Rimini Street’s Functionality Mapping tool was developed to enable clients to make data-driven decisions when it comes to value in an ERP upgrade. In a visual and quantitative way, we have evaluated changes that the major ERP Suites (SAP and Oracle) have undergone over the past 10 years. Our Functionality Mapping approach breaks down each release for a specific module of an ERP application graphically into four (4) quadrants:
- Tax, legal and regulatory changes
- Updates you may be able to implement yourself
- Minor updates
- Substantial enhancements
Within each quadrant, we plot updates against the level of effort required to implement them (horizontal axis) and benefit delivered (vertical axis).
We approach the rating process objectively and evaluate each update on how much it enhances the overall product in ways our clients care about. This is an important distinction, because often we have found that the vendor made enhancements but in niche areas that are not widely used or adopted by the majority of end users.
This short video, part of our Tech Talk series, shows how Rimini Street’s proprietary upgrade/update analysis methodology gives you insight you can use to make informed decisions about your upgrade path.
How does Functionality Mapping Analysis benefit Rimini Street clients?
Our Functionality Mapping tool enables us to provide guidance and knowledge to support your ERP upgrade decisions – before you commit to ERP vendor support just to stay current. Or, even worse, stay with vendor support just for the sake of being able to upgrade to a release that may not deliver meaningful improvements.
We have found that, in most cases, there is no justification for spending about 21 percent of license costs for vendor annual maintenance and support fees when you are getting so little in return. A very high percentage of updates are low value but still expensive to deploy.
Collectively, across the three major ERP platforms (SAP and Oracle), Rimini Street believes there are billions of dollars in annual support fees being wasted. By “wasted,” we mean that from our analysis, no equivalent value is being provided to the paying user base. It seems quite clear from our research that development work is no longer being directed toward enhancing client-hosted ERP applications.
If you are a current Rimini Street client, contact your account manager to schedule a functionality mapping consultation that compares what the software offers with what your business really needs.
