"I like the concept of choice, but I can't tell whether it would be good or bad until I see some actual pricing comparisons for my environment," said Jim Prevo, CIO at Green Mountain Coffee Roaster in Waterbury, Vt. The company runs PeopleSoft ERP software and pays Oracle based on an enterprise license.

Prevo also said the new schedule appears to change enterprise licensing requirements, which would allow him to test new applications among a small group of users before expanding its use throughout the company.

Even with the simplified models, noted Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst at Wellesley, Mass.-based Nucleus Research Inc., customers will still have to negotiate a final price with Oracle.

"I don't see a huge impact for customers," she said. "They'll still be negotiating with Oracle. It may give customers some more flexibility in planning a deployment that's appropriate for their size and structure."