Fast-Track Innovation for Profitable Growth

Intense competition within the telecom industry fuels the need for constant innovation, with forward-looking CIOs focusing on the latest technologies to develop new and improved digital products, services and experiences for customer satisfaction and competitive advantage.

Amidst rising operating expenses (OPEX), increasing inflation, growing supply chain stress and shrinking profit margins, how are successful telecom companies not just funding innovation successfully but advancing the timeline to reap its benefits ahead of their competitors?

Following a proven, 3-step guided methodology — the Rimini Smart Path™ — many telecom companies 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 telecom companies can fast-track innovation for profitable growth by partnering with Rimini Street, the global leader of end-to-end enterprise software support, management and innovation solutions.

Top telecom companies trust Rimini Street

100+ telecom clients signed to date

200+ Fortune 500 and Global 100 clients 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 delivered by a trusted partner.

Having reliable support for business-critical systems isn’t just about keeping ERP up and running. It’s also about getting the ROI for the resources invested, ensuring the technology integrated into your business meets your needs and, most importantly, maintaining 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)
• 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

With Rimini Support, telecom organizations can look forward to receiving reliable, ultra-responsive support — with better coverage at a better price.

Customization support

Most telecom carriers and equipment vendors 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 sources 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 telecom companies to reallocate resources to value-enhancing projects.

Budget flexibility

Traditional vendor support comes at a massive expense for telecom companies, limiting investment in other, more strategic initiatives. By moving to Rimini Support, organizations 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 telecom companies more room in the IT budget.

As a result, organizations can invest in innovative, forward-momentum projects — such as 5G (and in no time, 6G), edge computing and predictive analytics — sooner rather than later.

Example:

This is the first step on the Rimini Smart Path™ — unlocking cost savings while gaining the freedom and flexibility to innovate.

By partnering with Rimini Street, many telecom companies have been able to receive a higher level of support while reducing costs significantly, using the savings to self-fund strategic initiatives that align with business objectives. 

Telecom companies are under tremendous pressure to maximize shareholder value and demonstrate ROI. Between the rising overhead IT costs, thinning margins, increasing market uncertainty and growing demand to deploy fiber and 5G networks at a significant investment, accomplishing these goals can be a struggle — but one that Rimini Street is uniquely qualified to help address.

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 telecom companies.

Third-party software support and services from Rimini Street, on the other hand, allow organizations to take a different route by keeping and optimizing their existing systems. Rather than continuing to undergo expensive, time-consuming and often unnecessary upgrades, telecom carriers and equipment vendors 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 those in the telecom industry 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
• Eliminating the restrictions associated with vendor lock-in
• Providing strategic guidance on reallocating IT resources

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.

Those in the telecom industry encounter their fair share of risk — from network security threats to technical 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. Telecom clients can find solutions to several issues that often occur with mainstream vendor support or self-support.

Maintaining compliance

The threat of software noncompliance — specifically the steep costs and potential consequences — spurs many telecom carriers and equipment vendors to undergo upgrades and migrations just to continue receiving TLR updates from their software provider. 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.

Mitigating security threats

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 telecom companies exposed.

Given escalating concerns about data privacy and the responsibility of carriers, including U.S. federal and state privacy laws and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), cybersecurity must be a top priority for those in the industry — another area that Rimini Street specializes in.

Rimini Protect™ helps companies 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 telecom companies maximize security benefits and reallocate internal resources to more strategic initiatives.

Maintaining interoperability

As new versions of operating systems (OS), browsers, Java and email applications emerge within companies’ 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, telecom companies 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, telecom carriers and equipment vendors can continue using the core systems they know and trust, enhancing them with the new features and capabilities offered by the latest technologies — no costly, disruptive ERP upgrades or migrations required.

The risks that telecom companies face may seem vast and overwhelming, but Rimini Street goes the extra mile to address them, providing clients with proactive solutions to help reduce security, technical, operational and compliance-related vulnerabilities.

From missing system functionalities to critical skills gaps, telecom organizations 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™, telecom carriers and equipment vendors 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 clients 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 periods of high demand, telecom companies may need to expand their IT 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, telecom companies 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 automating routine tasks for greater productivity or implementing AI-driven analytics for better customer insights, 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 telecom 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.

With Rimini Consult, organizations such as santec, a global photonics company based in Japan, have been able to execute complex projects on even the most aggressive schedules, resulting in business goals being realized faster.

Case study: santec

• Location: Japan
• Technology: SAP
• Revenue:
• Employees:

As a Rimini Support for SAP client since 2018, santec has had firsthand experience with the breadth and depth of Rimini Street’s enterprise software expertise.

The company leveraged Rimini Consult to help transform its SAP systems for the company split, ensuring they would meet its new business needs. Even though the details weren’t yet finalized, the Rimini Consult team provided santec with the flexibility to decide on specifications as the project moved forward.

In addition to completing the project within santec’s ambitious timeline, realigning its SAP systems as required, Rimini Consult has enabled the client to become more agile. As a result, santec is in a better position to make swift business moves that further its goals and support its growth in the market.

_{“Our impression of Rimini Street has changed from being a provider to a teammate. We view Rimini Street as a strategic business partner who is well-positioned and capable in their ability to support and guide us as we take on new challenges for our SAP and other systems.”}

_{-Shinya Hidaka, Group Manager of the Information Systems Group, Business Administration Division, santec} 

Innovation is key to staying relevant and competitive in the ever-evolving world of telecom, 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, enabling 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, telecom companies can retain their existing 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, telecom organizations can enhance their core systems with new capabilities such as:

• AI for network operations (AIOps)
• Conversational AI & virtual agents
• Robotic process automation (RPA)
• Multi-access edge computing (MEC)
• Real-time personalization

With this approach, telecom companies 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 improving operational agility. Plus, it enables organizations 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, telecom companies can:

• Implement automation 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 provider 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

With Rimini Street, telecom companies can reduce software maintenance costs and free up the dollars necessary to drive innovation.

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 telecom 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 help 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.

Telecom companies 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 — from introducing smart factories to investing in supply chain digitization — is what those in telecom can expect when they partner with Rimini Street.

For a highly competitive, constantly evolving industry like telecom, 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.

Telecom carriers and equipment vendors 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 telecom partner.

Our software support solutions for telecom 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.

And the best part? The Rimini Smart Path™ to accelerated innovation for profitable growth 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.

We’ll get you there.™

[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/