Leading Japanese transportation and logistics company avoids costly, no ROI migration to S/4HANA; redirects savings into strategic IoT and security initiatives
LAS VEGAS, May 20, 2020 – Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner, today announced that Kamigumi Co., Ltd., the leading harbor transportation and logistics company in Japan, has switched to Rimini Street Support for its SAP ECC 6 system. By switching to Rimini Street Support, Kamigumi was able to save time, money and labor, and redirect these resources to strengthen its IT security measures and deploy new business transformation projects. In addition, Kamigumi was able to take control of its application strategy, avoiding a costly and time-consuming migration to S/4HANA that did not currently deliver an ROI for their business.
SAP’s End of Maintenance Date Prompts Thorough ERP System Review
Founded in 1867, Kamigumi has grown to become the largest harbor transportation and logistics company in Japan. The company independently operates shipping container terminals in Kobe and Tokyo and has the top market share in Japan’s six largest harbors. Kamigumi replaced its mainframe-based in-house developed system with SAP Business Suite 7 applications in 2014. The company heavily relies upon its mission-critical SAP ECC 6 system to manage its financial accounting, management accounting, sales management, and inventory purchasing management functions to comply with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
SAP’s stated end of mainstream maintenance date, coupled with the company’s goal to optimize its internal IT resources fully, prompted Kamigumi to do an exhaustive review of the system’s functionality and costs based on the company’s business needs. After reviewing its current ERP system, S/4HANA, and future business requirements, the company concluded that there was no ROI to be gained from replacing its current robust, stable ECC 6 release with a full migration to S/4HANA, ultimately leading Kamigumi to choose Rimini Street Support.
Taking Control to Accelerate a Business-Driven IT Roadmap
Rimini Street has enabled Kamigumi to take back control of its IT investment strategy instead of being locked into the vendor’s dictated roadmap. As a result of making the switch to Rimini Street, Kamigumi now receives premium, ultra-responsive support for its SAP applications for a minimum of 15 years from the time the company transitioned to Rimini Street, without any required upgrades or migrations. The company also immediately realized savings of 50 percent in annual support fees and plans to invest its considerable savings into advanced automation initiatives that improve profit margins and enhance its competitiveness. These initiatives include the establishment of high value-added distribution centers and the implementation of IoT (Internet of Things) solutions for its warehouses and logistics processes, reaffirming the importance of IT as their business foundation.
«We chose third-party support after facing continuous high maintenance fees from SAP and not seeing a business case to upgrade to S/4HANA,» said Ikuo Maruyama, general manager, Information Systems Department, Kamigumi Co., Ltd. «Before the switch to Rimini Street, we rarely contacted SAP Japan, and they never participated in our system operations meetings. Conversely, Rimini Street has been participating in regular operations meetings with us, sharing any issues, and working diligently to resolve them. This partnership approach with Rimini Street has enabled us to focus on taking back the control of our IT roadmap to plan and implement strategic projects across our business.»
All Rimini Street clients benefit from the Company’s best-in-class support model, which delivers global workforce redundancy and resilience and provides uninterrupted service 24x7x365, including its industry-leading Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 15-minute response times for all critical Priority 1 cases. Clients are also assigned a Primary Support Engineer (PSE), backed by a team of technical experts, who have an average of 15 years’ experience in the client’s particular enterprise software.
«Kamigumi utilized their newfound IT budget – the savings generated by switching from the vendor’s support to Rimini Street Support – to implement a next-generation IT security system and innovate around their current robust SAP system,» said Yorio Wakisaka, general manager, Nihon Rimini Street KK. «As with many of our clients, Kamigumi has taken back control of their IT roadmap to plan strategic investments for a more modern IT environment today and in the future. Rimini Street continues to help the Kamigumi IT team transform and innovate to handle the further advancements in demand for warehouse management and port transportation business initiatives.»
