Client Profile
AUTOBACS Seven is Japan’s leading automotive aftermarket retailer and service provider, operating approximately 1,000 stores in Japan and 60 stores overseas, offering vehicle maintenance, parts, accessories and digital services to consumers and businesses.
Industry
Retail
Geography
Japan
Client Story

Founded in 1947, AUTOBACS Seven is Japan’s leading automotive aftermarket retailer and service provider, operating approximately 1,000 stores across Japan and 60 stores overseas. As the company expanded its footprint and services, IT became increasingly central to maintaining its market leader position and delivering value to customers.

Nobuo Norisue, CIO of AUTOBACS Seven, leads the group’s digital subsidiary, AUTOBACS Digital Initiative (ABDi), which is responsible for IT solution development and the implementation of advanced technologies such as AI and IoT to drive operational efficiency and profitability.

Strategic shift in IT support increases business value

SAP ECC 6 serves as its accounting platform, while Oracle Database supports its critical retail operations. Both came with expensive support contracts that delivered little value.

Norisue sought to balance a fixed IT budget against maintaining day-to-day operations and rising demands for innovation. “We needed a strategy that reduced maintenance and support costs while increasing IT services that enhance corporate value,” he said.

In 2016, after hearing about Rimini Street’s reputation for service excellence and SAP expertise, AUTOBACS replaced its vendor support with Rimini Support™ for its ECC 6 system, a decision that immediately reduced its annual maintenance fees by 50%. Part of his decision hinged on a common principle between the two companies: “Rimini Street and AUTOBACS share a similar business model. Rimini Street offers a huge opportunity as a third-party maintenance provider for SAP systems, much like our business model, where we perform maintenance on the cars Japanese automakers build. We’re essentially doing the same thing, offering choice, value and great experiences for customers.”

To further savings and improve IT operations, AUTOBACS expanded its relationship with Rimini Street to include support for Oracle Database. Norisue said, “Rimini Street engineers possess deep expertise in both SAP and Oracle. The level of support is exceptionally thorough, enabling us to confidently entrust Rimini Street with everything, including DBA tasks. The move to Rimini Street has shifted our licensing strategy. Now, we purchase licenses directly from Oracle and immediately transfer the maintenance to Rimini Street because we know we’ll get higher quality support for much less.”

With a single, trusted provider for supporting both SAP and Oracle, AUTOBACS is able to:

“Our core mission is to ensure the safety of our communities while driving and enriching customers’ lives. Investing heavily in systems that don’t generate revenue or value distracts us from that mission,” said Norisue. “With so many engineers at Rimini Street supporting our ERP services, we can focus on attracting AI specialists and other highly skilled engineers to increase the company’s value and deliver greater experiences for our customers,” he added.

Fueling its next phase of digital growth

With systems stabilized and uptime protected, Norisue is able to spend more time focusing on innovation. “We plan to double our business in the coming years. To achieve this, we need innovation and outstanding technology solutions. We see the Rimini Smart Path™ as a powerful tool to help us fuel that growth.”

The Rimini Smart Path™ is a proven, three-step methodology, Support, Optimize, Innovate, that helps organizations move from stable, supported systems to AI and automation capabilities, all funded within existing budget. “We already have Rimini Support. Next, we’ll be leveraging Rimini Street’s optimization and innovation solutions and services to accelerate our growth,” Norisue shared.

Currently, Norisue is working with his Rimini Street team on a proposal for a new enterprise software model that layers AI capabilities from ServiceNow® with Rimini Street’s proven enterprise software support services, without the costs of upgrades, migrations or replatforming. “With our shared vision, we’ve created a scenario where our IT budget can be invested in the right areas. Rimini Street has helped us create an environment that enables us to deliver more value.”

A decade of partnership and innovation

AUTOBACS has trusted Rimini Street with its systems for ten years, during which it underwent massive growth, expanding its store footprint to 100 locations in Japan and launching innovative digital tools like:

  • The Anshin Pit Camera, an AI-powered smartphone app, lets customers view their vehicle being serviced
  • tagEL, a cloud-based electronic shelf labeling system
  • MOBILA, a comprehensive car life information website

He credits the success of his IT strategy to the power of collaboration, both with strategic partners like Rimini Street and with his internal stakeholders. “I work closely with my CEO and CFO to plan IT strategy and make the right IT investments for the business,” he said. “And I consistently communicate to them that Rimini Street is a solid source of value creation for us.”

Reflecting on his success with Rimini Street and the challenges that his fellow CIOs in Japan are facing, he recommends, “Many Japanese companies are struggling to balance IT maintenance costs against investing in new value creation. When resources are limited and IT costs are excessively high, deciding what to focus on and where to shift resources is crucial. Rimini Street should be their first stop to lower costs and fuel transformation without disruption.”