Rimini Street, Inc., a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products, and a Salesforce partner, has announced that Officeworks has leveraged Rimini ConnectTM for Browsers, part of the Rimini ConnectTM suite of integration and interoperability solutions, to help the company maintain stability of its core functions in the wake of the retirement of Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 (IE11).
As Australia’s leading retailer of office products, supplies, furniture, technology, and education resources, Officeworks is committed to “making bigger things happen for its customers.” It relies on its SAP CRM and ERP solutions for everything from customer support to online orders and more. Through collaboration and partnership with Rimini Street, Officeworks has been able to extend the lifecycle and maximize returns on its core SAP solutions.
Officeworks was able to avoid a costly, disruptive upgrade to its core SAP ERP system and could continue along its own, custom IT roadmap, ensuring a more versatile functionality than what was available to system users who relied on IE11 for business-critical customer support and CRM functionality.
“Many organizations in Australia and around the world face the same issue when critical functionality is affected by changes of various technologies or hardware,” said Daniel Benad, group vice president and regional general manager, Oceania, Rimini Street. “Officeworks worked closely with Rimini Street to ensure the business was not affected by the retirement of a technology that its key CRM and customer support teams required. In doing so, the company was able to stay on track with its strategic, innovative projects that benefit its customers while avoiding costly SAP upgrades.”
Future-Proofing Technology Investments in Collaboration with Rimini Street
In 2021, Microsoft announced that it would retire IE11. Officeworks’ SAP system was only certified to be accessed through IE11, which meant the retailer needed an alternative browser to effectively continue using its core CRM system, or risk the potential of having its Call Center and Online Customer Support unable to assist customers once IE11 retired.
Officeworks had to solve the problem of how to maintain stability, while simultaneously providing customer support center team members and others who relied on the SAP CRM, an almost invisible and uninterrupted transition of its system functionality. The company determined that a comprehensive upgrade was not an economically viable option to resolve the issue. It then engaged Rimini Street and made the decision to extend its software support and services solutions and implement Rimini Connect for Browsers. Following rigorous testing and bespoke adaptations to the solution that were necessary to meet the unique needs of Officeworks’ environment, the implementation was completed before IE11 was retired.
“With Rimini Street, Officeworks is protected against current and future browser compatibility challenges and able to achieve the same functionality it needed to experience, but through other browsers such as Chrome or Edge,” said Michael Howard, chief operating officer, Officeworks. “Now we can rest assured knowing our internal team members are no longer impacted in their ability to serve our valued customers due to browser related obstacles.”
Rimini Connect for Browsers is part of the Rimini Connect suite of proven and proactive integration and interoperability solutions that allows for easy resolution of continuously changing integration and interoperability requirements. Clients can modernize and innovate their technology environment and extend and increase the lifetime value of their enterprise software products by keeping applications and databases compatible and integrated—now and in the future—with each other, and with elements in the technology stack, from the operating systems to the browsers.
