Oracle is the least popular software vendor in categories including ease to work with, prices and ROI.
The Customer Choice Awards rates vendors on eight different factors with Oracle coming last in each category, based on the opinion of 147 businesses.
EMC was found by 91% to be the easiest to work with (Oracle 43%), VMware (91%) came out on top with the apps easiest to manage, patch, maintain and upgrade (Oracle 35%) and HP has the easiest licensing policies to understand with 89.8% (Oracle 42.9%).
VMware finds itself top of ease to understand usage and spend stats with 93% (Oracle 31%), rarely issuing license compliance audits Citrix won with 94% (Oracle 35%), rarely forcing license compliance true-up HP with 93% (Oracle 29%) and finally, the apps prices are reasonable and offer good ROI Citrix came out on top again with 87% (Oracle 44%).
Anne Stokes, CEO, Streamwire, said: "Oracle has dominated the enterprise software market for a long time but this research suggests that this position should not be taken as read. Oracle is not the only game in town and there are other more flexible alternatives on the market.
"Businesses rely more and more on their IT to be efficient, innovative but also cost effective and "old school" just does not do that. Businesses are looking to cut costs through investing in high-performance efficient technologies that can actually help them operate effectively today but also to enable them to grow in the future.
"It is inevitable that with the complicated licensing models and implementation processes that come with choosing and using Oracle, businesses are looking to other vendors that are more transparent in the way they work and engage with the business. Change is coming."
The findings come from research by IDC and Flexera Software.
