How Redress Compliance helped Telefónica save €40M over five years by transitioning from Oracle direct support to third-party support after ULA certification — while maintaining full compliance, system integrity, and operational independence.
Telefónica, a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Spain, operates across Europe and Latin America, employing over 100,000 staff. Like many large enterprises, Telefónica built much of its IT infrastructure on Oracle technology.
Oracle Database, WebLogic, RAC, and SOA Suite — deployed under a certified Unlimited License Agreement
Previously certified — perpetual licence rights locked in across the full Oracle stack
€8M+ per year — climbing steadily despite a largely stable software stack
After certifying the ULA and securing perpetual rights, Telefónica was left with a persistent problem: Oracle’s ongoing support costs were consuming a disproportionate share of the IT budget. With no plans for new Oracle investments but no desire to risk system integrity, Telefónica engaged Redress Compliance to explore how to reduce support costs without compromising performance, compliance, or business continuity.
For an overview of post-ULA options, see Third-Party Oracle Support: Savings or a Trap?
The Oracle ULA had been certified, but the financial burden didn’t end there. Oracle continued to charge full support on the entire portfolio — based on list price, not actual usage — creating a situation where Telefónica was paying premium fees for legacy software that had not evolved or required updates.
Oracle’s 22% support model included annual increases (typically ~4% per year), even for static deployments. Over five years, this meant support fees would surpass €50M unless action was taken.
Oracle’s policies made it impossible to drop unused licences without losing entitlements entirely. Even minimal-use products carried full-price support — the classic “all or nothing” support trap.
Many Oracle workloads were mission-critical but stable. Telefónica wasn’t leveraging Oracle patches or upgrades at a level that justified the €8M+ annual spend.
Stakeholders feared that reducing Oracle’s involvement could trigger compliance issues or degrade support quality. Overcoming entrenched Oracle dependency required education and evidence.
IT, finance, and procurement teams lacked the expertise to dissect Oracle contracts, the licensing footprint, and support obligations — making informed decision-making difficult without external help.
Could Telefónica continue running Oracle reliably — but on radically better financial terms?
Redress conducted a full inventory of Telefónica’s Oracle licences, usage patterns, and support entitlements. By analysing server-level deployments and historical support spend, they identified:
Multiple products still incurring full support fees despite minimal or zero active usage
Several Oracle instances no longer in active use but still covered under support
Products where no critical patches or Oracle assistance had been consumed in years
To align stakeholders across IT, finance, and procurement, Redress ran a series of workshops that clarified Oracle’s support terms and restrictions, debunked myths about third-party support’s legality and effectiveness, and evaluated workload criticality and business impact. This transparency helped Telefónica overcome internal resistance and build consensus around new support strategies.
Redress presented several pathways — including renegotiating with Oracle, reducing partial support, and switching to third-party support. Based on workload maturity, the most compelling option was:
Certified post-ULA perpetual licences remain fully valid and owned by Telefónica
Move support to a reputable third-party provider at approximately 50% of Oracle’s cost
Redirect internal resources to manage patching and version governance where needed
Redress shortlisted reputable third-party support vendors, negotiated service level terms, and guided Telefónica through vendor due diligence.
Redress built a step-by-step roadmap for migrating support:
Structured onboarding with the new third-party provider, including knowledge transfer
Full documentation of licence boundaries to preempt any future Oracle enquiries
Usage tracking systems to ensure no drift beyond the licensed scope post-transition
For a detailed walkthrough of Oracle third-party support transitions, see our Oracle Third-Party Support Advisory Service.
Immediate savings by moving the bulk of support to third-party providers. The annual Oracle support budget was effectively halved in the first year of the transition.
Cumulative savings by avoiding Oracle’s ~4% annual uplifts and eliminating support for unused products. Support costs now aligned to actual business need rather than Oracle’s list-price model.
No audit triggers or compliance incidents, thanks to meticulous licence mapping, entitlement documentation, and internal usage controls established during the transition.
Telefónica now dictates its own upgrade and maintenance timelines. Oracle can no longer enforce support-based lock-in. Faster, more personalised assistance from the new provider.
“Redress Compliance showed us what Oracle never would — that we had options. Their deep knowledge of Oracle contracts and licensing gave us the confidence to move to third-party support. We’re now saving €40 million over five years and still running every Oracle system we need, securely and on our terms.”
— CFO, Telefónica
Yes. Once a ULA is certified, the perpetual licences are yours to keep regardless of whether you continue paying Oracle for support. You retain full rights to use the software at the certified quantities. However, dropping Oracle support means you lose access to new patches, updates, and Oracle’s My Oracle Support portal. This is exactly why many organisations like Telefónica transition to third-party support — you keep the licences and get continued support at roughly half the cost.
Third-party Oracle support is maintenance and technical assistance provided by independent vendors (e.g., Rimini Street, Spinnaker Support) instead of Oracle. It is entirely legal. You own your perpetual licences outright, and nothing in Oracle’s agreements requires you to purchase support exclusively from Oracle. Third-party providers typically offer the same or better SLAs, faster response times, and personalised service at 50–60% lower cost.
You will no longer receive new patches from Oracle directly. However, reputable third-party support providers deliver custom security patches and fixes for vulnerabilities, often faster than Oracle. They also provide guidance on hardening configurations and may cover zero-day vulnerabilities that Oracle hasn’t yet patched. For stable, mature Oracle deployments — the exact profile of Telefónica’s estate — this is typically more than adequate.
Oracle’s audit rights typically survive the termination of support, as they are embedded in the licence agreement itself. However, if your licences are properly documented and certified (as in Telefónica’s case), the audit risk is manageable. The key is meticulous entitlement documentation and usage controls — exactly what Redress established during the transition — so that any future enquiry from Oracle can be answered quickly and definitively.
Most organisations save 50–60% on annual support costs in Year 1, with savings compounding over time because third-party contracts don’t include Oracle’s automatic 3–4% annual price escalators. Over a typical 5-year period, cumulative savings can reach 60–70% compared to staying on Oracle support. For Telefónica, this translated to €40M saved over five years on an €8M+ annual baseline.
It’s time to rethink. Schedule a free Oracle support cost assessment and start building your path to savings and independence.
This case study is part of our Oracle ULA Guide pillar. Explore related case studies and guides: