Rimini Street, Inc., a third-party maintenance and support provider for enterprise software, including SAP AG’s (NYSE: SAP) Business Suite and BusinessObjects software and Oracle Corporation’s (NYSE: ORCL) Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, E-Business Suite, Oracle Database and Hyperionsoftware, has announced that Color Spot Nurseries, a leading wholesale producer and distributor of specialty horticulture, has continued to successfully expand its SAP footprint to meet growing and changing business needs while leveraging Rimini Street Support since 2010.
Color Spot switched from SAP vendor support to Rimini Street Support more than three years ago and was able to cut its annual maintenance and support costs by more than 50 percent. The savings were used to drive strategic initiatives and to meet the ongoing needs of the business.
Color Spot specializes in the production and distribution of high quality bedding plants, vegetables, herbs and shrubs to more than 2,000 retail and commercial customers around the US.
The company has relied on its SAP since 2001 starting with R/3 4.7C for finance, human resources and payroll processes. The company continues to grow aggressively through acquisitions and expand its SAP instance across all entities.
After an internal audit in late 2009 showed that SAP vendor maintenance fees consumed over 20 percent of the total IT budget and did not deliver value commensurate with the support the company received, Color Spot’s Chief Information Officer, Eric Robinson, made the decision to switch from SAP to Rimini Street in 2010.
Moreover, SAP had announced that it would no longer provide support for version 4.7C, which would have forced Color Spot to undergo an expensive, unneeded and disruptive upgrade to ECC 6.0, or else face de-support.
Color Spot also utilizes the Rimini Street Tax Engine for SAP Payroll and receives regular tax, legal and regulatory updates and that keep the organization in compliance with changes taking place at the local, state and federal levels
