in active use, yet still contributing to the support cost base.
2. Oracle Negotiation Support
Redress reviewed Roche’s Oracle contracts and advised on possible levers to request price reductions or carve-outs. We prepared commercial positioning to challenge Oracle’s “all or nothing” support stance and benchmarked fair pricing based on industry norms.
Despite several negotiation rounds, Oracle declined to reduce Siebel support fees unless Roche committed to new cloud deals—an approach Redress flagged as vendor lock-in.
3. Third-Party Support Evaluation
Redress introduced Roche to third-party support as a viable, low-risk option for Siebel. We facilitated detailed technical and commercial due diligence, comparing:
- Cost savings potential
- Security patching and compliance capabilities
- SLAs and support responsiveness
- Pharmaceutical industry experience and regulatory readiness
Working closely with Roche’s legal, IT, and procurement teams, we ensured the chosen provider could meet the company’s GxP, audit trail, and security requirements.
4. Transition Planning and Compliance Safeguards
Redress supported the entire transition process, including:
- Documentation of license entitlements and deployment history
- Risk mitigation planning in case of future Oracle scrutiny
- Internal communication and change management
- Operational alignment with internal validation and QA processes
With Redress’s guidance, Roche transitioned its Siebel support to a vetted third-party provider, achieving a major cost reduction with no disruption.
Outcome and Impact
The engagement delivered both immediate and long-term benefits:
- $500,000 saved annually, totaling $1.5 million over three years
- No audit or compliance issues, thanks to strong entitlement records and controlled transition
- Seamless support continuity, with equal or better responsiveness from the new provider
- Avoided Oracle bundling pressure, preserving Roche’s ability to negotiate future Oracle services independently
- Created a playbook that Roche can now apply to other legacy systems facing a similar cost/value imbalance.
Importantly, Roche retained full ownership of its Siebel licenses and can decide on future migration or decommissioning timelines without vendor interference.
Client Quote
“Redress Compliance helped us see beyond Oracle’s one-size-fits-all support model. They provided us with the data, options, and confidence to make a more informed decision for our legacy platform. The transition to third-party support was smooth, fully compliant, and resulted in a $1.5 million savings without compromising service. It was a clear win.”
— Director of IT Procurement, Roche Pharmaceuticals
Call-to-Action
Still paying Oracle support for a legacy system that rarely changes? Redress Compliance helps pharmaceutical and regulated enterprises reduce support costs safely and strategically.
Book a free third-party support assessment today.
Read about our Oracle Third Party Support Advisory Service.
Read our other Oracle Support Reduction Case Studies.
