Rimini Street, a global third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software, has announced a continuation of its support to SAP ECC and S/4HANA on-premises licensees for an additional 15 years.
This guarantee comes amidst increasing pressures from SAP on their ECC licensees to transition to S/4HANA by 2027. This move by Rimini Street offers enterprise businesses the autonomy to determine their IT strategies and timelines, reinforcing the trust and partnership between the service provider and its vast clientele, according to the company.
SAP's Declarations Stir Concerns
Recent announcements from SAP have sent ripples of concern across its community of on-premises ECC and S/4HANA clients. Two significant revelations – an exclusive focus on delivering new features to SAP public and private cloud users and a hike in on-premises support costs – have been particularly unsettling for businesses, according to Rimini Street.
SAP CEO Christian Klein, during the Q2 2023 earnings call, emphasized that new innovations would exclusively target SAP public and private cloud users.
Such decisions by SAP have sparked reactions from various stakeholders.
Thomas Henzler, board member for licenses, service and support of DSAG, the German-speaking SAP User Group, noted:
“As an interest group representing more than 3,800 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, we must now advise companies to carefully reconsider possible planned S/4HANA implementations with regard to the operating model – especially against the background of the renewed increase in maintenance. The announcement is a real showstopper and a big disappointment.”
Jens Hungershausen, board chairman of DSAG also stated:
“Customers who have already invested in S/4HANA on-premise may now get the impression that they have wasted millions. That doesn’t build trust if SAP doesn’t at the same time show customers clear development paths for a smooth transition to the cloud and next-generation ERP without jeopardizing the investments they’ve made.”
Rimini Street's Comprehensive Offerings
In the midst of the changes, Rimini Street continues to offer extended support to SAP licensees, including the company's Rimini Support™ for SAP and Rimini Manage™ for SAP offerings.
Recently, Rimini Street also expanded its managed services for SAP cloud products, further enhancing its distinctive service suite.
