Pyung Hwa renews Rimini Street deal after 50% savings

Pyung Hwa Holdings has renewed its software support agreement with Rimini Street for its SAP and Oracle systems, saying the partnership has delivered 50% annual maintenance savings.

The Korean automotive parts manufacturer said the agreement covers its highly customised SAP ECC 6 and Oracle Database environments, which support production planning, materials management, finance, controlling and human resources.

Oracle Database underpins the group's data infrastructure, while the broader environment supports operations across 17 subsidiaries, including 12 in Korea and five overseas. The scale of that setup has made system stability and local technical support a priority.

Support pressures

Pyung Hwa said it had previously faced high annual maintenance charges and inconsistent service levels. It also wanted faster issue resolution and support better suited to its customised systems and local compliance requirements, including year-end human resources tax settlement processing in Korea.

"The first three years with Rimini Street have proven to be one of the best decisions made to support our objective of improving profitability and freeing up our talent for higher-value initiatives," said Sangwook Lee, Director, Head of Information Strategy, Pyung Hwa Holdings.

"The quality of service, the value of the trusted partnership and our confidence in the long-term stability of our mission-critical SAP and Oracle Database environments are why we selected Rimini Street for another five years," Lee said.

After implementing its SAP enterprise resource planning system, Pyung Hwa kept its vendor maintenance contract but remained dissatisfied with the technical support it received.

"Despite maintaining a vendor maintenance contract following the implementation of our SAP ERP system, we continued to experience a lack of substantive technical support and effective issue resolution from the vendor," Lee said.

"When technical issues arose, it was difficult to receive fast and expert support, creating ongoing challenges in ensuring operational stability," he said.

Before proceeding, Pyung Hwa said it evaluated the third-party support model through discussions with existing Rimini Street clients in Korea. It said the move reduced maintenance costs, improved service responsiveness and gave it greater flexibility to direct staff and budgets to other priorities.

Upgrade flexibility

The arrangement has also allowed the manufacturer to continue operating its existing systems on its own timetable rather than following a software vendor's upgrade or migration path. That has helped it avoid the cost and disruption of replacing or overhauling established enterprise software.

"Rimini Street helped us break free from vendor pressure to upgrade and establish IT strategies aligned with our business requirements and operational environments," Lee said.

Pyung Hwa said the savings and operational stability have supported broader investment in smart manufacturing, advanced data analytics and AI-based quality management. The company also outlined plans to expand research and development linked to hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicle components.

Rimini Street's Korea business said the Pyung Hwa relationship reflected demand from companies seeking to extend the life of existing enterprise systems while shifting spending into other areas.

"Pyung Hwa Holdings' experience demonstrates the value organisations can achieve when they have a support partner focused on their success rather than a vendor-driven roadmap," said Hyungwook "Kevin" Kim, GVP and Regional General Manager, Korea, Rimini Street.

"For years, our team has provided the responsive support, deep expertise and stability needed to help maximise the value of Pyung Hwa Holdings' SAP and Oracle investments. We are proud of the trust we have earned and the strong relationship we can continue to build together," Kim said.

Lee said the support arrangement had delivered benefits beyond lower maintenance spending by allowing the internal team to focus on other business priorities.

"Our relationship with Rimini Street has consistently delivered measurable value through responsive support, system stability and significant cost savings," Lee said.

"With a partner that understands our environment and business priorities, our team can stay focused on initiatives that drive long-term business success," he said.