Dell Software today released the findings of a commissioned Total Economic Impact (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Quest Software, Inc., now a part of Dell, to determine the potential value organizations may realize from using Quest’s Toad® for Oracle database management solutions. With exponentially growing data, IT organizations are struggling to provide efficient, cost-effective database management that optimizes the skillsets of their DBAs, developers and data analysts, and paves the way to glean key business insights from all those mountains of data.
The subject of the study was a large, U.S.-based global transportation company with more than 100,000 employees, which uses Toad for Oracle Professional Edition (for developers); Toad for Oracle Xpert Edition (for advanced developers); Toad for Oracle Xpert edition with a database administrator module(for DBAs); and Toad Data Point Edition (for data analysts). The study, based on the four fundamental elements of TEI ─ flexibility, benefits, cost, and risk ─ found that, for this organization, standardizing on Toad for Oracle solutions provided risk-adjusted total benefits of $51,358,311, and a positive 2,677 percent ROI over the past five years, with a payback period inside of 12 months.[1]
The study found that, with all of its database professionals using Toad for Oracle solutions, the organization reaped significant quantifiable benefits in cost-savings and productivity, as well as several additional unquantifiable but still important benefits, including development of common processes, increased morale and employee retention, and access to top training materials and resources.
“Solutions like Toad for Oracle will enable companies to respond to ever-changing business needs with speed and agility, particularly as the role of the highly skilled DBA evolves from that of a data caretaker to one who handles the mining and interpretation of data,” said Darin Bartik, vice president and general manager, Quest Database Management, Dell Software. “It is our belief that large organizations with characteristics similar to the study organization ─ thousands of Oracle databases, high maintenance costs associated with their Oracle environments ─ and a desire to standardize on a single database tool such as Toad are likely to find they can realize similar benefits to those of the TEI study organization. Reduced cost, increased productivity and efficiency, and gains in agility and flexibility will contribute significant value to organizations of all sizes.”
Resolved in 2013: Reduce Costs, Maximize Productivity and Efficiency, and Respond Faster to Business Needs Based on the value the TEI study organization realized by standardizing on Toad for Oracle solutions, Quest offers the following New Year’s Resolutions for other organizations looking to maximize the return on their investment in database management technology.

• Reduce costs by maximizing the DBA labor forceBy standardizing on Toad for Oracle, the organization has been able to hire from a larger pool of potential DBA resources, due to its capability to uplift the productivity and quality of work product. Even junior DBAs using Toad for Oracle are more capable, because Toad’s tools and processes allow them to exhibit productivity similar to that of a more experienced DBA.
  • Between 2008 and 2011, the company was able to hire five junior DBAs each year, saving $30,000 per DBA annually. In 2012, the organization planned to hire an additional 25 junior DBAs in addition to five “replacement” DBAs, and has realized a savings of $3 million over the five-year period.
  • The organization’s more experienced DBAs now are developing standardized scripts, processes and tasks, and extending them so that junior DBAs can accomplish the tasks defined by the senior group.
• Increase the efficiency and productivity of DBAs, developers and data analysts Before standardizing on Toad, the company surveyed existing Toad users among its developers, DBAs and data analysts, asking them to estimate how much more productive they were using Toad for Oracle in place of their previous tools. In calculating the productivity savings, Forrester noted that the survey, fielded in 2004, was not scientific and was performed without regard for whether the organization had incremental work that could absorb this newfound productivity. As a result, Forrester used a more conservative 20 percent productivity factor instead of the 40 percent reported by developers, data analysts, and DBAs. Based on this conservative analysis of the survey, Forrester concluded the organization’s database professionals were about 20 percent more productive during the 30 percent of their workday in which they benefitted from using Toad products, realizing the organization a total savings of $74,031,000 over five years.[2]
  • Improved productivity allows the organization’s database team to meet the needs of the business with more flexibility and agility, adding value for the business. Database professionals now can adjust database and application capabilities, respond better to changes in business direction or market conditions, and develop new business applications.
• Develop common processes to simplify database managementThe study organization found that having a standard tool like Toad for Oracle allowed it to establish common processes, procedures, and best practices, resulting in the significant productivity improvements, and also simplifying the process of moving DBAs and developers around, or backfilling for them on special projects.
• Increase employee morale and reduce attrition rates by providing database professionals with industry-recognized tools such as Toad for OracleThe organization has found that its database professionals passionately favor the continuing use of Toad solutions to get their jobs done, and, according to the study, views the use of industry-recognized tools like Toad for Oracle as a positive factor in increasing morale and reducing attrition rates.
• Leverage the Toad World user community and the Toad library for specific Toad for Oracle training needs, plus tips and time-saving tricks to get the most from Toad investments According to the study, the organization has found Quest’s Toad World user community to be an excellent source for official Toad for Oracle documentation and training. The organization can ensure that its code meets its own high standards using Toad’s Editor and Schema Browser, available within Toad World, and also has found the Toad library to be a rich resource of articles, videos and other media for various aspects of database development.