Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

There is a plan in place to radically increase field applications SC headcount in the hubs over the next year. At what point do the existing (highly-compensated) field SCs get their walking papers? Or does Oracle see savings over the long term through attrition? Or, does overtime go away and everyone makes less money?

Why leave it at that, neurosurgeon as a service or prime minister as a service also have nice ring to it!

No no no this is to ‘enable’ us and streamline the workload - now we have tried and true demo’s and workshops at the push of a button and then the workflow makes the customer sign that if they like it they’ll buy it and then automatically closes the deal. I mean this should like quadruple revenue and crush amazon!!! That’s why they make the big bucks up at the top. Oh and such a great name - sc as a service - doesn’t nominalize us at all!! Try it for your self in whatever role you’re in. Flight attendant as a service, manager as a service, cardiologist as a service!!! It Inspires confidence and respect don’t you think?

Sitting in South Shore today, I overheard a couple of reps going at the new system. In summary, they saw it as a roadblock, that offers them nothing, but demands their time and attention. They plan to go on with business as usual, and backfilling the new system after the fact. They gave the new system six months.

some hungry hub managers are more succesfull in presenting a view of reality which favors their promotion. around them everything turns into a desert but they convince VP's that everything is green.

SCs (and, by extension, ECAs) have consistently been viewed as a cost of doing business. The trend towards driving down costs through increasingly shared organizational models has been going on for some time now. SCaaS and the Hubs aren't a surprising result.

Technical leadership at Oracle has never done a good job of advocating on the behalf of the value that SCs/ECAs bring. However, that isn't surprising either given the culture. LE was the first salesperson/marketer at Oracle and has long believed that all that is needed is the ability to confidently market (ahem, spew half truths) in order to negotiate (e.g. manipulate) customers into buying. That founded a culture where sales reps were elevated and valued while everyone else was just a tool to get a deal done. Add MH to the mix with his sole focus on cutting costs and the erosion of perceived SC/ECA value has continued.

This all points back to the top where the culture originates from. With narcissistic personalities, it is no wonder that organizational changes are focused on trimming costs to keep profit margins up while buyback policies are all about keeping the stock price buoyed up. It is all about making sure that the oversized compensation packages continue to happen for those at the top. Customers and employees will continue to see an erosion of what Oracle offers for them.

There are other companies where the SC/ECA role is valued and respected. Sales rep and SC are peers in managing their own business territory. Some competitors even see the SC/ECA position as a key differentiator. To go with it, total compensation at other tech companies for SC/ECA roles can significantly beat what Oracle is paying. Unless you are younger and staffing one of the Hubs, it might be time to take a look around and see that there are better options that what Oracle is offering.

I remember a while back there was no SCRM or took like it. As a rep, you had an assigned SC. They were your partner on working accounts. If you needed help from a specialist, then maybe you did a request via system or an email or phone call. A resource would get assigned. Now everything is going towards a pool of resources. Maybe management feels it’s a more efficient way to allocate resources that are scarce. Gone are the days when you can just fill the Oracle bus with people and go into a meeting.

It’s a model to undercut ECAs.

You always had to submit a request into the SCRM System for an SC resource. Very few SCs were actually aligned with an account beyond the opportunity cycle.

Oracle keeps trying to automate everything and make it all “self service”

The issue is the usability and complexity of these systems s--- so instead of saving money they create 101 work-arounds so people on the ground at the customer can actually get anything done.