“Choosing Rimini Street support and maintenance solution has freed up opportunity for the organization, the group, and for our staff.”

–CIO, Greater Western Water

Over the next 30 years, the population in Melbourne, Australia is expected to double. To meet the need for high-quality, affordable, and secure water service, City West Water and Western Water merged in 2021. Its combined service area covers more than 3,700 square kilometers and is home to more than 1.3 million Victorians. This story details the experience of the previous organization, City West Water.

Like any modern organization, Greater Western Water’s IT team relies on an enterprise software platform to streamline its operations. It has leveraged Oracle’s platform for a range of processes from finance and HR to renewals with customers. This required the IT team to oversee everything related to the platform, including upgrades, maintenance, and support.

To achieve efficiencies in staffing and budget, provide opportunities to focus on new IT initiatives, and drive innovation, Greater Western Water explored software maintenance and support options.

According to Greater Western Water’s Chief Information Officer, “We needed to find a way to maximize the IT capabilities we were introducing into the business and work across the organization at the process level.”

Support for Innovation

Greater Western Water engaged Rimini Street, a premier third-party support provider, for software maintenance and support for its Oracle footprint. “Finding a new way to manage platform maintenance and support has created real opportunities for our staff and organization. It has meant that resources are available to contribute to new projects that can be embedded into business as usual and then return value over the next year and every year,” explained the CIO.

A Rimini Street Primary Support Engineer (PSE), backed by a team of functional and technical experts, developed a detailed understanding of Greater Western Water’s IT environment and operational needs.

The engagement with Rimini Street — which includes swift response times and excellent communication with its PSE — has enabled Greater Western Water to increase the time staff can dedicate to new IT initiatives and will allow the organization to broaden its innovation scope and implement multiyear projects. When the team is freed from maintenance and support activities, it is able to expand its skillsets and undertake more high-value tasks. This has been achieved while significantly reducing software maintenance costs. “Choosing the Rimini Street support and maintenance solution has freed up opportunity for the organization, the group, and our staff,” shared their CIO.