The Oracle Hosted Pilot Program

This program lets potential customers evaluate the product without having to invest the time and money by having it installed at a local site. In this case, a set of servers is installed, along with some basic configuration and user accounts. These resources are dedicated to the sole use of the company for the duration of the evaluation, which is typically a few weeks long. Functionally, these servers are equivalent to what you would see if the servers were local. The only limitations are on what can be sent via e-mail in and out of the servers (to protect them from being used as spam sites).

The program is available to any potential OCS customer. However, you need to work with a sales team to express your interest in seeing a demo of the product. Oracle has a test plan that walks you through the administration of the OCS and each functional aspect that a user might experience.

Oracle isn’t trying to distract you with irrelevant details, or use the Bait and Switch. What you see in the hosted pilot is exactly what is delivered if you go on to make a purchase. For installation, Oracle offers its Collaboration Suite Accelerator Service, a separately priced service that helps customers implement the suite in 15 days. The Oracle Collaboration Suite is also offered as an outsourced service, but these are not included in the license price.

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