Case Study · Insurance · Audit Defence

$0. An Oracle Java audit, settled at nothing.

An insurance group received an Oracle Java audit claim approaching $900,000. After a full evidence challenge, the claim was settled for zero — with no subscriptions purchased.

Not an Oracle partner or reseller
100% buyer-side advisory
Money-back audit defence guarantee
340+ Java engagements
$0
Final settlement
~$900K
Oracle's opening claim
6 wks
To resolution
100%
Of the claim challenged
Corporate insurance office building
The challenge

A $900K claim resting on one wrong assumption.

The insurer received an Oracle audit notice asserting that its Java SE deployments required commercial subscriptions, with an opening claim approaching $900,000. The claim leaned heavily on a single assumption: that any Oracle Java found in the estate was, by default, licensable.

That assumption is often wrong. Whether a given Java install costs anything depends entirely on which licence governs it, which version it is, and how it is used — and an Oracle opening position rarely makes those distinctions. The insurer needed someone to make them.

Our approach

How we dismantled the claim.

1

Take control of the audit process

We managed the interaction with Oracle, set the scope, and ensured every claim was supported by evidence before it was accepted.

2

Establish what was actually deployed

We catalogued each Java install — version, edition, and the licence under which it was obtained and used.

3

Apply the correct licence to each install

Installs covered by the NFTC, by free-to-use editions, by older BCL terms, or bundled inside other licensed products carry no separate subscription cost.

4

Dismantle the claim item by item

Every line of Oracle's claim was tested against the evidence. Each install that was already correctly licensed was removed from the figure.

5

Settle on the evidence

With the claim reduced to nothing it could substantiate, the matter closed without the insurer purchasing a single new subscription.

The outcome

Settled at zero, closed in six weeks.

Tested line by line against the evidence, Oracle's claim did not survive. The insurer settled the audit for $0 and bought no new Java SE subscriptions, because a correct reading of the licences showed that none were required.

The engagement was resolved in six weeks. The insurer also kept the inventory and licence mapping produced along the way — a ready-made defence file should Oracle ever return.

Result

$0 settlement

A claim approaching $900,000 was resolved at no cost.

Speed

6 weeks

The audit was scoped, challenged, and closed inside six weeks.

Evidence

Defence file kept

The inventory and licence mapping remain ready for any future review.

“The claim looked terrifying on paper. Once it was held up against the actual licences, there was simply nothing there.”
Chief Information Officer
Insurance group

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