Mercury New Zealand specializes in generating 100% renewable energy through hydro, geothermal, and wind farms. As a major retailer of both energy and telco products, it’s a leading multi-product utility provider in the country. Its goal is to leave the natural environment thriving for future generations by moving New Zealand toward a low-emissions future.

Acquisition opens opportunities for innovation

The energy provider runs SAP ECC6 on a HANA database. Traditionally, it relied on SAP for key processes like reporting, customer billing, CRM, and ecommerce. In May 2022, Mercury NZ acquired Trustpower’s retail business. Following this, Mercury NZ made the decision to migrate its retail operations from SAP to Gentrack and Salesforce systems. During this period, it was critical to maintain both systems in parallel.

Mercury NZ required a stable partner to support and maintain their SAP systems during the transition. Tim Aynsley, Mercury’s previous Head of Technology, explained, “Our acquisition of the Trustpower retail business opened up a different range of technologies. Through that merger, we’ve been migrating off our SAP systems across the board.” After researching potential support partners, they found Rimini Street to be a cost-effective partner with a strong reputation. “What set Rimini Street apart was the strength of their reference clients, scale and reputation in this part of the world,” Aynsley said. Anita Grenside, Practice Lead at Mercury NZ, added, “Rimini Street stood out because they cover a wide range of suites, not just SAP.”

Rimini Street flexibility leads to greater stability

By choosing Rimini Support™ for SAP, Mercury NZ ensured that its SAP systems remained stable and supported throughout the transition, allowing Aynsley’s team to focus on innovation and growth. “Rimini Street gave us assurance that we could go to them for any resourcing support we required,” Grenside said. “Rimini Street also provided additional SAP expertise during this period.”

Rimini Street also offered the flexibility to drive their own roadmap. “Rimini Street enabled us to have flexibility to scale down as our needs changed. Mercury was a large SAP shop. Our logical pathway was to S/4HANA. However, our acquisition of Trustpower provided us a viable alternative to consider,” Aynsley explained.

The onboarding process gave them further confidence that they made the right choice. With a short timeline for switching from SAP support to Rimini Street, they were impressed at the professionalism and knowledge of the Rimini Street onboarding team. “Rimini Street turned up with a comprehensive and thorough transition plan and were able to work effectively with our team to hit our timeframe,” Aynsley said. Grenside added, “We squeezed the whole thing into two months. The onboarding staff were incredible.”

For business process monitoring, they used SAP’s Solution Manager and intended to replace it with Rimini Watch™ for proactive monitoring and health check services. Although not a straight fit, the Rimini Street team worked closely with Grenside and Mercury NZ’s other support partners to customize a solution that fit their needs. According to Grenside, “Our SAP landscape is extensive. It includes customizations. It’s great that Rimini Street will work with our support partners to support and keep the system stable.”

Rimini Support for SAP helps Mercury NZ invest in the future

The responsiveness and reliability of Rimini Street’s support provides business continuity and system stability, which was essential during their integration project. It also allowed them to hit revenue goals set following its acquisition of the Trustpower retail business.” Aynsley said, “We were able to halve our SAP maintenance costs over a couple of years resulting in substantial savings.” This cost-saving allowed Mercury to invest in other strategic initiatives.

The collaboration with Rimini Street allows Mercury to maintain stable core systems while pursuing innovative opportunities, particularly in AI and machine learning. They plan to further implement AI in various activities from general productivity to customer experience while leveraging machine learning and digital twin opportunities in energy trading and power generation. “It’s reassuring to know that the capability, the attention to detail and the ability to think out of the box is there. It gives us peace of mind to pursue more innovative opportunities,” Grenside shared.

That peace of mind is crucial to Mercury NZ’s growth, according to Aynsley, “Rimini Street plays a key role in keeping our services cost effective and innovative.” Aynsley concluded, “Rimini Street is a capable IT partner that has delivered on what they promised. We’ve achieved or exceeded the outcomes we expected by engaging and working with Rimini Street.”