Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from Rimini Street

Businesses are under pressure. Software support is evolving.

Daniel Bernard, the Group Vice President and Regional General Manager for Australia and New Zealand at Rimini Street, believes his company is uniquely placed to meet this changing environment. Rimini Street, a provider of third-party enterprise software support services, assists organisations in optimising their critical systems while delivering substantial cost savings.

"Our role in the market is to be a software support and maintenance third-party provider for ERP and database platforms such as SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce," Bernard said. "We work with about 20 percent of the ASX 200 here in Australia and New Zealand, and a host of organisations that we provide services for, such as Ampol, Elders, Hearing Australia, University of Auckland, Star Entertainment, and Air Services Australia from a federal government perspective."

Bernard attributes Rimini Street's success to recognising a fundamental gap in value from the existing software vendors. "We realise that a lot of our customers just aren't getting any value out of those support and maintenance fees. The margin on those support maintenance fees, which can go to many millions for some customers, is around 95 percent [for the vendors]," he explained.

"We provide a premium service that is much higher than what SAP and Oracle are providing at a greatly reduced rate," Bernard explained. He said that each client is assigned a primary support engineer based in-country, with at least 15 years' experience, available "anytime for any reason". "We also offer industry-leading SLAs - we will respond to them within 10 minutes," he added.

With more than 2,800 active customers globally, innovation is essential. Bernard highlighted several recent advancements. "Our customers are constantly asking us for help and assistance in running these large legacy systems from SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce," he said. "One of the key focuses that we have right now is around our application managed services support for Oracle and SAP customers. It allows our customers to consolidate and simplify application management operations and software vendor annual support."

The Rimini Street model, Bernard said, shifts the focus from "man hours and closing tickets" to "outcomes and resolutions". This customer-centric approach is appealing at a time when corporate IT departments are under strain. "Budget constraints are causing a massive shortage of talent across Australia and New Zealand, and they don't really have the teams to instigate the security patching and vendor security patching required. It's both labour and time intensive," Bernard added.

Security, he emphasised, stands at the centre of Rimini Street's ongoing product development. "In the modern day, security is becoming a huge issue for every business, coming to the forefront of everything they do around these large systems that are running their businesses," Bernard explained. Rimini Street has responded with Rimini Protect, its advanced security software suite. "Rimini Protect is our advanced offering, which provides database security and application management from day one, so you're actually more protected than you would be from these large vendors," he said.

Staying current with regulatory changes is another challenge facing enterprises. Bernard pointed to his company's tax, legal and regulatory team, which keeps clients compliant with new requirements in Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and globally. Recent projects include updating software for Australia's Single Touch Payroll 2.0 and developing solutions to comply with student data reporting regulations for the government's new "TCSI" rules. "Our team helped provide updates to our clients… and helped build and deliver regulatory updates for the reporting of new and existing student data," Bernard said.

This agility is further supported by local, experienced teams on the ground. "Our local support maintenance team is just that - it's local. If you want to speak to someone, you'll be speaking to someone in Australia or New Zealand; they're onshore and available whenever the issues arise," Bernard said. He contrasted this with certain competitors, saying, "We hear rumours about support being only available during US business hours… It couldn't be further from the truth for us; we're 24x7."

Bernard insisted that offering support locally with deep expertise is a game-changer. "All our clients are assigned a primary support engineer with at least 15 years' experience in SAP, Oracle, ERP, and database platforms. That differs from a lot of the other vendors," he added.

For organisations seeking to make the switch, Bernard said the process is designed to be smooth and supportive. "We do all the onboarding, we work closely with your teams to make that transition happen smoothly and seamlessly," he said. "We can also help secure your ERP and database systems from when you shift over to us from day one. You'll be free of that dreaded patching cycle by these members."

Rimini Street, he noted, is adaptable to organisations of all shapes and sectors. "We work with customers of all sizes across all sectors; nothing phases us and we know what we're doing. We've been doing it for 15 years," Bernard said. "If you have a database, ERP, or database environment, we can support you."

Bernard concluded by reaffirming Rimini Street's commitment to its customers and its region. "We run the business from top to bottom here in this region, and we also offer the backing of our global team that is dealing with these issues every single day," he said. "We know what we're doing. We've been doing it for 15 years."