Rimini Street Ups Third-Party Maintenance Ante
Rimini Street fired the latest salvo in the ongoing war over software maintenance this week, announcing that it has expanded the number of SAP applications it supports.
Wed, October 07, 2009
IDG News Service — Rimini Street fired the latest salvo in the ongoing war over software maintenance this week, announcing that it has expanded the number of SAP applications it supports.
The third-party maintenance provider, which also supports Oracle applications, said it will now back a range of SAP Business Suite modules, including SCM, CRM, EWM, PLM and GTS. Rimini Street had already supported SAP R/3 4.x, ECC 5.0, ECC 6.0 and other products.
Companies like Rimini Street are part of a small but growing group of firms catering to customers who have stable legacy systems and no immediate desire to upgrade -- which is only possible with vendor-provided support -- and therefore find little value in paying for a full-price maintenance contract.
But companies like SAP and Oracle highly prize their maintenance revenue streams, because they provide extremely high profit margins and steady income despite slowing sales for new software licenses
Rimini Street says its service provides customers with named and local support workers; 24-7 coverage with responses guaranteed in 30 minutes or less; tax and regulatory updates for more than 100 countries; bug fixes for "serious issues"; and support for customizations at no additional charge.
Customers will also save at least 50 percent on their current vendor maintenance bill, and Rimini Street is pledging to support existing application releases "through 2020 and beyond."
That one-two punch of cost savings and convenience has resulted in rapid growth for Rimini Street, according to a steady stream of announcements from the privately held Las Vegas company, although it remains tiny in comparison to giants like SAP and Oracle.
The high stakes around maintenance revenue have been highlighted by the lawsuit Oracle filed in March 2007 against SAP and its now-shuttered subsidiary TomorrowNow, which provided lower-cost support for Oracle's PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications.
Oracle claims SAP and TomorrowNow managed to provide discounted support through illegal acts, such as making thousands of unauthorized copies of Oracle's software, and conducting "routine, massive and indiscriminate downloading" of support-related materials on behalf of customers who weren't entitled to them, according to court filings.
Rimini Street was founded by former TomorrowNow executive Seth Ravin, who left the company after SAP purchased it in 2005.
Oracle recently demanded that Rimini Street reveal the details of its business model, according to court filings tied to the SAP case.
But Rimini Street is resisting on grounds the information is irrelevant and that Oracle is embarking on a "fishing expedition," possibly in preparation for a copyright infringement claim against Rimini Street, according to another filing. Oracle would have no basis for such a claim, according to Rimini Street.
