LF taps Rimini Street for SAP, Oracle support savings

South Korean lifestyle group LF has selected Rimini Street to provide third-party support for its SAP ECC 6.0 and Oracle Database systems, as the company seeks to recalibrate its IT maintenance expenditure.

The transition is intended to improve service responsiveness and stability during a period of significant operational change, including a complex data centre relocation project. By moving away from its previous vendor support model, LF aims to address rising costs and a perceived decline in the speed and quality of technical assistance.

In addition to its core enterprise resource planning environment and Oracle databases, LF manages a substantial number of internally developed custom business objects within its ERP estate.

The company will now utilise Rimini Support across these core applications to ensure the continued functionality of its bespoke systems. This strategic shift is designed to provide more agile support for LF's specific technical requirements while freeing up resources for broader digital transformation initiatives.

Systems Estate

LF operates across menswear, womenswear, casual, sports and outdoor, accessories, food and beverage, content, eCommerce and real estate finance. The company was founded in 1974 and has a portfolio of brands in South Korea's fashion and lifestyle market.

LF said it wanted a single support model across multiple platforms. Rimini Street will cover both SAP and Oracle environments under one provider arrangement.

LF said the model gives it a single route for issue resolution and performance optimisation. The company also pointed to ongoing improvement work across its enterprise systems.

Relocation Work

LF attributed the transition to third-party support to the practical complexities involved in relocating its data centre. The company noted that the project significantly increased the demand for rapid troubleshooting and direct, hands-on assistance.

During the move, Rimini Street provided a dedicated Primary Support Engineer alongside onsite technical assistance, which LF credits with maintaining seamless, uninterrupted operations during the most critical transition periods.

Furthermore, LF stated that the new support arrangement integrated smoothly with its existing internal maintenance teams. The company confirmed that it was not required to restructure or reallocate resources associated with its ongoing maintenance activities to accommodate the change.

Cost Focus

LF has reported significant cost savings since transitioning to Rimini Street, stating that the move has liberated internal resources for strategic IT investment and essential process development.

The company has directly linked these financial efficiencies to a broader business process innovation initiative, citing specific optimisation work carried out on its merchandise planning system and key ERP modules.

Looking ahead, LF outlined a comprehensive digital transformation agenda that prioritises AI-driven insights and automation as part of its next phase of evolution. The group intends for this focus to enable faster responses to shifting market trends while fostering closer collaboration between its IT and business departments.

"The implementation of Rimini Street has resulted in real and tangible cost savings, freeing us from the burden of current maintenance costs and giving us the opportunity to focus on strategic IT investments," said Dongwon Lee, CIO of LF. "Rimini Street's support services are of better quality than vendor support and enabled a smooth transition without the need to change resources associated with maintenance. During a challenging project like the data centre relocation, Rimini Street's prompt and professional support ensured stable system operations."

Project Plans

LF said it plans to direct savings into projects that affect core business processes. It again pointed to merchandise planning and ERP module optimisation.

The company also said it intends to prioritise optimisation of existing systems and processes rather than adding new solutions. It framed this as an approach for maintaining more effective IT operations and managing costs across the enterprise.

Supplier View

Rimini Street positions itself as a third-party support provider for enterprise software platforms including Oracle and SAP. It also sells managed services and AI-related products for ERP environments.

Rimini Street said the LF engagement reflects continuing demand for alternative support models among organisations with long-running enterprise systems. The company said customers use its services as part of cost management efforts and operational change programmes.

"We are pleased to help leading companies like LF reduce their IT costs and focus on their core business with Rimini Street support services," said Hyungwook Kim, GVP and Regional GM, Rimini Street Korea. "We will continue to help companies maximise the efficiency of their IT operations by providing customised support and optimal support services."