EC21 avoids unnecessary upgrades, improves platform stability, and frees up internal resources for more strategic work within the business
LAS VEGAS, January 22, 2019 Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of enterprise software products and services, and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products, today announced that EC21, a leading export marketing and trade consulting firm in Korea, has switched to Rimini Street support for its Oracle Database software. By switching to Rimini Street, EC21 is able to dramatically reduce the total cost of maintenance of its Oracle Database by approximately 75 percent, and improved productivity within its IT department as resources can be reallocated to more strategic projects across the organization. EC21 can also maintain its robust, stable database platform for a minimum of 15 years from the time the company moved to Rimini Street, avoiding any unnecessary upgrades just to retain full support from the vendor.
Mandate to Lower Support Costs and Maximize System Utilization
Established in 2000, EC21 provides professional consulting services for trade, connecting buyers from nearly 30 countries to local Korean SMEs who want to export their items and services. After 18 years in operation, EC21 has amassed a very large database with more than 2.3 million client contacts, seven million products, and 2.5 million international buyers. The company has been using Oracle Database since its inception to house and manage this critical data, but began to seek ways to reduce the steep annual maintenance and support costs. The company also wanted support in maximizing the utilization of their system to ensure that they were getting the most out of its performance. While EC21 did consider migrating to another database, this turned out to be a larger project than anticipated in terms of the cost to migrate and the disruption to their business. The company reviewed third-party support options instead, and ultimately chose Rimini Street. This provided them with the best of both worlds – the ability to remain on their robust, stable database software, while at the same time drastically reduce the cost to maintain the system.
«We use Oracle Database as our core system for managing critically important data. However, the cost of maintaining this platform with Oracle was quite steep. Compared with the money we were spending, the service we received in return was very limited, the ROI was extremely low, and there appeared to be few options available from the vendor,» said Hak-joon Lee, senior research associate, New Commerce Team, New Business Division, EC21. «As a result, we selected Rimini Street’s comprehensive support for our existing software release and to avoid unnecessary upgrades for at least 15 years. Rimini Street provides us huge value and an outstanding solution which we can trust.»
Unparalleled Maintenance and a Primary Support Engineer
As with all Rimini Street clients, a senior PSE (Primary Support Engineer) with more than 15 years of experience on average, was assigned to support EC21’s Oracle Database platform, and as a result, the company experiences a much higher quality, ultra-responsive support in comparison to the call center model provided by the vendor. Rimini Street’s PSEs, and the technical team behind them, provide support for all issues, including support for all customizations, and ensure a service level agreement of responding within 15 minutes for all P1 critical issues.
«Although our IT support costs took up a huge portion of our overall budget, we were cautious about transitioning to another support provider as we worried about maintaining system stability and possible business disruption,» continued Lee. «However, as numerous organizations across the world already leverage Rimini Street support, its proven support model, and the fact that our PSE responds directly to our inquiries, this all added up to a sound solution for our business. Switching to Rimini Street has reduced a lot of work stress, and I feel confident that we are working with the best third-party support provider in the world.»
«EC21 has discovered what all Rimini Street clients experience – a premium level of support, unlike what they previously experienced with the original software vendor, and a proven means for liberating substantial funds to invest into other areas of the business,» said Kevin Kim, country manager, Korea, Rimini Street. «In addition, by making the switch to Rimini Street, CIOs can take back the control of their ERP roadmap and instead plan their business-driven IT roadmap which more closely aligns with their organization’s overall objectives.»
