How can third-party support reduce IT costs by up to 90% compared to Oracle contracts?

Enterprise IT leaders often list Oracle support as their most inflexible and costly cost center. Oracle’s contracts lock annual maintenance fees at 22% of license value, with 4–8% yearly uplifts compounding expenses for predictable vendor revenue, not company efficiency. Without adding value or innovation, a $10M Oracle license portfolio earns $2.2M in year-one support and $3M after five years. Long-term support expenses and 5–7-year upgrade cycles cost companies tens of millions.

This rigidity erodes financial agility, redirecting capital away from strategic initiatives such as cloud transformation, cybersecurity modernization, Oracle AI cloud solutions, and upgrades to PeopleSoft systems. Third-party support disrupts this model by cutting annual fees by ~50%, maintaining legacy systems far beyond Oracle’s lifecycle limits, and stabilizing budgets with predictable, flat pricing. Over a 5–10 year horizon, this approach yields up to 90% lifecycle savings.

In this blog, we will break down the financial mechanics, lifecycle economics, and technical service models that make Oracle Support Cost Reduction achievable, highlighting how DPR Solutions Inc. helps enterprises execute this shift confidently.

Achieving Significant Savings with Lower Annual Fees

• Cutting Support Fees for Immediate Savings: Oracle’s annual support fees are typically set at 22% of the original license cost. For example, a $5M Oracle ERP system can result in an annual support bill of over $1.1M. For many businesses, this expense is one of the largest portions of their IT budget.

At DPR Solutions Inc., we reduce these costs by offering the same level of support for approximately 50% of Oracle’s annual maintenance fees. This immediate cost reduction allows businesses to reallocate those savings to more strategic initiatives like cloud transformation, cybersecurity, or digital innovation.

• Predictable and Stable IT Budgeting: One of the major pain points with Oracle contracts is the annual price increase. Typically, Oracle imposes a 4-8% annual uplift on its support fees, which results in rising costs year over year. Over a 5-7 year period, this can significantly impact your IT budget.

In contrast, DPR Solutions Inc. provides flat or minimal inflation-tied pricing for our third-party Oracle support services or any other Oracle support alternatives. This stability allows businesses to accurately forecast their IT spending, making long-term financial planning far more predictable.

Avoiding Hidden Costs with No Forced Upgrades

• Eliminating Unnecessary Upgrades: A product becomes EOL or EOS. This raises license, hardware, and implementation expenses. DPR Solutions Inc. provides third-party security patches and bug fixes to help clients keep their legacy Oracle systems running without costly upgrades.
• Extended Software Lifespan: One of the key advantages of third-party support is the ability to extend the software lifespan. While Oracle ends support for legacy versions after a certain period, DPR Solutions Inc. ensures that your Oracle systems remain fully supported for as long as you need them. We continue providing essential support services like security patches, updates, and system fixes for as long as your business requires. This eliminates the need for disruptive, costly upgrades while ensuring your systems remain secure and reliable.
• Savings from Avoiding Upgrade Costs: The total cost of ownership (TCO) over a multi-year period can be significantly reduced by avoiding the forced upgrade treadmill. Analysts have found that businesses can save millions by skipping unnecessary upgrades. By choosing third-party support, you can postpone expensive hardware, software, and training costs, focusing your resources on initiatives that directly contribute to business growth.

Other Key Benefits of Third-Party Support

• Supporting Your Custom Systems and Code: Many businesses rely on Oracle systems that are customized to their specific needs. Oracle’s support policies often ignore or restrict support for custom code or heavily modified environments, pushing organizations to upgrade rather than maintain their unique setups. Third-party vendors like DPR Solutions Inc. take a more flexible approach, fully supporting customizations at no additional charge. This ensures that your systems run smoothly without incurring extra costs or forcing you to adopt standard Oracle configurations that may not be aligned with your business processes.
• Personalized Support with Faster Resolutions: When it comes to customer service, third-party support often outperforms Oracle’s offerings. At DPR Solutions Inc., we provide personalized support with direct access to senior engineers who have decades of experience working with Oracle systems. Our service level agreements (SLAs) are tailored to your business needs, ensuring faster issue resolution and minimal downtime. This approach enhances system uptime, increases productivity, and reduces the load on internal IT teams, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks.
• Enhancing System Uptime and Minimizing Downtime: Faster response times and proactive support translate into fewer disruptions for your business. With our third-party support services, your systems will experience higher uptime, which is crucial for ensuring smooth business operations. The ability to resolve issues quickly ensures that your enterprise doesn’t face costly productivity losses due to system outages.

Lifecycle TCO comparison between Oracle and third-party support

Calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) across multiple years to analyze long-term financial impact beyond annual payments. A 5-year comparison of Oracle’s escalation contracts to third-party support is below:

Total Estimated Savings: Up to 90% lifecycle reduction when modeled across 10 years.

Turn Oracle support waste into business growth—connect with DPR Solutions today.