[BBLISA] Oracle consulting, eDocs consulting experiences

[Mark Allyn]

Although I have never had direct experience with Oracle Consulting,
I have talked with others who have.

Mind you, this was about four years ago and things may have changed.

The most important theme during the conversations (and these were from
unrelated sources) was that you must expect to $$PAY$$ $$PAY$$ $$PAY$$
when you even breathe the words 'Oracle Consulting', 'Oracle Professional
Services' and whatever buzzwords they are using at the moment.

These guys are expensive. And they want every last $$$Buck they can get
as they don't realy get any salary from Oracle. They work strictly on
contract. No consulting job, no pay.

Another theme that seems to persist no matter who I talked with is that
it is very easy to get into a 'run away' situation where the costs and
times get out of control.

Please, please get your job as specificaly defined as possible. Try to
break it down into specific modules/components/steps/whatever as possible.
Accurately define what you want to go in and what you want to come out.
The more specific you make your design request, the less likely you will
get into a run away scenario.

Another advantage on using modules or components is that you can break
down the fees based on components. You can also structure your contract
so that payments are done based on components that can be individualy
tested. If it does not work, they get no payment.

Also please try to have someone else do the testing. You did accurately
define what each component is supposed to do, didn't you? Whay can't you
hand that definition to someone else and have them certify that it does
what it is supposed to do.

Overall, please keep these guys on a short leash.

As for myself, I have gotton off of Oracle and am using open source
solutions. I have found that I am able to get much of the help that I
need from the community by Googling and asking. I don't know what you
need to have done; but I have been very impressed at what I have been
seeing available in the open source community.

Good Luck!

Luv

Mark