Steve Airton, Information Services (IS) Controller, United Biscuits

SuperNova Award Category

Technology Optimization & Innovation

The Company

United Biscuits makes many of the world’s most well-known branded snacks, including McVitie’s biscuits and Carr’s crackers. Our products are sold in more than 100 countries with core markets in the UK, Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland, and growing international business units from North America to the Middle East, India, Africa and Australia.

The Problem

In 2011, we determined that vendor annual maintenance fees for our core SAP system were going up while failing to return commensurate value. We were happy with our SAP software, but the maintenance costs were consuming a large chunk of our IT budget with no real innovations being delivered in our core SAP system, and those delivered outside core SAP had to be licensed separately, anyway. Plus, the quality of SAP support we received left plenty of room for improvement.

The Solution

After an internal review that assessed the cost and value of all spend categories in our IT budget, the light bulb went on for us: We realized we had all the features and functionality we needed in our current SAP release and if we cut SAP operating costs, we could invest the difference in new innovations. After a thorough assessment of options including third-party support, United Biscuits switched from SAP to Rimini Street for support and maintenance of its SAP systems in 2011.

The Results

In simple terms, Rimini Street delivers improved service and huge savings that enable us to maintain high internal service levels and invest in new innovation projects. Prior to Rimini Street, despite paying a premium for vendor support, we struggled to get any response to our support calls without escalation. Today, the process works as it should, issues are responded to within minutes and we are confident that issues will be resolved in an efficient and timely manner. This allows my team to concentrate on application development projects in and around SAP in the coming year that will deliver further benefits to the business, including the implementation of several new modules in labor and recipe management, new business warehouse web reporting tools, and cloud-based applications that extend the functionality and accessibility of our SAP system.

The Technology

Rimini Street Support for SAP, Rimini Street, Inc.

Metrics Matter

By switching to Rimini Street Support, we were able to cut our annual support fees in half immediately. However,  our total annual savings have far exceeded this and are in excess of 75% of our previous annual support fees as we have eliminated the need for annual SAP Upgrades. Additionally we have realized significant savings in management time, and management frustration, as the support process works without escalation. Rimini Street gives us predictable maintenance costs for basically as long as we want to run our SAP system and at a much higher quality of service compared to our previous support.

Disruptive Factor

The market has yet to recognize how broken the traditional enterprise software support model is and how continuing the status quo of paying ever increasing maintenance fees every year is strangling innovation. By introducing choice into the enterprise software market, Rimini Street third-party support is disrupting a decades old enterprise software business model that is past its prime, and at the same time, providing us and the industry the leverage we need to choose a better value or potentially negotiate a better deal from the software vendor. You don’t have to take your car to the dealer to get the oil changed, and now with Rimini Street you have the same choice of options for your enterprise software.

Shining Moment

Today, most organizations think of third-party support just for the cost savings, but the scope and level of support we receive from Rimini Street is outstanding and is reason enough to switch.

Our top priority when we chose Rimini Street was the cost savings, but we also wanted to improve service quality. We are now two years into the relationship and our total savings are more than we expected and the support service bears no resemblance to the service we were getting before. It is truly a professional support service with fast response, clear SLAs, regular reviews, ownership — and most importantly, a desire to work with us to continually improve the service we provide to the business.

About United Biscuits

UB is one of the world’s pre-eminent branded snacks businesses. We produce some of the best known and loved sweet and savoury snacks, with products ranging from biscuits and crackers to cakes and savoury snacks. Our unrivalled portfolio of brands has been meeting consumer needs for well over 100 years and includes such favourites as McVitie’s, Jacob’s, Carr’s, McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes, Mini Cheddars, go ahead!, Verkade, Sultana, BN, and Delacre.

UB holds leading or strong number two positions in its core markets of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland. Moreover, our brands and products have global appeal. We have a rapidly growing international business unit serving consumers from North America to the Middle East, Africa, and Australia.