Obtaining Oracle Support

Here is a brief overview. Check the paragraphs below for more detailed information.

To obtain technical support for administrative and academic operations use of Oracle products, appoint a staff member from your unit to be the Oracle support contact, and have them go to https://support.oracle.com, clicking on Option 1 to add a new account.  Once email is verified, login to the Oracle support site and enter 22611840 for the CSI, and 'The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois' for the organization.  A notification will be sent to AITS and we will grant access to Oracle support.

To obtain support for educational use of Oracle products, contact the university's Oracle Academic Initiative (OAI) technical account manager, Allison Miller (alison.derbenwick@oracle.com), and be sure to read the information on enhanced educational resources below. To obtain support for research use of Oracle products, appoint a unit Oracle support contact as outlined in item 1 above. Special provisions are available for products not covered under the site license as part of the Oracle Research Alliance Program (ORAP), detailed below. For more information, contact he university's ORAP representative, Jon Luciano, at jon.luciano@us.oracle.com or 703-364-5914.

General Information Regarding Support for Site-Licensed Software

As part of the site license agreement, the university receives support for all licensed products. This level of support was previously called "Silver" by Oracle, but now is simply referred to as "product support." Oracle product support includes Oracle's on-line support service, Metalink, and Oracle telephone support. For more information, see Oracle's support overview. The University of Illinois now enjoys "tier one" client status, which qualifies the university for priority attention from Oracle support. Oracle has appointed a special coordinator, Jake Clarke (jake.clarke@oracle.com), to monitor the university's satisfaction with Oracle support services.

Support for Administrative and Academic Operations Use

Because the university is a very large organization, Oracle has asked us to help manage access to online and telephone support, due to a concern that unrestricted access to telephone and web-based support might overburden Oracle support staff and reduce the quality of service for the University of Illinois and other Oracle clients. Another concern stems from the fact that support can presently only be obtained with a Customer Support Identification (CSI) number. Oracle has consolidated all of our licensed products under one CSI number. This is a great simplification of prior procedures, and helps Oracle track our total support requirements. However, this change means that anyone with this number and some basic information about the university can obtain support from Oracle under the terms of our site license. For this reason, Oracle asks that each unit using site licensed products appoint a primary Oracle support contact. This contact can register with AITS as outlined above to receive the university's CSI number and instructions for accessing Oracle support services.

Support for Educational Use

The Oracle Academic Initiative (OAI) is a program targeted at colleges and universities to catalyze information technology learning. Participating OAI institutions work with Oracle to provide high quality educational programs that address the IT workforce shortage, foster curricular innovation, and create strong matriculation pathways for students coming into the IT field. For most participating institutions, the membership fee is $500 per department per year. However, in the case of the University of Illinois, this fee is waived and any unit that wishes to become a member can do so for free. This allows academic units to receive Oracle software that is not included under the new agreement at no charge for educational use only. This program also provides support for products used for educational purposes separately from any products used to support administrative and academic operations.

Visit the OAI website for more information and to get started. If you have questions after visiting the OAI website, contact the University's OAI technical account manager Allison Miller (alison.derbenwick@oracle.com).

Support for Research Use

The support policies outlined under Support for Administrative and Academic Operations Use, above, also apply to support for Oracle research use.

Oracle also has special provisions for software that is not included under the site license, under the Oracle Research Alliance Program (ORAP), which provides low-cost access to Oracle programs for non-profit, non-commercial research. Such research is typically conducted for the basic good of humanity and not for commercial purposes.

ORAP currently offers two-year term licenses with update subscription service and product support at a pre-approved discount of 70% off the published list prices available on the Oracle Store website. ORAP licenses are restricted to research that is authorized and approved by the University of Illinois. If you have questions regarding the ORAP program, please contact Jon Luciano at jon.luciano@us.oracle.com or 650-633-4477.