Walk into a shop almost anywhere in Oman, from a corner grocery to a luxury boutique, and there is a good chance that Khimji Ramdas helped put the products on the shelf. With a legacy stretching back more than 150 years, Khimji Ramdas Group (KR) is one of the region’s most established conglomerates, with diversified interests spanning consumer products, retail, infrastructure and logistics.
The privately held group operates across multiple industries, from fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) distribution and luxury retail to construction, travel and tourism, and its own Vigo car rental brand. With roughly 5,000 employees, around 150 retail outlets and a nationwide distribution fleet, KR has built a multi-billion-dollar footprint.
Finding the right support model for a complex SAP environment
“It’s a diversified business. We have 60 lines of business, from luxury retail to technology to construction to consumer products,” explained Prashant Kumar, CTO at Khimji Ramdas. “My role is to manage the group-wide technology initiatives, from day-to-day ERP, CRM and infrastructure operations to building the roadmap in line with the technological advancements the world is seeing.”
First implemented in 2008 to unify finance, supply chain and sales, its SAP ECC 6.0 system is critical to its operations. The multi-module platform spans FI/CO, MM, SD and Project Systems, and extends into retail functions such as merchandising, POS integration and sales, enabling Khimji Ramdas Group to distribute more than 400 global brands efficiently across the country. The on-premises deployment is heavily customized for KR’s many divisions, with around 700 custom codes built up over more than a decade. Front-line operations rely on integrated point-of-sale and mobile sales solutions linked to SAP for real-time inventory and billing, giving the group end-to-end visibility from store shelf to central warehouse. Kumar manages all of this complexity with an IT team of 200.
With SAP announcing its end of mainstream support date for ECC and pushing its customers toward S/4HANA, KR faced mounting migration pressure and rising support costs that were increasingly difficult to justify. “During a period of regional instability, our sales dropped, creating financial pressure to find efficiencies in our IT operations,” Kumar recalled.
Seeking a better option, he turned to industry analysts for guidance. “We went to an industry analyst to ask what options we have to keep our ECC systems running without vendor support dependencies, and they suggested that we contact Rimini Street for third-party support,” Kumar said. “Since moving, we see that we should’ve made this move years ago.” KR became a Rimini Street client in December 2022, gaining comprehensive support at a significantly lower cost while maintaining full control and flexibility over its software roadmap.
Protecting advanced custom codes others would not touch
Prior to moving to Rimini Street, KR’s greatest concern was its extensive customization. SAP would not support the group’s custom code, pushing for a clean core approach on S/4HANA, and the other providers KR evaluated weren’t confident in their ability to carry out the work. After a thorough evaluation, paired with the Gartner recommendation, KR selected Rimini Support™ for SAP.
Benefits that sealed the deal for Kumar include:
- Guaranteed support for up to 15 years or more from first day of signing
- Comprehensive support for all 700+ custom codes, including newly developed code
- Dedicated Primary Support Engineer backed by a global team of top SAP talent, available 24/7/365
- Total SAP support costs reduced by 80% and reinvested in strategic innovation projects
- Freedom from end-of-support dates for SAP ECC 6 to pursue initiatives that align with KR’s IT roadmap
“Rimini Street quickly integrated with our team, took the time to understand our customizations, and now they assist us at every step,” Kumar said. “Even IT team members of ours with 30 years of SAP expertise lean on Rimini Street, knowing they have the depth and breadth of knowledge to solve the most complex issues with ease.”
KR has logged more than 160 cases since joining, and the experience has reshaped how the team views support. “In the last four years with Rimini Street, we haven’t had one instance of SAP going down,” Kumar noted. “When I talk to my people, they say the level of support and professionalism from the Rimini Street engineering team is unmatched, and that it puts them at ease.”
Delaying disruption, without delaying innovation
For KR, the decision to remain on ECC is strategic. The group’s near-term IT philosophy is evolution rather than revolution: upgrade what is necessary, extend and optimize existing investments, and avoid disruptive rip-and-replace projects unless they are clearly justified. Rimini Street gives the group the flexibility to follow that path on its own terms. Part of that flexibility is in the dramatic savings that they’ve achieved. Over five years, they’re projected to free up nearly $1.5M in funds to support projects aligned with Khimji Ramdas’ IT vision.
“When we were with SAP, they strongly encouraged us to transition to S/4HANA. However, that wasn’t a move that was urgent or necessary for us,” Kumar said. “Rimini Street supports our decision to continue with the ECC platform, letting us set our own IT strategy and timeline. With the deep savings we achieved by switching to Rimini Street, we can invest in innovation now, not years from now.”
And those reclaimed funds are already at work. KR is leading a new Salesforce CRM initiative, launching a full e-commerce platform selling brands such as Swarovski and Samsonite across the GCC and India, and beginning to build an in-house large language model (LLM) connected to its data analytics platform. “When I joined, the mandate from the board was, ‘How can we reduce IT costs?’” Kumar shared. “I explained how Rimini Street reduced our SAP costs, so now we can invest the savings in new technologies without adding to the budget. We have the same budget that we had when we were working with SAP, but now I can do more with it.”
Solving a complex HR compliance challenge
Like many diversified organizations, KR regularly reallocates employees across business units based on changing operational needs. However, Omani labor regulations require employees to be associated with and compensated through the business unit that sponsors their employment. This created a complex compliance challenge when employees needed to support projects across different parts of the business.
“With stringent labor regulations in place, the penalties for non-compliance can be significant depending on the nature and extent of the violation,” said Kumar. “With Rimini Street’s expertise, we were able to design a solution that strengthened our compliance framework and helped ensure we remain fully compliant with applicable regulations.”
The solution enhanced both operational efficiency and compliance, enabling KR to maintain workforce flexibility while adhering to regulatory requirements. It was exactly the kind of business-specific challenge that falls outside standard vendor support, and exactly the kind of problem Kumar knew Rimini Street could help solve.
A partnership built for what comes next
Although SAP has approached KR about returning to its support, the group currently has no plans to switch back. “We’re very happy with Rimini Street. We plan to stay with ECC until further notice because we have such outstanding support and more time to assess what’s next. And we’re not having to choose between maintaining stability and innovation,” Kumar said. “Even if we were to move to S/4HANA, we want to continue this partnership. Rimini Street is our go-to for expert support, guidance and whatever comes next.”
Our solution for Khimji Ramdas
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- Support for customizations not covered by the vendor
- The strength and knowledge of hundreds of seasoned engineers on your team, but not on your payroll
- Potential savings of up to 90% of total support costs
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