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FAQs

Answers to frequently asked questions about our Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and IFS Applications products and services.

Need more information? Call us on 020 8465 9100.

Most frequently asked questions

We have been offering database services to our clients since 1996, and company references are available on request.
Yes, we carry indemnity insurance which pays out a maximum of £5,000,000 per incident, and this can be increased for individual clients. Our consultants are highly experienced professionals, so it is unlikely that you'll ever need to claim, but you're covered anyway.
All work performed carries a warranty, and we document all technical tasks performed. We follow an ISO 9001 certified quality management model. You are entitled to have final sign-off on all consultancy undertaken. We also follow ITIL standards and are ISO 20000-1 certified.

Oracle and SQL Server Support FAQs

We believe in prevention rather than cure. Our proactive and continual monitoring regime ensures that outages are extremely rare.
We will use whatever remote access technology is available at your site. Our clients typically use Point-to-Site VPN (Virtual Private Networks) clients, Site-to-Site VPNs, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) VPNs, and Password Token technologies to ensure that we can access client servers securely, reliably and quickly.
Our team is ready to take your call. Your call will be immediately passed to an appropriate database support consultant. We guarantee a technical response within 15 minutes. In practice you will receive an immediate technical response if you call us.
All maintenance tasks are performed at times that suit you. We perform out-of-hours work as required. We are a 24/7 business.
We support all Oracle and SQL versions. Some clients are stuck with older versions due to application support constraints, and we are happy to support these older versions. We perform upgrades and patches on agreement with the client.
Yes. All our database support consultants are trained in a range of database recovery scenarios, and our fast recovery service is included in the price.
All our consultants are based in the UK, within our Edinburgh and Greenwich support centres. When issues with UK-based clients' databases cannot be resolved remotely, we will travel to the client site to fix the problem.
Yes. All our packages are flexible to meet clients' individual needs.
All maintenance tasks performed are fully documented, and this documentation is available on request. Details of all maintenance tasks performed is also included in our periodic reports.
Yes. We can rebadge our services, or can pay a one-off commission/referral bounty to you.
By default we invoice monthly, one month in arrears. Alternative payment terms are available on request.

Business Intelligence FAQs

Yes, we are tuning specialists. Some data warehouse performance issues stem from non-optimal design, however. Correcting such design errors can involve significant effort.
No, we are not affiliated with any other organisation. We therefore give entirely impartial advice on ETL, Business Intelligence and Data Visualisation products.
We are Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server specialists. Although we can work with other database technologies, our main body of database expertise lies with these two database vendors.
We will ask you to assess and sign-off work performed before our consultants leave your site. However, we also provide free remote support for four weeks.
We typically write up project tasks performed within one week of completion. You are guaranteed to receive our documentation within two weeks.
Yes, we can help with this. We can rebadge our services, or can pay a one-off commission/referral bounty to you.
We have been providing consultancy services since 1996, and have carried out large-scale warehousing projects for international companies during that time. References are available on request.

Oracle/SQL Server Installation FAQs

Yes, provided you have this in a format we can use (e.g. scripts or an export). We can also review your set-up DDL scripts and provide recommendations free-of-charge.
Yes, we frequently perform Oracle RAC, Oracle Fail Safe (OFS), SQL Failover Clustering and SQL Server Always On Availability Group installations.
Yes. All our packages are flexible to meet clients' individual needs.
We can install whichever version is best for you (sometimes dictated by application certification constraints).
We will ask you to assess and sign-off the work performed before our consultant leaves your site. We also provide free remote support for four weeks.
We typically write up the tasks performed within one week of the installation. We guarantee that you will receive documentation within two weeks.
Yes. We can rebadge our services, or can pay a one-off commission/referral bounty to you.
We have been offering Oracle and SQL Server installations to our clients since 1996, and references are available on request.
We invoice after the installation has been completed and you are in possession of our documentation. Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date.

Oracle/SQL Server Tuning FAQs

Our strategy depends on your particular circumstances. We focus on identifying and eliminating bottlenecks.
We will always concentrate first on reported points of pain. In the vast majority of cases you will see a marked performance improvement in those areas when we have finished.
If the code is stored within the database, we can amend it on request (but you should check the support implications). We will not normally amend other code, but will document the inefficiencies (and can recommend how the code could be better rewritten) so that you can report these to your application vendor/developer for amendment.
We provide four weeks of free remote support for any changes made.
We can tune all versions.
We typically write up the tasks performed within one week of the tuning exercise. You are guaranteed to have a copy of the documentation within two weeks of work completion.
Yes. We can rebadge our services, or can pay a one-off commission.
Yes, this is one of our more commonly-requested services. Please contact us for further details.
We have been tuning Oracle and SQL Server databases and environments for our clients since 1996, and references are available on request.
We invoice after work has been completed and you are in possession of our documentation. Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date.

Oracle/SQL Server Backup FAQs

We can implement whichever backup strategy best suits your needs and wishes. This may incorporate native backup technology, third party backup products with or without plug-ins, or bespoke backups via custom scripts, We can also advise you on Disaster Recovery considerations.
No. The vast number of possible recovery scenarios makes this a huge task. We can however document most commonly performed recoveries on request.
Yes. We provide four weeks of free remote support for backups deployed.
We typically write up the tasks performed within one week of our site visit. You are guaranteed to have a copy of the documentation within two weeks of work completion.
Yes. We can rebadge our services, or can pay a one-off commission.
We have been advising our clients on best backup and recovery strategies since 1996, and have successfully performed countless recoveries in that time. References are available on request.
We invoice after work has been completed and you are in possession of our documentation. Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date.

Oracle License FAQs

No. Standard Edition Two can only be licensed for machines with no more than 2 CPU sockets.
Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is included in Oracle Standard Edition Two for two-node clusters. Each node must have only one populated CPU socket. If you have servers with more than two CPU sockets, or you require more than 2 cluster nodes, you'll need Oracle Enterprise Edition RAC. Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters) is a licensable option for Oracle Enterprise Edition.
Yes. The minimum order requirements vary depending on which database product you select. These are: Standard Edition Two - 10 Named User Plus licences per server or the total number of actual users, whichever is greater.Enterprise Edition - 25 Named User Plus licences per licensable processor or the total number of actual users, whichever is greater.Personal and Lite Editions - 1 Named User Plus licence or the total number of actual users, whichever is greater.
If you select the Named User Plus licensing option then you must license all the users who are using the Oracle Database, as well as all non-human operated devices accessing the Oracle Database. An example of a non-human device would be a sensor that connects to a database. If a human-operated device such as a bar code scanner connects to the database then all humans operating these devices need to be licensed. If the Named User Plus population will be high, the Per-Processor licensing model may well be more cost-effective. Where it is impossible to quantify the user population (such as in an Internet environment), then you must license per processor.
For Standard Edition Two, the number of cores does not affect the price. For Enterprise Edition, each core of a multi-core chip is priced using a "licensing factor". These licensing factors are as follows:Sun UltraSPARC T1 - 0.25AMD/Intel - 0.5All other multi-core processors - 0.75Single core processors - 1 Therefore if you have two octa-core Intel processors, the cost will be 0.5*2*8*list price.
No. Oracle Standard Edition Two can only be used on servers that have a maximum capacity of 2 processors (CPUs), regardless of the number of cores. In a SE2 RAC environment, this limitation applies to the whole cluster (i.e. each node can have just one processor).
Yes, we offer significant discounts on Oracle list prices. Please contact us with your requirements and we will advise you on the level of discount we can offer.
Your order is logged with Oracle who then issue us with a licence number for you. This process can take up to 10 business days.
Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date (subject to approval). For larger orders or maximum discounts, payment-on-order is required.
No, we can sell licences to organisations within countries not on Oracle's exclusion list. We are happy to provide quotes in your preferred currency.

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