Oracle lawsuit proves ‘off-the-shelf’ ERP is a lie

@kylercheatham

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Why it worked

The video leverages a high-profile, controversial news event (the Oracle lawsuit) to provide actionable, contrarian advice, positioning the creator as an industry expert who is 'on the side' of the viewer against big tech.

Summary

The creator discusses a class action lawsuit against Oracle regarding their NetSuite ERP software, alleging that the company falsely promises rapid implementation. She advises businesses to be skeptical of sales demos and to have contracts reviewed by specialists to avoid costly pitfalls.

Structure

1Introduction to the Oracle lawsuit
2Explanation of the class action allegations
3Oracle's defense strategy
4Three tips for businesses buying software
5Importance of contract review
6Conclusion on sharing industry knowledge

On-screen text

Oracle lawsuit proves ‘off-the-shelf’ ERP is a lie THE VERY SECOND YOU HEAR OFF OR SOMETHING EVEN STUPIDER LIKE CONFIGURED IN WEEKS IN A SALES MEETING FOR ANY ENTERPRISE SOLUTION. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'VE NOW GONE FROM A SALES MEETING TO AN ORIGIN STORY FOR A VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE LAWSUIT. JUST ASHNETSWEE. THERE'S A PROPOSED CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT HERE IN THE UNITED STATES THAT IS IN SPECIFICALLY THE STATE OF OHIO, THAT IS ALLEGING THAT ORACLE, WHICH OWNS THAT SUITE, RIGHT, IS SELLING THEIR SWEET SUCCESS EARP SOLUTION THAT PROMISES IMPLEMENTATION FROM ZERO TO THE CLOUD WITHIN 100 DAYS. THE SUIT SAYS THAT ORACLE KNOWS VERY WELL THAT YOU CANNOT IMPLEMENT A PRE CONFIGURED SOLUTION, EVEN IN A SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED BUSINESS, IN LESS THAN 100 DAYS. RIGHT? THEY'RE SAYING THEY KNOW THERE'S A LOT OF CUSTOMIZATION THAT GOES IN THIS. AND THEY'RE OPENLY LYING TO CUSTOMERS, CONVINCING THEM TO BUY THIS WITHOUT PROVIDING ANY SORT OF VALUE AND ULTIMATELY LEAVING THEM WITH THIS VERY COSTLY MESS AT THE END OF THIS 100 DAYS. AND THE REASON THIS IS A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT, RIGHT, IS THAT IT'S SAYING ANY BUSINESS THAT'S IMPLEMENTED AND PURCHASE LICENSES FROM NET SUITE IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS WITH LESS THAN 1,000 EMPLOYEES, WOULD HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO JOIN THIS SUIT IF THEY DIDN'T GO THROUGH WITH THEIR IMPLEMENTATION OR THEY DIDN'T GET WHAT WAS PROMISED TO THEM. NOW, YOU WILL BE NOT AT ALL SHOCKED TO HEAR THAT ORACLE IS LIKE, READ THE FINE PRINT, RIGHT? THESE ARE JUST DISAPPOINTED CUSTOMERS THAT DIDN'T DO THEIR JOB. AND THEY SIGNED OUR CONTRACT, WHICH SAYS THAT WE'RE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY OF THIS. THE BUSINESSES COME BACK AND SAY NO, RIGHT. YOU HID ALL OF THESE ERRONEOUS TERMS IN A BUNCH OF RANDOM HYPERLINKS TO OTHER DOCUMENTS IN THE CONTRACT, AND THESE DROP DOWN MENUS. SO WE COULDN'T CLEARLY AGREE TO ANY OF THIS OF PROCEDURAL THINGS. AS OF NOW, THERE'S A LOT OF PROCEDURAL THINGS. ORACLE HAS THE BEST LAWYERS IN THE WORLD, RIGHT? SO THEY'RE GOING TO MAKE THIS AS DIFFICULT AND AS EXPENSIVE FOR THESE BUSINESSES TO COME ON BOARD TO SUE THEM. BUT IT'S A HUGE MOVE IN OUR. OUR SAS ENVIRONMENT AGAINST THE SAS MAFIA TO SAY, YOU CAN'T HIDE THINGS FROM US IN THE CONTRACT, AND YOU CAN'T PROMISE THINGS THAT ARE NOT POSSIBLE. SO HEARING THIS, THESE ARE THE THREE THINGS YOU'RE ALWAYS GONNA DO. AND I'M SURE YOU GUYS ARE SICK OF ME TALKING ABOUT IT, BUT I'M NEVER GONNA STOP TALKING ABOUT IT BECAUSE THESE ARE THE WAY THEY GET YOU, RIGHT? NUMBER ONE, OFF THE SHELF SOFTWARE IS NOT A THING, RIGHT? UNLESS IT IS VERY VERTICAL SPECIFIC. DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU SHOULD CUSTOMIZE THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR SOFTWARE? ABSOLUTELY NOT, RIGHT. BUT YOU'VE GOT TO UNDERSTAND THAT OFF THE SHELF IS NOT SOMETHING THAT FITS THE UNIQUE NEEDS OF YOUR BUSINESS. EVEN IF IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL IN THE DEMO, RIGHT? THAT EXISTS IN THE DEMO ACCOUNT, NOT FOR YOUR REAL, MESSY, SPICY BUSINESS. OKAY. NUMBER TWO, BELIEVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU SEE IN THE DEMO, OKAY? THESE ARE SALES PEOPLE THAT ARE PAID TO SELL YOU SOFTWARE. THAT IS THEIR NUMBER ONE JOB. COME TO THAT DEMO ARMS LIKE YOU'RE GOING INTO WAR. WITH A GOOD DEMO SCRIPT THAT YOU WROTE, NOT THEM, RIGHT? WITH SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR VERSION, NOT WHAT THEY WANT TO SHOW YOU. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CHECK THEIR REFERENCES. ON A BUSINESS THAT'S IN YOUR INDUSTRY, THAT'S ON YOUR VERSION OF THE SOFTWARE. LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, HAVE A SAS SPECIALIST REVIEW YOUR CONTRACT. OKAY? THIS IS NOT A NORMAL CONTRACT, OBVIOUSLY, RIGHT? WE ARE JUST GOING THROUGH THIS WITH A CLIENT RIGHT NOW THAT'S TRYING TO EXECUTE ON MAKING SURE THEY'RE BUYING LICENSES. AND EVERYONE IS FRUSTRATED BY THE CONTRACT PIECE BUT WE, THIS IS THE HOLY GRAIL. THIS IS THE BIBLE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP. AND PROTECTING OUR BUSINESS. SO WE CAN'T GET FATIGUED, RIGHT? WE HAVE THE DISCIPLINE TO KNOW WHERE THESE HIDDEN POCKETS LIE. AND MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE DOING WHAT'S BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS. IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS, BY ALL MEANS, ADD TO THIS. THAT'S THE POINT OF THIS ENTIRE CHANNEL, IS MAKING SURE WE SHARE THINGS THAT ARE NOT GATEKEPT, THAT ARE NOT HERE TO, YOU KNOW, DEFRAUD YOU OUT OF GOOD SOFTWARE AND JUST TRICK YOU INTO LICENSES THAT YOU NEVER ACTUALLY USE, IS TO SHARE WHAT'S WORKING FOR YOUR BUSINESS, WHAT'S NOT WORKING FOR YOUR BUSINESS. OBVIOUSLY, IF YOU'RE, YOU KNOW, GONNA BUY SWEET SUCCESS, DON'T DO IT, RUN THE OUT OPPOSITE DIRECTION. BUT THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO BE ABLE TO SHARE AND HAVE REAL CONVERSATIONS. NOT WHAT, YOU KNOW, BILLION DOLLAR MARKETING MACHINES WANT YOU TO BELIEVE.

Original caption

Apparently ‘don’t lie to your customers’ and ‘don’t promise a 100‑day miracle ERP’ is too much to ask 🤡📉 #netsuite #oracle #saas #erpsoftware #techtok

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Transcript

The very second you hear off-the-shelf or something even stupider like configured in weeks in a sales meeting for any enterprise solution, congratulations, you've now gone from a sales meeting to an origin story for a very, very expensive lawsuit. Just ashnetswee. There's a proposed class action lawsuit here in the United States that is in specifically the state of Ohio, that is alleging that Oracle, which owns that suite, right, is selling their sweet success ERP solution that promises implementation from zero to the cloud within 100 days. The suit says that Oracle knows very well that you cannot implement a pre-configured solution, even in a small to medium sized business, in less than 100 days, right? They're saying they know there's a lot of customization that goes in this. And they're openly lying to customers, convincing them to buy this without providing any sort of value and ultimately leaving them with this very costly mess at the end of this 100 days. And the reason this is a class action lawsuit, right, is that it's saying any business that's implemented and purchase licenses from NetSuite in the last four years with less than 1,000 employees, would have an opportunity to join this suit if they didn't go through with their implementation or they didn't get what was promised to them. Now, you will be not at all shocked to hear that Oracle is like, read the fine print, right? These are just disappointed customers that didn't do their job. And they signed our contract, which says that we're not liable for any of this. The businesses come back and say no, right. You hid all of these erroneous terms in a bunch of random hyperlinks to other documents in the contract and these drop down menus. So we couldn't clearly agree to any of this of procedural things. As of now, there's a lot of procedural things. Oracle has the best lawyers in the world, right? So they're going to make this as difficult and as expensive for these businesses to come on board to sue them. But it's a huge move in our. Our SaaS environment against the SaaS mafia to say, you can't hide things from us in the contract and you can't promise things that are not possible. So hearing this, these are the three things you're always gonna do. And I'm sure you guys are sick of me talking about it, but I'm never gonna stop talking about it because these are the way they get you, right? Number one, off the shelf software is not a thing, right? Unless it is very vertical specific. Does that mean that you should customize the shit out of your software? Absolutely not, right? But you've got to understand that off the shelf is not something that fits the unique needs of your business. Even if it looks beautiful in the demo, right? That exists in the demo account, not for your real, messy, spicy business. Okay. Number two, believe absolutely nothing you see in the demo, okay? These are sales people that are paid to sell you software. That is their number one job. Come to that demo arms like you're going into war. With a good demo script that you wrote, not them, right? With specific questions about your version, not what they want to show you. And for the love of God, check their references. On a business that's in your industry, that's on your version of the software. Last, but certainly not least, have a SaaS specialist review your contract. Okay? This is not a normal contract, obviously, right? We are just going through this with a client right now that's trying to execute on making sure they're buying licenses. And everyone is frustrated by the contract piece, but we, this is the holy grail. This is the bible of our relationship and protecting our business. So we can't get fatigued, right? We have the discipline to know where these hidden pockets lie and make sure that we're doing what's best for your business. If you have suggestions, by all means, add to this. That's the point of this entire channel, is making sure we share things that are not gatekept, that are not here to, you know, defraud you out of good software and just trick you into licenses that you never actually use, is to share what's working for your business, what's not working for your business. Obviously, if you're, you know, gonna buy sweet success, don't do it, run the out opposite direction. But this is an opportunity for us to be able to share and have real conversations. Not what, you know, billion dollar marketing machines want you to believe.