Innovation is everywhere in today’s headlines. It’s become crucial for staying competitive and meeting the evolving demands of both boards and customers. Organizations prioritizing innovation are better equipped to adapt to changes quickly, deliver value and get ahead of the curve.
Having the opportunity to serve as a change agent in corporate IT for 20+ years at companies like onsemi, Honeywell and Arizona State University, I’m drawn to those that take a forward-thinking approach to AI and other technologies. That’s why I was attracted to Rimini Street, a leader in third-party software support undergoing its own transformation. In joining Rimini Street, I aim to help the company turn in a new direction, continuing to save clients money while providing more innovative solutions.
This blog is the start of my exploration into how AI and other forms of innovation are coming into play, highlighting companies that are innovating quickly, boldly and strategically.
How enterprise IT can drive innovation
When we think of innovation, we think of cutting-edge technologies and transformative ideas. But innovation comes in many forms and can’t flourish without a strong operational core. That’s where the role of enterprise IT has changed, exchanging its previous label of “cost center” for “strategic enabler.”
Today, enterprise IT teams are responsible for not just facilitating new solutions but supporting and sustaining them — usually with minimal resources. According to Gartner, 91% of IT budgets are spent running the business, not fueling transformation initiatives.1 And therein lies the biggest roadblock: Without the budget to innovate, how can enterprises invest where they can truly transform their business?
Here’s the good news: Business-critical systems offer a wealth of opportunity, particularly when organizations enlist the help of a strategic IT partner.
For reference, Rimini Street has built its 20-year reputation on delivering expert support for ERP software, databases and applications. Many view these areas as necessary but not strategic, and that’s true. But they’re also part of that strong operational core mentioned earlier — the one that’s essential for successful innovation.
Partnering with Rimini Street enables organizations to:
- Reduce total software support costs by up to 90%
- Extend the life and value of existing investments for greater ROI
- Stabilize and proactively protect systems to mitigate risk
- Shift internal IT talent from daily maintenance to strategic projects
- Develop strategic IT roadmaps based on business objectives
- Self-fund innovation within the existing IT budget
In that sense, I’d argue that Rimini Street’s core business is not an “end state” but a launchpad for innovation. By helping organizations reclaim budget and talent capacity to redirect efforts into innovation, it becomes a win-win for all. Thousands of IT leaders worldwide have discovered that having Rimini Street as a partner can significantly reduce technical debt and minimize ERP lock-in, providing the optionality to navigate today’s uncertainty — and move toward tomorrow’s IT vision.
4 examples of creative innovation across industries
To understand what’s possible when enterprise IT has the capacity to innovate freely, it helps to look at real-world examples. The four organizations below — including Rimini Street — are redefining their industries and achieving success through ingenuity, smart asset reallocation, system stability and flexibility.
Suntory’s revolutionary mobile app for customer wellness
Suntory, a 125-year-old global beverage manufacturer based in Japan, has gained ground in the market by launching an innovative wellness app called Comado. The app promotes healthy habits by rewarding Suntory Wellness members with points for purchases and activities, while also offering exclusive access to events and products.
To execute on its innovation vision, Suntory reached out to Rimini Street. The combination of Rimini Support™ and Rimini Consult™ enabled the company to:
- Stabilize its Oracle systems and databases
- Create several new development environments
- Build a stable, scalable platform for the app
Suntory completed the project in four months, meeting the deadline even under extremely difficult conditions. Now, the company is using the innovation to strengthen customer engagement and its competitive edge in the health food industry.
Apsen Farmacêutica’s process automation for greater efficiency
Innovation doesn’t have to be public-facing to have a significant impact — look at Apsen Farmacêutica, a Brazilian pharmaceutical manufacturer now benefiting from an enhanced materials transfer process.
With a vision to implement intelligent automation at scale, Apsen partnered with Rimini Street to reimagine its existing SAP ECC 6 system rather than go through a costly, disruptive and risky migration to S/4HANA. Leveraging the Rimini Consult team’s in-depth expertise in SAP and the ServiceNow platform, Apsen was able to:
- Layer ServiceNow’s AI features over its ECC environment
- Develop a unified digital workflow for the materials transfer process
- Apply AI and real-time analytics to improve decision-making
As a result of the innovation, Apsen has automated 70% of manual processes for greater operational efficiency and reduced development cycles for future workflow automation projects by 50%, allowing the company to work faster and smarter.
SCEE Electrical’s project contribution for renewable energy
SCEE Electrical — an Australia-based company that provides electrical, instrumentation, maintenance and communications services — is playing a major role in renewable energy. The company is working on the Collie Battery Energy Storage System project, helping to ensure a reliable and sustainable cost-effective energy supply for Western Australia.
But SCEE’s ability to contribute to this project wouldn’t have been possible without first resolving some foundational challenges. That’s where Rimini Street came in, providing reliable support and managed services for its Oracle systems to help:
- Reduce support costs significantly for freed-up budget
- Deliver system stability at a critical time
- Improve data visibility and utilization
Having Rimini Street as a partner has given SCEE Electrical confidence in its enterprise systems, allowing the company to participate in large-scale innovation and even earning the Group ICT Manager the 2023 Info-Tech CIO award.
Rimini Street’s proprietary AI tools for supercharged service delivery
Rimini Street itself has also innovated around the delivery of its core business: support. The company has three great AI advancements that improve resolution times (>23%), reduce client cases (by >29%), proactively avoid issues altogether and simultaneously improve client satisfaction. The proprietary innovations include:
- Case Assignment Advisor: This patented application recommends the right support team in the right geography at the right time to deliver the right solution — all in a matter of seconds — so clients get paired with the best available engineer quickly.
- C-Signal: This app anticipates potential issues by analyzing case, contact and client information and proactively recommending actions to prevent them from occurring.
- Case Assistant: This app alerts case owners to similar cases, root causes, solutions and engineers familiar with such cases, allowing the case owner to benefit from the collective knowledge and experience of our global team.
These AI-driven innovations have earned praise from team members, clients and the wider industry. In fact, they helped Rimini Street win the Stevie Awards for technical innovations in customer service four years in a row and the best AI-based Customer Service Solution of the Year award from the Business Intelligence Group in 2025.
Embrace innovation to stay ahead
At a recent Colorado Technology Association event, I delivered a keynote speech titled “How AI Will Transform Your Business.” I stressed that organizations just need to get started with AI and other technologies, and I’m doing the same here. Innovation isn’t a single destination; it comes in many forms and is shaped by various factors and stakeholders unique to each organization. But embracing it now is key to staying agile and adaptable in a constantly changing landscape — and Rimini Street has proven to be an invaluable partner for strategic, self-funded innovation. Learn more by reading about how global IT leaders can benefit from third-party ERP support at any stage of innovation.
