How Retailers Win with Rimini Street

In today’s exciting, rapidly evolving retail market, forward-thinking CIOs and CFOs are setting their sights on new technologies, processes and strategies to compete fiercely amidst shifting consumer demands and supply chain disruptions.  

With shrinking margins, heightened cybersecurity risks and the rising cost of doing business, how are successful retailers not just funding innovation successfully but advancing the timeline to realize its benefits ahead of their competitors?  

Following an enhanced 3-step guided methodology — the Rimini Smart Path™ — hundreds of retailers have discovered how to unlock significant cost savings, optimize operations for greater efficiency and fund meaningful transformation in a matter of weeks or months, not years.  

Join us as we explore how leading retailers are achieving both accelerated growth and profitability by partnering with Rimini Street, the global leader of end-to-end enterprise software support, management and innovation solutions.  

Top retailers trust Rimini Street  

• Nearly 300 retail clients signed to date 
• 25% of top 100 retailers served 
• 4.9/5.0 avg. total client satisfaction rating 
• Over $9B estimated total client savings 

In the nearly two decades Rimini Street has been working with organizations worldwide, a clear theme has emerged: Success starts with superior support.  

Having reliable support for business-critical systems is not just about keeping ERP up and running. It’s about getting the ROI for the resources invested, and ensuring the technology integrated into your business meets your needs. And paramount to that, it’s about ensuring you’re in control of your IT roadmap.  

That’s where Rimini Street, global leader of third-party support for Oracle, SAP, VMware and more, comes in, with Rimini Support™ serving as the foundation of a new operating model for enterprise software.  

Rimini Support is a comprehensive, high-value alternative to traditional vendor support that includes: 

• 24/7/365 support across the globe through our follow-the-sun model 
• Guaranteed 10-minute response time for P1 issues (less than 2-minute average) 
• Maintenance of code customizations that provide a competitive advantage 
• Timely delivery of tax, legal and regulatory (TLR) updates for compliance 
• Access to a global engineering team with an average 15+ years of experience 
• Assignment of a regional Primary Support Engineer (PSE) dedicated to account 
• Expert-led, human-first experience supercharged by AI insight and automation 

More than that, it’s the first step on the Rimini Smart Path™ — unlocking cost savings while gaining the freedom and flexibility to innovate.  

By switching to Rimini Support, retailers can maintain full support of existing software for up to 15 additional years at a fraction of the cost. Our unique model provides clients with immediate savings of up to 50% on annual maintenance and up to 90% on total support costs. These savings, combined with the deferment of upgrades and migrations that require significant resources without a clear ROI, give retailers more room in the IT budget.  

As a result, retailers can invest in forward-momentum projects — such as AI-powered inventory management, immersive shopping experiences and real-time pricing optimization — sooner rather than later. 

Retail clients like Brazilian retailer, Iguatemi, have been able to reduce costs significantly by partnering with Rimini Street for third-party support, using the savings to self-fund high-priority initiatives that align with business objectives. 

Case study: Iguatemi

• Location: Brazil 
• Technology: SAP ECC 
• Revenue: BRL 684.2 million (USD $129.5 million) (as of 2020) 

On a quest to simplify IT service delivery and support, Iguatemi Empresa de Shopping Centers SA, decided to replace vendor support of its SAP ECC6 release with third-party support.  

Moving to Rimini Street enabled the retailer to not only keep its highly customized SAP system stable for increased uptime but also ensure compliance with tax, legal and regulatory (TLR) requirements. With Rimini Street engineers overseeing support, Iguatemi was able to free up its in-house IT team to focus on strategic business initiatives.  

Ultimately, the move allowed the company to do more with less. Thanks to the roughly BRL $4 million saved over time, Iguatemi financed a series of innovative projects designed to drive competitive advantage — without expanding the IT budget.  

“After making the decision to move to Rimini Street, we were really satisfied with the service model and the differentiated advantages it gave us. The savings generated by this migration were actually much greater than the 50% cost cut related to the annual support contract, because now we don’t need other suppliers to support the large number of customizations we have made, as this service is part of the Rimini Street scope.” 

— Valdemar Castilho, IT Operations Manager, Iguatemi 

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Retailers face tremendous pressure to achieve profitability. With the rising cost of goods sold (COGS), growing shrinkage from theft and errors and increasing IT expenses, improving profit margins is a challenge — but one Rimini Street has helped many retail clients overcome.  

Rimini Support™ extends the useful life and value of existing systems, providing clients with a greater ROI. Rather than continuing to undergo expensive, time-consuming and often unnecessary upgrades, retailers retain the software that’s working for them — including the customizations they’ve developed to suit their unique business needs — and keep it running for years into the future. 

But the possibilities don’t end there. 

With Rimini ONE™, retailers can choose a powerful combination of unified IT support and services from one trusted partner. This turnkey program helps streamline operations, optimize the “run” budget and further maximize the value of existing software. Having one provider to help ensure end-to-end success enables clients to scale back the costs and complexities of working with multiple providers.  

Further, it allows clients to shift critical resources to strategic projects that have a direct impact on business outcomes, transforming IT from a cost center to a profit center. 

Ultimately, Rimini Street helps retailers drop more money to the bottom line by: 

• Delivering selected IT services at a predictable price 
• Increasing the lifespan of existing enterprise systems 
• Improving system stability and reducing costly downtime 
• Negating the need for expensive software upgrades 
• Providing strategic guidance on reallocating IT resources 

Like Poplar Co. Ltd., companies that turn to Rimini Street for enterprise software support and services can look forward to reaching their growth and profitability goals faster by harnessing the full potential of their existing, highly valuable systems.  

Case study: Poplar Co. Ltd.

• Location: Japan 
• Technology: SAP BusinessObjects, SAP Sybase IQ 
• Locations: 450 (as of 2021)  

As part of a business restructuring initiative to maintain business continuity, reduce unnecessary costs and develop new commerce to compete in the highly competitive market, Poplar Co. Ltd., a Japanese convenience store chain, began looking for an alternative to staying on SAP support. The company’s heavily customized SAP software was an essential component to its success, and Poplar Co. had no desire to be on the vendor’s upgrade treadmill.  

By switching to Rimini Street, the retailer was able to receive better support at a lower cost and continue using its existing SAP system for mission-critical functions, including financial reporting and inventory management, with greater confidence.  

The partnership allowed Poplar Co. to not only save on support and avoid frequent, expensive upgrades but also extend the life and ROI of its existing SAP systems. The recently released resources could then be redirected to new technologies designed to drive growth and further increase profitability.  

“With Rimini Street, we can maximize the value and ROI of our current SAP software system and receive far greater support than we received from the vendor. We plan to leverage our newly liberated IT resources to accelerate the digitalization of paper reports, so our business leaders have easier access to analytics and insights on store performance.” 

— Ayumu Yamaoka, VP, IT Department, Poplar Co., Ltd.

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Those in the retail industry encounter their fair share of risk — from cybersecurity threats to operational challenges — making it even more crucial to have an IT partner that can help address excessive risk exposure.  

Although “risk mitigation” may not immediately come to mind when you think of outsourcing software services to a third party, it’s one of the many advantages of working with Rimini Street. Retail clients can avoid several issues that often occur with mainstream vendor support or self-support, including:  

Upgrade disruption 

Vendor-mandated upgrades and migrations can cause major disruption, especially when done prematurely or without a clear business case. These replatforming projects have the potential to cost millions of dollars and take up to several years to complete, draining already limited IT budgets and putting strategic initiatives on hold — sometimes indefinitely.  

Add to that, moving to a new release or a cloud version of software can result in code customization loss and unexpected downtime.   

Rimini Support™, on the other hand, allows retailers to forgo the forced upgrades required to stay on vendor support, helping ensure their existing systems continue to run at peak performance. Without the disruption, clients can pursue their own IT roadmap, using the time to explore their options and make the best decisions for the business. 

No customization support 

Most retailers customize their core applications to fit their unique needs, but these customizations can be difficult to maintain. Vendor support typically doesn’t cover code modification, forcing organizations to hire additional outside help or dedicate internal sources for this purpose — both of which can strain IT budgets. 

With Rimini Support, clients receive comprehensive service that covers mission-critical customizations at no additional charge. Our engineers’ expertise in customized support for modified code helps ensure customization issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.  

Along with providing peace of mind, handing off customization support to Rimini Street enables retailers to reallocate resources to value-enhancing projects.  

Noncompliance 

The threat of software noncompliance — specifically the steep costs and potential consequences of it — drives many retailers to undergo upgrades and migrations just to continue to receive TLR updates from the vendor. However, this can be an incredibly expensive and inefficient route to take, tying up IT staff in nonproductive tasks and applying generic updates that may not be required.  

Rimini Street makes it easy to stay compliant without expensive, time-consuming replatforming projects. TLR updates are included in Rimini Support, enabling clients to receive the latest updates required for their unique systems and environments at no extra cost — with the fastest Legislature-to-Live™ update delivery cycle in the industry. 

As an added bonus, Rimini Street’s retail industry and software experts can assist with other areas of compliance concern, such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. 

Security challenges 

From ransomware attacks to data breaches, cyber threats are not only growing but becoming more sophisticated. The average time for new exploit attacks is now less than five days once publicly disclosed,1 and ransomware attacks are also at an all-time high.2 Even when patches are issued immediately, the logistical challenges and potential downtime involved in testing and deploying those patches can leave retailers exposed.  

Rimini Protect™ helps retailers shift from reactively addressing individual vulnerabilities to proactively strengthening security postures. By protecting against entire categories of known weaknesses rather than isolated vulnerabilities, our solutions help ensure rapid protection against zero-day vulnerabilities in common weakness categories.  

These security solutions, tailored to each client’s unique ecosystem, are purpose-built to:  

• Improve the client’s overall security posture  
• Reduce risk exposure without modifications to vendor code or application of vendor-provided security patches 
• Complement and enhance existing security strategies 

This approach effectively safeguards against both known (discovered) and unknown (undiscovered or zero-day) threats and vulnerabilities.  

Additionally, the Rimini Protect security solutions are available as managed security services, helping retailers to maximize security benefits and reallocate internal resources to more strategic initiatives. 

Interoperability issues 

Retailers have invested in and customized their enterprise software to meet their unique business needs. However, as new versions of operating systems (OS), browsers, Java and email applications emerge within their technology stack, interoperability challenges can arise.  

To keep up with evolving business and compliance requirements, retailers may feel compelled to upgrade their enterprise systems — a process that is often expensive, complex and disruptive to business continuity.  

Rimini Connect™, our suite of proactive interoperability solutions, makes it possible to decouple existing enterprise software from the technology stack and independently manage each roadmap. Rimini Connect enables clients to:   

• Mitigate the risk and costs associated with rushed, unnecessary upgrades 
• Maximize the life and value of existing enterprise software investments  
• Accelerate IT modernization on high-value projects, not compatibility matrices 

Lack of technical expertise 

Maintaining core business applications requires a high level of technical expertise that many retailers are hard-pressed to find due to the competitive job market and dwindling pool of workers experienced in enterprise software. However, sourcing the necessary talent to keep applications running smoothly is a must. Failing to do so can result in issues going unchecked, eventually bringing operations to a screeching halt.  

Rimini Street makes it easy to fill the IT skills gap, giving retail clients access to a global team of 800+ engineering experts — including a PSE team with 20+ years of average experience — who have in-depth knowledge of:  

• Oracle 
• SAP 
• Salesforce® 
• And more than 600 products in total 

Capable of handling even out-of-support releases and system customizations, Rimini Street’s team has the expertise to resolve issues quickly, help prevent recurrence and continuously optimize systems for long-term performance.  

The business risks that retailers face may seem vast and overwhelming, but Rimini Street goes the extra mile to address them, providing clients like one UK-based department store chain with the necessary updates to stay compliant with revenue and customs regulations.  

Case study: Department store chain 

• Location: London 
• Technology: Oracle EBS, Oracle Database 
• Revenue: $1.046 billion USD (as of 2020) 

As part of a cost optimization effort, a British upscale department store chain sought out a third-party support solution for its “unbelievably complex” Oracle EBS 11.5.10 and databases. The company needed a provider that could handle its highly customized systems and provide the necessary tax and regulatory updates normally delivered by the vendor.   

After deciding on Rimini Street, the retailer immediately saved 50% on its previous annual vendor support fees, all while receiving His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) updates for compliance as part of the annual support fee.  

With Rimini Street to count on for premier-level support of its Oracle applications and databases, the chain was able to increase stability, optimize its spending and turn its attention to new strategic initiatives.  

“With Rimini Street, our EBS applications and Oracle Databases will be a solid and secure platform for our business needs moving forward, and a perfect fit for our strategy to optimize IT costs and better align IT to drive business innovation and competitive advantage.” 

— Director of IT Service and Operations, department store chain 

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Innovation is key to staying relevant and competitive in the fast-paced world of retail, but resource constraints can delay progress. Whether it’s having to pause all other initiatives until a major ERP migration/upgrade is complete or wait for board approval on IT budget expansion, there are countless roadblocks that, without help from a strategic IT partner, can hold companies back.  

Rimini Street helps clients overcome these roadblocks, allowing them to pursue innovation today instead of ten years from now and begin reaping the benefits immediately to gain ground in the market. 

Innovate around the edges 

By partnering with Rimini Street, retailers can retain their enterprise systems for up to 15+ years, gaining the ability to innovate outward from a stable core.  

The products we offer — from support and managed services to security and interoperability solutions — are designed to optimize, continuously improve and future-proof business-critical systems. Clients can then innovate around the edges via a hybrid ERP approach, which involves keeping some resources on the existing infrastructure while expanding to cloud-based services for others.  

For example, retailers can enhance their core systems with new capabilities such as:  

• Cloud 
• Social 
• Omnichannel  
• Unified commerce 
• Big data  

With this approach, retailers can innovate at a faster pace and see measurable results much sooner.  

The ability to pair existing enterprise systems with modern enterprise solutions can go a long way in introducing new functionalities and delivering more up-to-date experiences. Plus, it enables retailers to avoid trading in reliable software instances for unproven versions. 

Apply enterprise-wide AI and automation 

One of the other advantages of working with Rimini Street is being able to leverage the company’s strategic partnerships with some of the most well-respected names in technology, including ServiceNow, Inc. 

Combining Rimini Street’s end-to-end enterprise software solutions with the ServiceNow AI platform, the pair’s revolutionary model enables AI, automation and modernization over and across entire software ecosystems. 

By adopting this model, retailers can: 

• Automate routine tasks for increased productivity and efficiency 
• Introduce a modern user interface for improved experience  
• Gain deeper operations insight through a single-pane-of-glass view 

Unlike relying on the software vendor for innovation, there’s no need to undergo a lengthy, resource-draining upgrade or migration that may not deliver an ROI or the features you need. Such capabilities are made available in months, not years, throughout a vast enterprise software estate.  

Ultimately, it’s Transformation without Disruption™. 

Self-fund innovation 

“Being able to redirect IT sources to carry out a series of innovative projects was a fundamental triumph for us.”  

— Valdemar Castilho, IT Operations Manager, Iguatemi 

With Rimini Street, retailers can not only reduce software maintenance costs but also free up the dollars necessary to drive innovation. Today, most of the IT budget is spent on daily operations, but switching to Rimini Street can change that, freeing funds for near-term, high-impact innovation projects.  

Rather than having to put new technologies and initiatives on hold, clients can implement them now to achieve real business outcomes faster.  

For some, the newfound room in the IT budget would be enough. But as Rimini Street is committed to being a strategic IT partner, we strive to do more. 

Our retail experts help clients reinvest their savings wisely by delving into: 

• What others in the market are doing 
• What their data suggests they need 
• What the outlook is for the industry 

Equipped with these valuable insights, our experts can validate a client’s existing IT strategy or provide guidance on creating a roadmap for the future via a Rimini Smart Path™ workshop led by expert Regional CTOs in the relevant time zone.  

Either way, retailers that work with Rimini Street can trust the team to support them along their transformation journey, so they’re positioned to change and evolve with the market.  

Gaining the freedom, flexibility and funding to pursue change is precisely what LifeWay Christian Resources was able to do after partnering with Rimini Street.  

Case study: LifeWay Christian Resources 

• Location: Nashville 
• Technology: PeopleSoft, Oracle EBS, Oracle Database 
• Locations: 170 stores (as of 2020) 

LifeWay Christian Resources is a nonprofit organization that publishes biblical books, learning resources, audio, and video and sells church supplies, relying on Oracle applications and databases for its ongoing operations. Due to maintenance fees increasing annually and taking up a sizable portion of the company’s IT budget, LifeWay began looking for an alternative to reduce costs while maintaining quality support.  

Partnering with Rimini Street provided LifeWay with an immediate 50% savings in support and maintenance fees, enabling the company to reallocate funds to higher-priority initiatives.  

The switch to Rimini Street helped LifeWay avoid unnecessary upgrades, improve operational efficiency and ensure TLR compliance. By expanding the partnership, the company was able to redeploy cost savings to hybrid IT, using its newfound flexibility to adopt SaaS applications to better support its business needs.  

“Because we’ve had, and continue to have, such a positive support experience through Rimini Street for our PeopleSoft HCM software, the decision to add Oracle EBS support was much easier.” 

— David Jamieson, Financial Applications Manager, LifeWay Christian Resources 

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For a highly competitive, constantly evolving industry like retail, innovation can’t afford to wait — not for those that want to survive and thrive. That’s why putting off high-impact initiatives in favor of ERP replatforming projects isn’t the best route to success. Though following an enterprise software vendor’s roadmap may seem like the “easy” option, it can do more to hinder innovation and growth than help.  

Retailers can adopt a new path that allows them to implement new, differentiating technologies, processes and strategies on their timeline, so they can reach their growth and profitability goals faster. 

And that’s where Rimini Street comes in as a trusted retail partner. 

Our software support solutions for retail allow companies like yours to: 

• Unlock significant IT cost savings 
• Optimize operations for greater efficiency 
• Self-fund meaningful innovation now 

With Rimini Street, you have the opportunity to achieve greater success as a leader in the market. We’ll get you there™.  

And the best part? The Rimini Smart Path™ to accelerated growth and profitability is as easy as 1, 2, 3 — support, optimize and transform. Replace vendor support to free up resources, maximize the value of your existing systems and achieve new capabilities — faster and without disruption.  

Get on a better path by contacting Rimini Street today. Let our team demonstrate how we can help you leverage your current enterprise software for top- and bottom-line impact.