Just like many drivers choose to take their cars to a certified local mechanic, and not the authorized dealer for better value and more responsive service, maintenance and repair, many software licensees are choosing the value and responsiveness of vendor-unaffiliated third-party support providers. These vendors' value proposition is to replace annual support from, say, Oracle and SAP, with a support program that enables Oracle and SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) licensees to save up to 50 percent on annual support fees and up to 90 percent on total support costs over a decade.
Third-party support clients can remain on their current software release without any required upgrades or migrations for at least 10 years, and thus save their money for major new software investments and innovation.
