Rimini Street, Inc., a global provider of enterprise software products and services has announced that Poplar Co. Ltd, a national convenience store chain based in Hiroshima City, Japan, has switched to Rimini Street Support for its SAP BusinessObjects and Sybase IQ Database software.
The company is undergoing a new initiative to restructure its business which will help maintain business continuity due to disruption caused by the pandemic, cut costs and develop new commerce to help the company thrive in the fiercely competitive convenience store market.
By switching to Rimini Street, Poplar is now supported on their current releases for a minimum of 15 years from the time that they switched to Rimini Street Support and can avoid unnecessary upgrades just to stay fully supported. The company plans to use its newly liberated IT resources – time, money and personnel – to digitize and enhance analytics aimed at increasing its business productivity and revenue.
Extend the Life and ROI of Existing Software to Help Fund Business Initiatives
Poplar Co., Ltd. operates convenience stores in more than 450 locations throughout the Chugoku and North Kyushu regions of Japan, selling pre-packed food, beverages, magazines and basic household necessities.
The company deployed SAP Sybase IQ and BusinessObjects in 2013 to manage its point-of-sales analysis for each store chain, measure revenue per product and aid with product development by tracking past sales data.
The company uses its SAP software to deliver 500 reports daily to keep business stakeholders informed. The company’s robust SAP software, which has been heavily customized, meets their business needs, however under SAP support, upgrades and patches were required to continue to receive full support and maintenance. As a result, Poplar Co. began to seek alternatives after identifying the high maintenance and support costs it was paying SAP compared with the low quality of support they were experiencing. The company also had no desire to continue on the vendor’s upgrade path.
“With Rimini Street, we can maximize the value and ROI of our current SAP software system and receive far greater support than we received from the vendor,” said Ayumu Yamaoka, vice president, IT Department at Poplar Co. Ltd. “We plan to leverage our newly liberated IT resources to accelerate the digitalization of paper reports, so our business leaders have easier access to analytics and insights on store performance.”
Comprehensive and Ultra-Responsive Support
Poplar Co., along with all Rimini Street clients, is assigned a Primary Support Engineer (PSE), backed by a team of functional and technical experts, who have an average of more than 15 years’ experience in the client’s software system. All clients also benefit from the Company’s industry-leading service level agreement of 10-minute response times for critical Priority 1 cases and 15-minute response times for serious Priority 2 issues.
“Support from Rimini Street is critical for us as we have a very small staff in our IT Department to work on various projects. Our SAP software is used in mission-critical business functions like financial reporting and inventory management – any issues or failure would bring our business to a halt,” continued Yamaoka.
“Convenience stores in Japan have continued to grow despite the decline of department stores and the sluggish growth of supermarkets. By using Rimini Street Support, Poplar can reduce its software support costs and free up its internal IT staff to focus on business initiatives that will drive competitive advantage in the highly competitive convenience store industry,” said Yorio Wakisaka, regional general manager, Rimini Street Japan. “Currently, Rimini Street supports 250 organizations with operations in Japan to help to maximize the value and lifespan of its current enterprise software systems – ultimately enabling these businesses to use the newly liberated funds and IT resources saved from switching to embrace future technologies that drive growth.
