LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rimini Street, Inc., the leading third-party maintenance and support provider for enterprise software, including SAP AG’s (NYSE:SAP) Business Suite and BusinessObjects software and Oracle Corporation’s (NYSE:ORCL) Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, E-Business Suite, Oracle Database and Hyperion software, today congratulates Steve Airton, Information Systems Controller at United Biscuits, for being named a finalist for Constellation Research’s SuperNova Awards. Airton was recognized in the Technology Optimization and Innovation category for his innovative use of Rimini Street third-party support to significantly reduce maintenance costs and greatly improve the level of service the company receives for its SAP system. As a result of the switch to Rimini Street SAP Support, United Biscuits was able to reinvest the savings to drive improvements and new innovations around the edges of its core SAP system, while running its mature, stable release for up to 10 years or more without required upgrades.

United Biscuits: Maximizing SAP Software Investment and Improving Support with Rimini Street Since 2011

United Biscuits is a leading manufacturer of many of the world’s most well-known branded snacks, including McVitie’s biscuits and Carr’s crackers. Based in the UK, United Biscuits’ brands have been a favorite of consumers for more than 100 years, and are sold in more than 100 countries with core markets in the UK, Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland, and growing international business units from North America to the Middle East, Africa and Australia.

After an internal review that assessed the cost and value of all spend categories in the IT budget, Airton determined that SAP’s annual maintenance fees for United Biscuits’ core SAP ECC 6.0 application were increasing steadily while failing to return commensurate value. In addition, no real innovations were being delivered in its core SAP system, and those delivered outside core SAP were not included in annual support and had to be licensed separately.

In 2011, Airton switched to Rimini Street SAP Support to achieve better value and improve the level of service received. Since then, United Biscuits has achieved total annual savings of more than 75 percent of annual SAP maintenance costs by eliminating the need for expensive, forced annual upgrades and other maintenance that would have been required under SAP vendor support. Through Rimini Street’s more efficient, personalized support program, which features 24X7X365 support, an assigned local Primary Support Engineer (PSE), support for customizations at no additional fee, all tax, legal and regulatory updates needed to remain in compliance, and support for a minimum of 10 years for existing releases without required upgrades, Airton also achieved a much-improved level of support and responsiveness for his SAP system.

“United Biscuits’ IT department has undergone a transformation in the two years since Rimini Street became a trusted partner. Rather than having to attend to the day-to-day maintenance issues, my team is better able to focus on innovations around our core SAP system that deliver greater benefit to the business and help to extend the system’s functionality,” said Airton. “In simple terms, Rimini Street delivers improved service and huge savings that enable us to maintain high internal service levels and invest in new innovation projects.”

As a result of his success in applying Rimini Street SAP Support and helping United Biscuits attain strategic business and IT objectives, Airton was named a finalist for the SuperNova Awards in Technology Optimization and Innovation by Constellation Research.

“I would like to extend my congratulations to Steve Airton and the entire United Biscuits team on being recognized as IT innovators,” said Seth Ravin, CEO, Rimini Street. “Rimini Street is disrupting a decades-old business model by providing companies like United Biscuits with a higher value maintenance offering that delivers significant savings and more responsive service.”

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 Oracle and SAP licensees to save up to 90 percent on total support costs over a decade, including saving 50 percent on annual support fees. Clients can remain on their current software release without any required upgrades or migrations for at least 10 years. Hundreds of global, Fortune 500, midmarket, and public sector organizations from virtually all industries have selected Rimini Street as their trusted, 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.

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