Challenges

As Welch’s recognized changes in consumer buying habits, the company’s strategy shifted to cost containment, with a plan to reinvest savings in increased marketing initiatives. “When we looked at our Oracle ERP software specifically, we were at an inflection point,” says Dave Jackson, CIO for Welch’s. “The support and maintenance costs were nearly 12-15 percent of our IT budget and we were at end-of-life for the versions we were running; however, there were no new features or functions in the next version that could justify the effort and cost of upgrading.”

Rimini Street Solution

Welch’s evaluated traditional Oracle upgrade paths, Jackson says, moving some of its enterprise applications to cloud-based applications. The company found that standard options neither reduced costs nor delivered significant new business value. Consequently, Welch’s chose to move support for its Oracle EBS and Oracle Database systems to Rimini Street, immediately saving 50 percent of its annual support and maintenance fees. Welch’s has redeployed cost savings for distribution throughout the company to help amplify its marketing strategy. Improved service levels have also freed up IT staff time, enabling the company to create new application extensions for the business. Jackson notes, “My team would not want to go back to traditional support now. Any one of them would tell you, ‘We’re really happy we changed support because we’re not chasing tickets, applying patches, and doing all the babysitting we used to have to do. Life is a lot better.”

Client Results

• Reduced support and maintenance spend: Welch’s is saving 50 percent of its previous annual Oracle support and maintenance costs.
• Avoided unnecessary upgrade: Welch’s can now continue to run its stable and effective Oracle software, fully supported with payroll updates for multiple U.S. states, without pressure to upgrade.
• Gained strategic flexibility: With third-party support, Welch’s can rely on Rimini Street to support customizations while retaining the ability to upgrade to its already licensed and archived software at any time in the future.