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 a proven, 3-step guided methodology — the Rimini Smart Path™ — hundreds of retailers are unlocking significant cost savings, optimizing operations for greater efficiency and funding 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 $10B 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 delivered by a trusted partner.

Having reliable support for business-critical systems is not just about keeping ERP up and running. It’s alsoabout 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 

Customization support 

Most retailers customize their core applications to fit their unique needs, many of which are processes of differentiation that enhance competitive advantage. Mainstream software support typically doesn’t cover code modification, forcing organizations to hire additional outside help or dedicate internal resources for this purpose — both of which can strain IT budgets. 

Rimini Support clients receive comprehensive service that supports 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. 

Budget flexibility 

Traditional vendor support comes at a massive expense for retailers, limiting investment in other, more strategic initiatives. By moving 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 fees 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. 

Example: 

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 for 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 

Read full story

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

It’s all about putting decision-making power and cost control back where it belongs — in the client’s hands.   

With traditional vendor support, companies face an endless cycle of upgrades and migrations, which 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, if they’re even successful, draining already limited IT budgets and putting strategic initiatives on hold — sometimes indefinitely.  

Moreover, moving to a new release or a cloud version of software can result in code customization loss and unexpected downtime — both of which can have a costly impact on retailers.  

Third-party software support and services from Rimini Street, on the other hand, allow retailers to take a different route by keeping and optimizing their existing systems. Rather than continuing to undergo expensive, time-consuming and often unnecessary upgrades, retailers can extend the useful life and value of the software that’s working for them — including the customizations they’ve developed to suit their unique business needs — improving their overall ROI. 

Without the disruption, clients can also pursue their own IT roadmap, using the time saved to explore other options at their leisure and make the best decisions for the business’s growth and profitability. 

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.

Read press release

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 and reduce 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:  

Maintaining compliance 

The threat of software noncompliance — specifically the steep costs and potential consequences — drives many retailers to undergo upgrades and migrations just to continue to receive TLR updates from their ERP 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 or helpful.

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 — boasting one of the fastest Legislature-to-Live™ update delivery cycles 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. 

Strengthening security 

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 proprietary 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. 

Ensuring interoperability 

As new versions of operating systems (OS), browsers, Java and email applications emerge within retailers’ technology stacks, interoperability challenges can arise, potentially breaking the functionality of enterprise software applications and affecting business continuity.   

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.  

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 

By leveraging the proprietary and patented solutions of Rimini Connect, retailers can continue using the core systems they know and trust, enhancing them with the new features and capabilities offered with the latest technologies — no costly, disruptive ERP upgrades or migrations required.   

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 

Read full story

From missing system functionalities to critical skills gaps, retailers can encounter all kinds of IT-related roadblocks on the journey to business transformation. Without a way to overcome such challenges, it can be nearly impossible to get strategic projects off the ground, increasing a company’s chances of falling behind competitors. 

With Rimini Consult™, retailers can enjoy a smoother ride to transformation success by leveraging Rimini Street’s world-class professional services.  

Unlike the offerings available from traditional IT consulting firms, Rimini Consult allows retailers to receive both vendor-agnostic recommendations from ERP experts and hands-on service courtesy of Rimini Street’s global engineering talent — including, but not limited to: 

• Staff and skills augmentation 

During holiday shopping season and other periods of high demand, retailers may need to expand their workforce, which can be an expensive, time-consuming process. However, Rimini Consult provides an alternative in the form of a flexible resourcing model. This option enables clients to fill skills and talent gaps in a simple, cost-effective manner. Along with benefiting from the Rimini Street team’s extensive IT expertise, companies can liberate internal team members to focus on high-priority initiatives without affecting daily operations.  

• Custom project design and implementation 

In many cases, retailers desire functionalities that are unavailable with mature enterprise systems — or at all. Rather than dedicating resources to creating homegrown solutions or upgrading to the latest software version, Rimini Consult clients can enlist the help of our highly skilled professionals for bespoke/custom projects. Whether it be enabling AI-driven analytics for demand forecasting or implementing digital tools for supply chain visibility, the Rimini Consult team can plan and execute for better outcomes. 

• IT strategy and roadmap creation 

Having a clear, actionable plan is integral for transformation success, which is why many organizations opt for roadmap and strategy through Rimini Consult. Our team starts with an assessment of the client’s IT environment, current IT strategy and business goals to determine whether the company in question is on the right track. Leveraging in-depth knowledge of IT and insight into where the retail industry is headed, we then advise and deliver a custom, Business-Driven Roadmap based on the client’s unique needs and objectives — not the software vendor’s.  

By applying discrete, targeted and innovative solutions from Rimini Consult, retailers can resolve their toughest IT challenges and uncover greater value and possibilities from their existing investments. 

“The bold succeed; the mild will be the distressed retailers of the future.” 

— Dion Rooney, VP, Industry Team & Retail Solutions, Rimini Street 

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 years from now and begin reaping the benefits immediately.

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 reduce software maintenance costs and free up the dollars necessary to drive innovation. Today, an estimated 90% of the IT budget is spent
running the business, with just 10% left over for transformation. Switching to Rimini Street can change that, decreasing operational costs and potentially releasing up to an
additional 30% of the total IT budget 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 Rimini Street is a strategic IT partner, so 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.  

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 

Read full story

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 must 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 innovate. 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. 

[1] “Cybercriminals are getting faster at exploiting vulnerabilities,” Help Net Security, retrieved 18 April 2025 from https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2024/05/10/new-vulnerabilities-number-growth/

[2] Ivan Khamenka, “Ransomware and Cyber Extortion in Q4 2024,” ReliaQuest, retrieved 18 April 2025 from https://reliaquest.com/blog/ransomware-and-cyber-extortion-in-q4-2024/