AUTOBACS SEVEN marks decade with Rimini Street support

AUTOBACS SEVEN has marked 10 years of working with Rimini Street, with the relationship centred on support for the retailer's SAP ECC and Oracle Database systems.

The Japanese automotive aftermarket group said the arrangement has helped keep core systems stable while allowing more of its technology budget to be directed to other projects.

AUTOBACS SEVEN operates about 1,300 stores in Japan and another 150 overseas, making its back-end systems a significant part of its retail and service network. It first moved support for its SAP ECC 6 platform to Rimini Street in 2016, then later extended the arrangement to cover Oracle Database.

The shift changed how the retailer manages support for some of its main systems. Instead of relying on the original vendors for maintenance, it now uses Rimini Street for those environments while continuing to run the same core platforms.

Nobuo Norisue, general manager of information technology at AUTOBACS SEVEN and chief executive officer of AUTOBACS Digital Initiative, said the company reviews its spending priorities over multi-year periods.

"At AUTOBACS SEVEN, our leadership team meets regularly to discuss how we will grow as a company over the next five to ten years. During these conversations, we talk openly about how to best allocate funds.

"Whenever there are questions about how our IT budget should be spent, we seek advice from Rimini Street, as they are a constant source of value creation for us. I have high expectations for Rimini Street, and they always deliver," Norisue said.

Support model

AUTOBACS SEVEN said moving SAP ECC 6 support away from SAP lowered costs and reduced the burden of maintaining mature systems. It said this freed internal resources for other work, including projects linked to AI and the Internet of Things.

"Our core mission is to ensure the safety of our communities while driving and enriching our customers' lives. Investing heavily in systems that don't generate revenue or value distracts us from that mission," Norisue said.

Later, the company expanded the relationship to include Oracle Database, giving it a single support provider across both SAP and Oracle environments.

"The move to Rimini Street has shifted our licensing strategy. Now, we purchase licenses directly from Oracle and immediately transfer the maintenance to Rimini Street because we know we'll get higher quality support for much less," Norisue said.

Rimini Street said the support arrangement includes a named primary support engineer, access to Oracle and SAP specialists, and rapid response targets for the most severe issues. It added that clients can cut annual support fees by 50% and lower total cost of ownership by as much as 90%, although AUTOBACS SEVEN did not disclose its own financial figures.

AUTOBACS SEVEN also highlighted a long-term support commitment for the versions of SAP ECC 6 and Oracle Database it uses. It said that assurance matters because it wants to avoid disruption to critical systems while deciding where to invest next.

"Rimini Street's 15-year guarantee of our SAP ECC 6 and Oracle Database environments gives us great peace of mind that our critical systems will remain well supported for years to come," Norisue said.

"With Rimini Street supporting our ERP services, we can focus on attracting AI specialists and other highly skilled engineers to increase company value and deliver greater experiences for our customers," he added.

Innovation plans

AUTOBACS SEVEN also said it is using Rimini Smart Path, a three-step approach that Rimini Street describes as Support, Optimise and Innovate. The idea is to keep existing systems in place while using savings from maintenance and support to fund newer technology work.

The position reflects a broader issue facing many established companies in Japan, where technology leaders often have to balance spending on legacy systems against pressure to invest in digital tools and new services. For retailers with large store networks and operational systems spanning finance, supply chain and customer functions, replacing core software can be costly and risky.

Norisue said the company sees growth ahead and believes its technology spending should serve that goal rather than be absorbed by maintenance. "We plan to double our business in the coming years - achieving that will require innovation and outstanding technology solutions," he said.

"We see Rimini Smart Path as a powerful tool to help us fuel that growth. We've already established the support foundation, and now we plan to work with Rimini Street to help expand our business," Norisue said.

Rimini Street described the AUTOBACS SEVEN relationship as an example of how companies can continue running long-established SAP and Oracle software while redirecting budgets elsewhere. Nancy Lyskawa, executive vice president and chief client officer at Rimini Street, said the approach can reduce the need for major transformation programmes.

"Organisations do not need costly, disruptive transformation projects to accelerate innovation," Lyskawa said.

"AUTOBACS SEVEN's expanded partnership shows how enterprises can extend the value of existing SAP and Oracle investments and fund new Agentic AI capabilities with the savings generated by switching to Rimini Support(tm)," she said.

Norisue said the same pressures are affecting other businesses in Japan as they weigh maintenance spending against new investment. "Many Japanese companies are struggling to balance IT maintenance costs against investing in new value creation," he said.

"When resources are limited and IT costs are excessively high, deciding what to focus on and where to shift resources is crucial. Rimini Street should be their first stop to lower costs and fuel transformation without disruption," Norisue said.