Enterprise software is changing at a more rapid pace than ever
Enterprise applications are changing at a more rapid pace than ever. The result is that many enterprises have hybrid-driven, multivendor IT environments. This creates a challenge for the IT organization — how to effectively operate, manage, and support an increasingly complex technology portfolio. CIOs need an enterprise software support and services model that is agile and responsive, yet simple, scalable, and strategic. For most, this means modernizing how IT supports and serves the business.
It’s time to change how IT support services are managed and delivered
According to a recent survey by Censuswide, “A majority (62%) of CIOs and CTOs surveyed say digital transformation is a high priority in their business.” Yet, moving technology to the cloud (e.g., as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, etc.) isn’t an all or nothing move that happens overnight. Most enterprises will opt to keep some existing non-cloud systems, and the journey to a cloud-first environment takes time.
The result for the foreseeable future is a multi-vendor, multi-platform, hybrid-driven IT environment. The downside of this is additional complexity and risk in IT support services. The added complexity creates added risk that increases with each addition to or change in the hybrid IT environment. Most enterprises still organize support around products and vendors.
As the IT environment becomes more complex, enterprises are at risk of overwhelming their existing support model’s ability to deliver services at scale. For example, an increased number of vendors in the applications portfolio has the potential to hinder support services and make it difficult to be agile when the business demands more frequent change at a faster pace.
At the same time, new cloud solutions create opportunity and risk from a business process perspective. The business has more options for improving business outcomes, but multiple vendors increase the risk that individual business-driven technology decisions will create unexpected downstream solution management and support issues. The business needs IT to be a strategic partner able to provide a unified view of incumbent and candidate vendors and products in order to ensure that new services and products fit into the hybrid IT portfolio.
A unified approach to enterprise software support and services helps IT keep pace with the business by enabling solution choices that are compatible with the existing ecosystem and technology roadmap.
“Today’s IT environment is at an inflection point in terms of complexity, becoming ever more costly and resource-intensive to manage and support,” said Dion Hinchcliffe, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research. “Organizations are finding that to survive, evolve, and prosper, they require faster, better access to more integrated, complete enterprise services at a scale that enables them to move rapidly”.
Say yes to digital acceleration and innovation with a unified support and services model
A unified enterprise software support and services model that integrates operations, application management, and support services increases IT agility as the business innovates and grows. By consolidating application and database services, and reducing the complexity that can accompany coordinating multiple vendors across multiple support layers, the unified support and services model offers a more cohesive enterprise software services experience. This allows IT to be more strategic when helping the business manage technology changes.
On a practical level, an IT modernization strategy that leverages unified support provides simplicity to help improve support quality and delivery speed. With this model, IT can bring experts to the table quickly and scale rapidly while keeping the hybrid IT portfolio running smoothly as it grows. As teams spend less time figuring out the complexities of hybrid IT, they can focus on accelerating business transformation and devote more time and resources to innovation and growth activities instead of maintenance and upkeep.
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“Our partnership with Rimini Street frees up financial and IT resources so we can focus on other innovation initiatives.”
– Valdemar Castilho, IT Operations Manager, Iguatemi
Enterprise use case for unified support and services in hybrid IT environments
One example of an enterprise that has moved to unified support and services is an Australian multinational corporation that provides tax, accounting, and other business services software to small and medium businesses. The company has been part of the fabric of doing business in Australia and New Zealand for more than 30 years. One of the side effects of this success is a mix of modern and legacy technologies including an aging Siebel solution. Key issues they faced were difficulty in finding Siebel specialists in the marketplace, and the support from Oracle proving too costly for the level of service required.
They also have other ERP solutions that they are moving away from, but are still core to the business – and so they still must maintain them. The company needed help with maintenance and support as the internal teams were much more experienced in more modern technologies and applications, and wanted to focus on those technologies.
They decided to unify support and managed services through one partner. Using Rimini One, it meant they could use one service to manage the whole critical platform. It’s not just support, it’s not just enhancements, it’s the combination that allowed them to trust that issues would be identified, root cause assessed, and the issue resolved.
End-to-end support and services without having to deal with multiple vendors, and without having to deal with multiple tickets has reduced risk, saved time, and provided better outcomes, all at a lower price point. It also allowed them to focus more on their strategic initiatives. It was an easy justification to have that level of support through one partner using Rimini One.
“Rimini ONE enables us to seamlessly manage a whole critical platform, without us having to deal with multiple vendors and raise numerous tickets. This allows our development team to focus on delivering more strategic outcomes for MYOB, as we continue the evolution of our business management platform for local Australian and New Zealand businesses.”
– Stefan Vargheese, MYOB Engineering Manager
Unified support services enable IT agility
If today’s enterprise software initiatives have created a hybrid IT environment in your enterprise and the complexity doesn’t allow IT to keep pace with the business, consider a unified support and services model. Implementing a unified support and services model helps IT manage its hybrid technology portfolio more strategically with an integrated view of existing enterprise software and technologies alongside new, advanced solutions.
Use a unified support approach to make running and supporting the portfolio simpler and more scalable by reducing the number of vendors and support service layers involved. To add to the value proposition, outsource unified support and services, but plan this move carefully. Optimizing the support organization structure, processes, and providers will allow IT to redirect resources from support. The freed resources can then be focused on helping the enterprise accelerate its innovation and growth initiatives.
Rimini Street provides an end-to-end approach to enterprise software support and services
Rimini ONE is a turnkey Rimini Street service program that offers a comprehensive set of unified, integrated services that can run, manage, support, customize, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimize your Oracle and SAP ERP, database, and technology software.
This exclusive program helps to streamline operations and further maximize the value of your existing software with no vendor required upgrades and migrations, so you can shift your limited IT budget, resources, and time to focus on strategic projects.
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