By using a trusted third-party firm, the agency save on costs and can channel additional resources towards further digitalization initiatives.
Australia’s air navigation service provider, Airservices Australia, has further extended the maintenance and support agreement for its mission-critical SAP platform with Rimini Street, Inc., a global provider of enterprise software products and services and also a third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and Salesforce solutions.
Airservices Australia is a government-owned organization providing safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible services to the aviation industry. It manages 11% of the world’s airspace and more than four million aircraft movements carrying more than 160 million passengers annually. The agency also provides telecommunications, aeronautical data, navigation services and aviation rescue firefighting services for the aviation industry.
Every day, an SAP ECC 6.0 system is used to run the mission-critical operations of its two air traffic services centers, two terminal control units and 29 towers at international and regional airports, which combined include more than 3,500 employees. By switching from the software vendor’s support to Rimini Street, the Airservices Australia has significantly lowered its overall maintenance and support spend and now has additional resources—time, money and personnel—to apply toward digital transformation initiatives, including developing its next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) strategy.
How a third-party support model works
Said Sandeep Khyalia, application services manager,Airservices Australia: “The move to a third-party support model has allowed us to maintain and maximize our ERP system while looking at initiatives that can help us transform our operations for the next decade and beyond. Rimini Street also provides support for software customizations, which (gives) us the opportunity to extend the life of our current system and not have to rush into an upgrade to S/4HANA—which today is not the best fit for our business – while meeting our compliance and regulatory obligations.”
The organization is also able to maintain its current stable SAP system for a minimum of 15 years under Rimini Street support, allowing them to step off the vendor’s upgrade cycle and take a more business-driven approach to their IT roadmap. Said Emmanuelle Hose, regional general manager, Australia and New Zealand, Rimini Street: “Airservices Australia requires a robust enterprise software solution, which it has in its SAP system but given the mission-critical nature of their operations, it also needs reliable and quick support for any issues that may arise. Shifting to third-party support from Rimini Street has allowed Airservices to benefit from our ultra-responsive and personalized support services, with access to expert engineers 24x7x365 to help them keep their SAP platform running smoothly and reduce their operating risks.”
