Rochester City School District Saves Millions in Software Maintenance Costs
Rochester City School District based in Rochester, New York, is projected to save a $6 million in cumulative support costs over 10 years while using Rimini Street Support for PeopleSoft. The District made the switch to Rimini Street to reduce total support costs by up to 90 percent, enabling them to meet mandated budget cuts and reallocate resources towards protecting fundamental programs and funding strategic initiatives.
Fiscal Uncertainty Remains a Challenge for Public Sector in 2013
Rimini Street helps public sector organizations address current and potential future budget challenges by replacing annual support from the software vendor with a concierge-level support program that delivers savings of 50 percent in annual support fees, and also drives reductions in related support and maintenance costs, with savings of up to 90 percent in total overall support costs. Rimini Street enables cost reductions by allowing clients to run their current software releases without any required upgrades for at least 10 years and providing support for customizations, interoperability, performance and interfaces at no additional fee. Additionally, Rimini Street provides clients with a 24X7X365 premium-level service model with an assigned Primary Support Engineer (PSE) that eliminates the need for extra maintenance resources.
Rimini Street Helps Rochester City School District Save Jobs and Implement Key Initiatives
Rochester City School District provides education services for nearly 32,000 students ranging from pre-Kindergarten through grade 12, including 10,000 adults in its community. As with many urban school districts around the country, the District has faced budget deficits that required cuts to fundamental educational services nearly every year.
Led by chief technology officer Annmarie Lehner, Rochester City School District moved from vendor support to Rimini Street after determining that their existing Oracle PeopleSoft system was mature and stable and able to run mission-critical operations for a decade or longer.
“The move to third-party support of our PeopleSoft apps was not a decision we made lightly,” said Lehner. “In evaluating Rimini Street’s customer base, we received very favorable assessments of Rimini Street’s service and support and we felt confident in our decision. I would strongly urge any public sector CIO who is evaluating their organization’s enterprise software strategy to proactively consider the responsive service and substantial cost savings of third-party support.”
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As a result, Rochester City School District has been able to redirect budget savings to several strategic IT initiatives that benefit its teachers and staff and help to enhance student progress and school performance overall. In 2011, Lehner’s team rolled out new functionality for its PeopleSoft system, including the ePerformance module. Additionally, the District recently licensed Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) in order to implement a centralized reporting system across the District. The new platform is in the process of being rolled out to every principal, teacher and building administrator in the district.
“The public sector continues to face significant budgetary hurdles to providing much-needed services for our communities, and Rimini Street is committed to partnering with these organizations to help them save up to 90 percent in total support costs over a decade and gain award-winning, premium-level services,” said Seth Ravin, Rimini Street CEO. “We are proud to be a trusted partner to Rochester City School District in their tireless efforts to provide high-quality education to their communities, and we will continue to dedicate ourselves to providing all of our clients with the most value-driven, ultra-responsive enterprise software support option in the industry.”