Leading Australian high-voltage electricity transmission provider cites superior service and cost savings as key decision drivers for support provider change
LAS VEGAS, March 2, 2016 – Rimini Street, Inc., the leading independent provider of enterprise software support services for SAP SE’s (NYSE:SAP) Business Suite and BusinessObjects software and Oracle Corporation’s (NYSE:ORCL) Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, Oracle Middleware, Hyperion, Oracle Retail and Oracle Agile PLM software, today announced that TransGrid, an Australian high-voltage electricity transmission provider, switched its Oracle Database annual maintenance and support from the vendor to Rimini Street. The company switched to Rimini Street support in 2014 and immediately reduced its annual maintenance fees by 50 percent, allowing the company to direct substantial cost savings back into its IT budget.
“The primary driver for switching to Rimini Street was to reduce operating costs associated with our Oracle Database environment,” said Michael Milne, Planning & Architecture manager, TransGrid. “By making this move, we have saved 50 percent on all our previous maintenance and support costs, savings which can now be spent in more value-added initiatives rather than on maintenance of our stable, mature system. We no longer pay maintenance and support to the software vendor as we have done for the last 20 years – those days are over. That cost was no longer justifiable for the value received.”
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TransGrid is the high-voltage electricity network transmission provider for New South Wales. Its network comprises 99 bulk supply substations and more than 12,900 kilometers of high voltage transmission lines and cables. TransGrid also has a telecommunications carrier license and operates a telecommunications business offering data services, which are carried on its optical fiber transmission network. Previously a government-owned organization, TransGrid was successfully leased for 99 years to a consortium in December 2015.
“Rimini Street presented a strong business case to us – not only do we save money by switching to independent support, we also receive superior service and access to local experts on Oracle Database and software,” continued Milne.
The onboarding process of moving to Rimini Street took approximately six weeks. As part of the transition from vendor support to Rimini Street support, a comprehensive archive was compiled of the Oracle software updates that TransGrid had paid for and is entitled to utilize. TransGrid can continue to evolve their software at the time of their choosing, if and when there is a clear and compelling business case.
Milne emphasized that the TransGrid’s success with Rimini Street support is proof that it is unnecessary to automatically accept maintenance service contracts offered by the vendor. “Maintenance and support contracts from the software vendor are optional – and there are proven third-party support alternatives like Rimini Street available,” he said.
“With a model that includes skilled on-shore support engineers in Australia backed by hundreds of engineering resources around the world, Rimini Street is well-placed and experienced in helping Australian private, public and government sector organizations alike with their Oracle service and support needs,” said Andrew Powell, managing director, Rimini Street Asia Pacific. “In Australia, Rimini Street has an expert team of engineers on the ground that average over 15 years of experience working with Oracle products. The key differentiators of highly experienced resources, a broader service offering (that includes support for customizations/add ons at no additional fee) – combined with Rimini Street’s ultra-responsive service level commitments – sets Rimini Street apart from the software vendor and others. Rimini Street clients’ existing, mission-critical systems can run smoothly and in full legal compliance for a guaranteed minimum 15 years without any vendor support or required upgrades.”
In Australia and New Zealand, the rate of client acquisition is accelerating. Since opening its Australian subsidiary a few years ago, many clients – including nine ASX top 50 companies – have already switched their Oracle and SAP support to Rimini Street.
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