Transformation Without Disruption

Ricoh Company Ltd. uses multiple instances of Oracle EBS and Oracle Database to run transactional processes, but their long-range plans included a complete system revamp moving away from several Oracle products. As such, investing in costly upgrades to their applications and databases was not beneficial to their operational and financial strategy. Instead, the company set its sights to invest those funds and resources into their new IT roadmap.

“Since we had already decided to move off of Oracle, our priority was supporting and securing our current systems, not upgrading them,” Keisuke Hamanaka, Deputy General Manager, Process, IT and Data Management at Ricoh explained.

Advanced Security Advances Ricoh’s IT Strategy

After carefully considering and collaborating with the Rimini Street sales team, Ricoh selected Rimini Support™ to ensure their systems would run smoothly, and Rimini Protect™ to help secure its Oracle EBS applications with Advanced Application and Middleware Security (AAMS) and Oracle databases with Advanced Database Security (ADS).

These solutions, part of the Rimini Protect™ portfolio, offer protection against both known and unknown (zero-day) vulnerabilities.  Rimini Protect deploys security updates to mitigate threats quickly and easily without operational disruptions and time-consuming implementation tasks for each software instance without the need for planned downtime or regression testing. Rimini Street’s SLA model for both its software support services and security services provides its global clients local language support and a follow-the-sun approach across multiple regions that provides an under 2-minute average response time for critical P1 issues around the clock.

“We made a comparative evaluation with other companies offering similar services and reached the conclusion that Rimini Street is the only partner that can support the Japanese market with high quality support and protection we need, at a price that aligns with our financial goals,” Hamanaka said. According to Hamanaka, multiple factors tipped the scale, ““Rimini Street offers an attractive service that has saved us hundreds of millions of yen in upgrade costs and staffs highly skilled support engineers who can cover major ERP and database systems and protect them too. We were able to divert resources from engaging in a major EBS upgrade, and save significant funds at the same time.”

Ricoh was thoroughly impressed by the performance of Rimini Street’s portfolio of services, and have since expanded to two additional business units.

Ricoh Achieves Cost-Savings, Security, and Serenity

Ricoh is now focusing the funds and resources saved toward accelerating the move to their next-gen ERP strategy. Hamanaka advises other IT leaders to assess the value of an upgrade against the potential gains of investing that time and energy into future-focused projects that drive growth and profitability for the business.

In addition to the tangible benefits of partnering with Rimini Street, Hamanaka said, “These services give Ricoh peace of mind and a sense of security around the data in our Oracle Databases that back up EBS.” With Rimini Street, Ricoh can focus on innovation without worry of costly, resource-consuming upgrades, and achieve proactive security coverage to help protect their environment. It’s a testament to the strategic foresight of Ricoh’s leadership and Rimini Street’s robust security model, a harmony that promises continued growth and industry leadership into the future.