The general presumption in the enterprise software marketplace is customers stay loyal for lifetimes – the more realistic thinking, of course, is they stay loyal for long periods, but not that long.
When I was researching SAP Nation, I was impressed with how many customers are swapping out software, moving to third party maintenance, “ring fencing” the core solution with specialist tools, and implementing two and three tier strategies – different solutions for headquarters, large and small subsidiaries. I presented a sample of case studies in the book. While those were in SAP settings, similar moves are happening around other solutions.
More recently, I have been looking at more examples post my book research. Last week I profiled UNIT4’s successes in the UK local government sector and Microsoft in two-tier scenarios. This time it is about Rimini Street and their third party maintenance services. In the book, I had highlighted Embraer, United Biscuits and Color Spot Nurseries and how they report significant savings, improved service levels and postponement of forced upgrades.
Since I finished research for the book, Rimini has signed 70 new clients in 4Q. I expect them to pass their 1,000 client milestone this quarter.
Some of the other clients Rimini recently briefed me about include Univar, a $ 10 bn global chemical distributor where Rimini is supporting their SAP ECC ver 5.0 and 6.0 environments. TT Electronics, $1B+ UK-based electronics manufacturer, blends Rimini support while continuing to buy new SAP licenses for their ECC 6.0 environment. Valspar Group, a $4B global paints and coatings maker, uses Rimini to support Oracle EBS EBS 11.5.10. Brandeis, the private university near Boston, has moved its PeopleSoft support to Rimini.
Upgrades – either to avoid them or to reduce costs after the event – have been a major driver for moves to Rimini. SAP’s S4HANA moves could open the floodgates for more customers to at least look at Rimini.
Individually, you could dismiss them as small cracks in the frozen tundra, but there are many such cracks if you use a wide angle lens. Over the next few weeks I will profile other such “snapshots” and show why I believe they are an indication of coming significant churn in the enterprise software market.
