Do you think Oracle customers like the “audit, bargain, close” playbook? Hell no is the answer. But it is a tricky business to stop using software you have made the foundation of your computing infrastructure. The power of the “audit, bargain, close” playbook is that is almost always easier to make a deal and pay up than live without Oracle products. That is, if you are out of compliance.

The way you can play hardball is by having your licensing house in order. If you are disciplined about your use of Oracle, when they throw a breach notice at you, you can chuck it right back at them, and play just as hard as Oracle.

Contrary to popular belief, Oracle does not have unlimited power to break a businesses as a recent, rare public licensing kerfluffle shows. Craig Guarente, President of Palisade Compliance, explained how his firm worked with Mars Corporation as they mounted their successful bid to push back against an Oracle breach notice. While not every company will be in quite the same position as Mars if and when they receive their own notice, the case should serve as both inspiration and aspiration for every Oracle customer.

One way to play hardball when a breach notice arrives is to call Oracle’s bluff. It’s nice to be able to say, “We would be happy to stop using your product,” but as we noted, unfortunately for most companies that is unrealistic. When you establish a long-term relationship, whether it’s real estate, a supplier, a partner or a software vendor like Oracle, you are setting down foundations on which you build your business. Terminating such a relationship is traumatic, especially if it must happen in a hurry.

The other way to play hardball is to push back and say, “In fact, we are not in breach of our license.” This is, in effect, what Mars declared when it filed in federal court to demand that Oracle justify the claim that the company was in violation of its license. Of course, Mars had to respond in some way because Oracle is baked into their operations. Having the tap turned off would have been devastating and embarrassing. The more interesting question, though, is Why Mars was able to respond this way? The answer: Confidence. Mars knows its Oracle environment. That insight made it easy for Mars to be cooperative when Oracle made its audit of the deployment. So, when Oracle claimed the breach, Mars knew exactly where it stood. It was ready before Oracle ever showed up.

While Oracle has made it increasingly easy to go out of compliance, that is not an excuse for being undisciplined in your use of Oracle products. The reality is that this scenario is not all on Oracle’s shoulders. They may be exercising the breach notice with greater frequency, but it has always lurked as part of the agreement your company made. The harsh truth is that there is absolutely nothing inevitable about falling out of compliance. The most common thing Guarente encounters in the field is that companies fail to understand their own vulnerability. That’s where the trouble starts.

So, what steps should your company take? Start by reviewing your licenses. If you have been around a while, the terms for different products you’re using may not be the same. Then go hunting and find all the Oracle products your company is using. It is very easy these days for employees to download Oracle software, including premium features, of which you are not aware. Then conduct a complete audit, matching every piece of Oracle software to its corresponding license. Find the gaps and fix them. Once you get through this process, on your own or with outside help, take steps to rigorously manage the environment moving forward.

If you want to play hardball like Mars, you need to be prepared. If you have not yet received a breach notice, assume that it is coming. This means that now is the time to act. The longer you wait to turn a mirror on your IT infrastructure, the less time you will have to respond effectively and the more expensive it is likely to become.

The sad truth is that at this point a huge percentage of Oracle’s 420,000 customers are not ready to play hardball. Oracle knows it. Wall Street knows it. The customers know it. So “audit, bargain, close” will be a powerful engine for at least two or three years, probably longer. It is not yet clear if Oracle will migrate to the cloud fast enough to impress investors, we will find out more tonight, but customers playing hardball will unlikely be a threat to Oracle’s earnings. But if you prepare, and you can keep your house in order, it is a great idea to play hardball with Oracle, because, no matter what it means to the big picture, you will save a huge amount of money.