Lwart expands Rimini Street support to SAP & VMware
Lwart Environmental Solutions has expanded its use of third-party software support from Rimini Street, consolidating support for SAP and VMware as it seeks greater control over licensing, upgrade schedules and technology planning.
The Brazilian oil re-refinery said the move reduces exposure to vendor-led changes, keeps core systems stable and frees budget and staff time for operational improvements and longer-term initiatives.
Core operations
Lwart runs a large-scale oil recovery operation based on used oil collection and re-refining. It says its ecosystem can process 240 million litres of used oil each year and covers more than half of Brazil's municipalities.
SAP and VMware sit at the centre of its logistics and operational processes. Lwart uses the platforms across 1,100 users, including 540 truck drivers who connect on mobile devices. Those drivers use SAP to record oil collection and payments across 3,700 municipalities.
Lwart moved SAP support to Rimini Street almost a decade ago to reduce IT costs while maintaining reliability. It describes SAP as mission-critical and says downtime would disrupt oil collection nationwide.
Before moving away from vendor support, it assessed service quality, value, expertise and reliability.
"We've had nothing but good experiences since we moved our support for SAP to Rimini Street," said Jefferson Andriotti, Head of IT and Procurement at Lwart Environmental Solutions.
"With my SAP ECC 6 stabilised, secured and performing optimally with Rimini Support, I no longer have to worry about constantly upgrading or migrating to a new version of SAP as some of my peers do. Rimini Street makes it possible for me to focus my team's attention on the needs of our customers, partners and the future of Lwart instead of unnecessary disruption."
VMware changes
The latest expansion covers VMware, where Lwart said it faced increased licensing pressure following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware. It said the changes would have nearly tripled its costs.
"Either we would need to absorb a massive increase in licensing costs with Broadcom or pursue alternate paths," Andriotti said.
"We looked at moving to Nutanix or Citrix, but because Rimini Street had done so well with our SAP support, we thought, why not use them for VMware too?"
Lwart selected Rimini Support for VMware, delivered under Rimini Custom, which Rimini Street positions as a combination of third-party support and managed services across a range of enterprise software, including systems no longer supported by the original vendor.
Rimini Street said the VMware service includes a guaranteed 10-minute response time for priority cases, averaging less than two minutes, along with 24/7 coverage and regular updates until resolution.
The bundle also includes Rimini Protect for Advanced Hypervisor Security, powered by Vali Cyber. Rimini Street said the tool is designed to defend against ransomware and other malware-based attacks. It also cited root-cause analysis and support for perpetual licences without upgrades or migrations.
Budget focus
Lwart said the expanded arrangement improves availability and stability across SAP and VMware while reducing ongoing overhead. It said the new support model gives its IT team more time to focus on process modernisation across the nationwide collection and logistics network.
"With Rimini Street, our SAP and VMware environments simply work," Andriotti said.
"That reliability gives us time to improve business processes and collaborate more closely with our innovation teams. We've found a partner we trust to keep our core systems running while we focus on where the business needs to go next."
Rimini Street said the deal reflects demand from customers looking to limit mandatory upgrades and manage licensing exposure, particularly as vendor product roadmaps and commercial terms change.
"Our long-standing partnership with Lwart Environmental Solutions is built on trust, collaboration and a shared commitment to results," said Edenize Maron, General Manager for the Americas at Rimini Street. "By delivering reliable, high-impact support for both SAP ERP and VMware virtualisation environments, we help Lwart redirect people, time and money toward advancing the business. We're proud to support their continued growth and leadership in circular-economy operations, and most importantly, to help support Lwart's mission to preserve natural resources and create a more environmentally conscious world for all."
Lwart said it will continue running its existing SAP ECC 6 environment and maintain VMware systems under the Rimini Street support model while it reviews longer-term platform options and internal process changes.