LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rimini Street, Inc., the leading third-party maintenance and support provider for Oracle Corporation’s (NASDAQ:ORCL) Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards software and SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) software, today announced the success of its SAP Charter Support Program and immediate general availability of software support for SAP products. Additionally, Rimini Street announces the expansion of its supported SAP product list.

Successful Charter Program Validates Rimini Street Support for SAP Products

Rimini Street announced its support program for SAP products at the SAP Sapphire Conference in May 2009. Following the same successful launch model used for each of its other product lines, Rimini Street initially offered support to a selected set of clients in its Charter Program. Rimini Street works closely with Charter Program clients to fine-tune the application of Rimini Street’s award-winning support program and methodologies.

The Charter Program included SAP licensees of all sizes representing a wide range of industries and geographies, from Fortune 500 and FT Global 500 multinationals to midsize manufacturing and service organizations. Rimini Street has already provided successful support for SAP products in more than 20 countries across Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.

Since the launch of the Charter Program, Rimini Street has responded to and successfully resolved hundreds of client cases for SAP systems within the same ultra-responsive 24/7 and 30-minute engineer response service level commitments guaranteed for all Rimini Street product lines. Some clients asked Rimini Street to resolve issues that have remained unresolved or not addressed by SAP, in some cases for many years. Rimini Street successfully resolved these longtime open issues. Rimini Street has achieved a 100% client satisfaction rating from Charter Program participants to date, validating the capabilities and strength of Rimini Street’s support team and program for SAP.

"SAP is a very valuable and stable application platform for our company,” said Jeff Rishel, vice president, Information Technology, Graham Packaging. “Rimini Street is significantly reducing the annual operating cost of our SAP system by providing at least a 50 percent annual support fee savings, extending the life of our existing investment in stable SAP products with no required upgrades for at least ten years, and delivering the required mission-critical tax, legal and regulatory updates and ultra responsive support we need as a multibillion dollar global company.”

Rishel added, “The first ticket Graham submitted to Rimini Street was for an open issue we had been working on for many months with SAP. The experience with Rimini Street was excellent. We were immediately engaged by our assigned support team, they talked with our technical team and our users, and then Rimini Street quickly presented a solution. Rimini Street provides us focused, personalized support, and operates like an extension of our internal team."

“Rimini Street’s decision to expand its award-winning support program to SAP products allows us to cut our IT costs significantly while ensuring the availability of our mission-critical SAP systems," said Aidan Henderson, vice president of enterprise delivery, Pegasus Solutions, Inc. "With Rimini Street third-party support, we save more than 50% in annual support costs for our SAP system and enjoy ultra-responsive service from an experienced team of SAP engineers. Now we can run our currently available SAP releases for the next decade or longer with no required upgrades and maximize the return on our substantial SAP investment."

Expansion of Supported SAP Product List

In response to brisk demand and the success of the Rimini Street Charter Program, Rimini Street announces the expansion of its supported SAP product list to include additional components of the SAP Business Suite, including BI7, SCM, CRM, EWM, PLM, and GTS. These products are added to Rimini Street’s existing coverage of SAP R/3 4.x, ECC 5.0, ECC 6.0, and BW 3.5 and earlier releases. Rimini Street has already signed client contracts for the full list of its supported products and releases, including all products in this announced expansion.

Benefits of Rimini Street Support Now Immediately Available to All SAP Licensees

Support services for SAP products include all of the innovative and robust program features that have made Rimini Street the support provider of choice for hundreds of global, Fortune 500, midmarket, and public sector organizations. Standard program features include:

- Named, local senior support engineers assigned to each client (no off-shoring of support calls)

- Support through 2020 and beyond for existing releases without any required upgrades

- 24x7 support coverage with 30-minute or less guaranteed response by a senior engineer

- Application fixes for serious issues and tax and regulatory updates for more than 100 countries

- Support for client customizations, interoperability and performance at no additional fee

- More than 50 percent cost savings in annual fees compared to the software vendor

- Flexible contract options

Rimini Street Support enables SAP licensees to switch to an alternative support program that delivers a better value than expensive SAP Enterprise Support, providing many additional years of service from their current SAP system investment, immediate and significant annual cost savings, and freedom from costly, unwanted upgrades. As further validation of the satisfaction of existing Rimini Street clients with third-party support and the desire of SAP licensees to achieve the same benefits, the Charter Program included existing Rimini Street clients on other product line platforms that expanded Rimini Street support coverage to their SAP systems.

“The interest in switching to Rimini Street’s support program for SAP products has been very strong and growing since our new service was announced in May,” said Seth Ravin, president and CEO, Rimini Street. “We have put in place a world-class, global support infrastructure that allows SAP licensees to achieve significant annual operating cost savings while receiving the tax, legal and regulatory updates and ultra-responsive support they need to keep their existing SAP systems running smoothly and in compliance in more than 100 countries. We are fiercely committed to providing SAP licensees the highest value, most innovative and responsive service offering in the support industry. We look forward to serving the needs of a growing Rimini Street SAP client base around the world. ”

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street is the leading third-party provider of enterprise software support services. The company is redefining enterprise support services with an innovative, award-winning program that enables Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and SAP licensees to save at least 50% in annual support fees and to remain on their current software release without any required upgrades or migrations through 2020 and beyond. Hundreds of Global, Fortune 500, midmarket, and public sector organizations from virtually all industries have selected Rimini Street as their trusted, software vendor independent support provider. To learn more, please visit www.riministreet.com or call within the USA (888) 870-9692 or internationally +1 (702) 839-9671.

Rimini Street and the Rimini Street logo are trademarks of Rimini Street, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright © 2009. All rights reserved.