In a statement, Jacqueline Woods, vice president of global pricing and licensing strategy at Oracle, said the new scheme combines "the best of Oracle, PeopleSoft, Siebel and J.D. Edwards licensing programs."

Oracle said that all new applications will be sold using the new pricing model. Buyers of applications that shipped prior to last month's announcement can choose between the new scheme and an old one, Oracle said. The cost of support for all Oracle applications remains fixed at 22% of the net license fees, the company said.

Company officials declined to further discuss the new pricing plans.

On the surface, a single licensing model sounds like a good idea, said Patricia Dues, enterprise program manager for the city of Las Vegas, a user of Oracle's E-Business Suite of business applications. Dues is also president of the independent Oracle Applications Users Group, based in Atlanta.

However, Dues said there are still several unanswered questions, which she hopes will be discussed at an as-yet-unscheduled meeting between the user group's pricing council and Woods. For example, she said, Oracle needs to explain whether credits on purchases made under the old scheme will be accepted under the new one.