Essentially, a “true up” engagement with Oracle’s License Management Services (LMS) is akin to a “soft audit” with the threat of a full blown, formal audit if the customer does not cooperate. Voluntarily agreeing to a true-up may sound like a softer approach, but Oracle will eventually get what it wants from the customer – more money – even if that requires invoking the dreaded audit clause.

Likewise, LMS conducts “advisory” engagements when customers need guidance or assistance around Oracle licensing (for example, if a customer wants to understand the licensing implications of setting up a new DR environment or virtualized environment or shared storage). The problem with “advisory” engagements is they can quickly escalate into full blown audits as well, should LMS get a whiff of potential non-compliance. If Oracle decides it can extract any additional value from the customer by sending in a formal audit notice following a unsuccessful “advisory”, then that may well happen.

In dealing with Oracle Sales and LMS, and any of its different services and engagement types, it’s always a good idea to get expert assistance from formal Oracle LMS auditors that are intimately knowledgable of Oracle licensing. Whether you are dealing with a “True up”, “Soft audit”, “Advisory”, or a formal license “Audit”, our Audit Defense service may be just what you need. Reach out to us for a consultation.