Jones Packaging Saves on Annual Maintenance and ERP Upgrade Costs

Pharmaceutical packaging firm, Jones Packaging, has switched to Rimini Street support for its SAP ERP application. Jones said it reduced the total cost of maintaining their SAP system through reduction in annual support fees, avoidance of unnecessary upgrade costs and elimination of labor costs related to customization support. This newly liberated cash flow has enabled the company to allocate funds to strategic IT initiatives across the organization.

Prior to partnering with Rimini Street, Jones had begun to explore a potential upgrade of their current SAP system, primarily because their software was operating on older hardware. Through their review process, the company determined that upgrading their SAP application would incur significant capital and professional services expense, stall any new IT initiatives for the next year and require extensive time and resources to execute. Also there was no business functionality requirement driving an upgrade from their current, stable SAP platform, which was meeting their business needs. When Rimini Street began discussions with Jones about pursuing alternative support solutions for their SAP software, Rimini Street’s technical support team reviewed several proven strategies for future-proofing their current SAP system. These best practices covered current technologies like virtual desktop infrastructure, operating system enhancements and container technologies. All of these modern strategies allow for more flexible and manageable infrastructure without the need to upgrade systems based on technical requirements.

“We saw no material tangible benefit for our business to upgrade to the next SAP release. We also wanted to avoid dedicating time and resources to migrating systems, and risking a potential business outage in the upgrade process,” said Rick Jankura, chief financial officer at Jones. “Looking at our options and learning more about Rimini Street, we saw we could keep our existing robust SAP system and at the same time, save significant time and money that could be reinvested in the business.

“Vendor support services do not cover customization and sometimes it was difficult to delineate whether issues were arising from core functionality or customization. With Rimini Street, we work diligently to find a solution together, regardless of the issue,” said Jankura. “We’ve been very satisfied with the service and feel as though we have found a true partner, not just a vendor.”

Seth Ravin, chief executive officer, Rimini Street, said, “Manufacturing companies have to manage tight profit margins in a fiercely competitive market, while also adapting to new processes and faster production timelines. We have been a solution for many manufacturing clients around the world, like Jones, where we have helped these clients reallocate significant savings from their total annual maintenance costs, and reinvest these savings back into their business for competitive advantage and growth. More than 1,450 companies worldwide, including more than 85 of the Fortune 500 and Global 100, already rely on Rimini Street as their trusted enterprise software support partner.”