Oracle EBS Support Fees, Support Levels, and Additional Services

April 30, 2020

Most Oracle product lines are under the Software Technical Support Policies where clients need to be properly licensed to be fully covered. Technical support is mainly provided for issues that are demonstrable in the supported releases, running unaltered, on a certified hardware, database and operating configuration.

Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) is covered under the Software Technical Support Policies and in this blog post, we are going to flesh out what those policies mean in terms of support fees, support levels, and additional services.

Oracle EBS Support Service Fees

Oracle EBS, being under the Software Technical Support Policies, incurs in Technical Support Fees. Technical Support Fees are paid on an annual basis ahead of the next support period, unless stated otherwise on a client-by-client basis. The payment and the commitment to pay are required to process your Oracle technical support. Failure to pay will effective immediately terminate the support provided under these policies. Standard Oracle support term is of 12 months.

Support pricing is determined by the level of support and the volume of licenses ordered for support. Oracle offers threefold lifetime support: Premier Support, Extended Support (when offered), and Sustaining Support.

EBS Support Service Levels

Premier Support

Premier Support is the most comprehensive form of support that protects your Oracle EBS with essential software updates, new releases, proactive support tools, 24/7 services to help mitigate risks, reduce costs, and gain competitive advantage. This in conjunction with the ongoing delivery of fixes, updates, and security patches. Here’s a list of what you get with Premier Support:

  • Updates
    • Critical patch updates
    • Tax, legal and regulatory updates
  • Upgrade scripts
  • Certification with new third-party products/versions
  • Major releases for product and technology, at Oracle’s discretion, which can include maintenance, functionality, and documentation updates
  • 24/7 assistance with service requests and web-based customer support systems
  • Security features at every layer of the stack—applications, database, middleware, OS, and hardware
  • Regression testing across the full stack at the core application/database code level
  • Oracle Applications Unlimited—continuous innovation and a commitment to Oracle Premier Support through at least 2032 on Oracle E-Business Suite
  • Investment protection with Oracle’s Lifetime Support, the industry’s most comprehensive support coverage. Premier, Extended, and Sustaining Support for Software, Applications Unlimited, Hardware and Operating Systems
  • Non-technical customer service during normal business hours

Extended Support

When explicitly stated, Extended Support is offered for Oracle program releases that will have Premier Support expired and is generally made available for 3 years after the expiration of Premier Support. It’s worth noting that Extended Support does not cover certifications with third party products and versions..

Sustaining Support

Sustaining Support is also made available once Premier Support expires. This limited for of support can lead to system outages, cyber attacks, and an underperformed instance.

Sustaining Support doesn’t cover:

  • New updates, fixes, security alerts and critical patch updates
  • New tax, legal, and regulatory updates
  • New upgrade scripts
  • Previous fixes that Oracle no longer supports
  • Critical fixes and workarounds for new product issues resulting in Severity 1 and 2 Service Requests
  • Certification of third party products

Additional EBS Support Services for Purchase

A New Option: Market Driven Support

Market Driven Support is Oracle’s offering delivered by Advanced Customer Services (ACS) to cover the years 2022 and 2023 at various cost tiers. Keep in mind that Market Driven Support only mitigates specific support gaps but it’s inherently insufficient and can expose your instance to added costs and security vulnerabilities.

These are the limitations, restrictions, and exclusions of Market Driven Support:

  • No Platinum services
  • No access to limitless tax, legal, and regulatory updates
  • No middleware and integrations
  • No access to third party product certifications
  • No architectural changes
  • EBS product exclusions
  • Payroll country limitations

For instance, MDS is offered for Oracle Database version 11gR2. Oracle Database 11g Release 2 will move into Sustaining Support in January 2022 and it’s highly recommended that clients upgrade to Database 19c to take advantage of the innovation, optimization, and reliability that release 12.2 provides.

Oracle Support Updates for EBS and Oracle Database Users

In a recent post in the Oracle Applications and Technology user group (OATUG), the OATUG Customer Support Council provided several updates regarding Oracle’s support for Oracle Database and Oracle EBS. In this blog, we’ll discuss the most important of them.

Support Updates in Oracle Database

First, a year ago it was announced that due to the certification timing of Oracle E-Business Suite with Oracle Database versions beyond 12.1, Oracle had waived extended support fees for Oracle Database versions 11.2/12.1 for Oracle Database licenses used for Oracle EBS through December 2020. Thanks to a joint effort by the OATUG Customer Support Council, the EBS Development team, and Oracle Proactive Support – a further extension has been granted.

This means that Extended Support uplift fees have been eliminated for Database 12.1.0.2 all the way through the Extended Support period now ending July 2022 for Oracle Database licenses used for EBS.

  • Database 12.1
      • Extended Support ends July 31, 2022
      • Extended Support fees waived through the full Extended Support period (July 31, 2022) for 12.1.0.2 databases used for Oracle E-Business Suite
  • Database 11.2
    • Extended Support ends December 2020
    • Extended Support fees waived through the full Extended Support period (December 31, 2020) for 11.2.0.4 databases used for Oracle E-Business Suite
    • Advanced Customer Services (ACS) Market Driven Support (MDS) available for 11.2.0.4 databases after December 2020

Additionally, users of Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 will now benefit from limited error correction support through March 2022 (all support was previously set to end at the end of this year).

Support Service Updates in Oracle EBS

Through the OATUG Forum Online, Cliff Godwin, Senior Vice President of Applications Development at Oracle, also announced several other points of good news for Oracle EBS.

As we previously mentioned, Premier support for EBS 12.1.3 will end in December 2021. This has no change. After this date, support will still be available through ACS contracts.

ACS Market Driven Support will be available for 2022 and 2023 and will include Severity 1 and Severity 2 bug fixing as well as security updates. Pricing will be based on a tiered price structure based on the EBS support contract amount.

Download our infographic to see the availability of MDS for Oracle Database 11g Release 2, as well as what it covers and its limitations.

Limitations of Oracle Market Driven Support 11g

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