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Pittsburgh Public Schools Cuts Software Maintenance Costs with Rimini Street

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  Published in Science and Technology on Tuesday, November 30th 2010 at 6:12 GMT by Market Wire
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LAS VEGAS--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Rimini Street, Inc., the leading third-party maintenance and support provider for enterprise software, including Oracle Corporation's (NASDAQ:ORCL) [ Siebel ], [ PeopleSoft ], [ JD Edwards ], and [ E-Business Suite ] software, and [ SAP AG ](NYSE:SAP) software, today announced that the Company is enabling Pittsburgh Public Schools and other public sector organizations of all types to significantly cut annual software maintenance costs. Rimini Street public sector clients, including many city and county governments, K-12 school districts, colleges and universities, are saving at least 50 percent in annual support fees, avoiding expensive forced upgrades, and using the savings both to help maintain budget-threatened staff and to fund strategic IT initiatives.

"The worst recession since the 1930s has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record a States will continue to struggle to find the revenue needed to support critical public services for a number of years, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs."

Public Sector Facing Slashed Budgets, Job Cuts and Termination of Important Programs

With huge budget deficits looming in the years ahead and growing projected shortfalls, the biggest challenge for public sector organizations is no longer about operational efficiencies or process optimization a" ita™s about survival. An October, 2010 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research and policy institute, states: aThe worst recession since the 1930s has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record a States will continue to struggle to find the revenue needed to support critical public services for a number of years, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs.a¹ Top priorities now include saving jobs and preserving vital education, protection and social services.

Rimini Street replaces vendor annual support with immediate annual savings of at least 50 percent from the organizationa™s existing budget line item and up to 90 percent in total cost of maintenance, while providing an ultra-responsive support program with premium services. This provides immediate budget relief, allowing public sector organizations to use the savings to retain jobs and continue to fund vital services.

Pittsburgh Public Schools Saves Jobs and Programs with Rimini Street

The Pittsburgh Public School District (PPS) is the largest of 43 in Pennsylvaniaa™s Allegheny County, serving 28,000 students in 66 schools. The PPS technology department implemented PeopleSofta™s suite of applications to help manage the personnel and financial records for its 5,000 staff members. In 2008, along with the rest of the school districta™s departments, Director of Application Development Joe Charnock and Chief Information Officer Bud Bergie were told they had to cut a total of 15 percent from their budget.

After approaching Rimini Street and learning more about the Company by speaking with a number of existing clients, PPS made the switch from vendor support to Rimini Street. As a result of the switch, PPS:

• Met mandated budget cuts by saving 50 percent in annual support fees, while maintaining full staffing levels;
• Avoided expensive upgrade costs by continuing to run current stable releases;
• Enjoyed more prompt, targeted service a" guaranteed response within 30 minutes, 24/7;
• Received mission-critical tax, legal and regulatory updates ahead of the vendora™s own schedule.

aWith the current economic pressures in the public sector, we realized that switching to third-party support with Rimini Street was a sound solution that could offer us the most value for our budget,a said Charnock. Since moving to Rimini Street support, the Pittsburgh Public School District has saved more than 50 percent on annual support fees. aThe cost savings we realized with Rimini Street were immediate and significant, allowing us to meet our budget requirements, save jobs and more importantly, free up resources to focus on what is important, like funding programs that directly benefit the children in our district.a

Rimini Street Helps Public Sector Organizations Navigate Challenging Times

Rimini Street has helped more than 350 Global, Fortune 500, midmarket, and public sector organizations achieve their IT support objectives with significant annual cost savings. Dozens of Rimini Street public sector organizations are amongst the Rimini Street clients benefitting from their switch to third-party support. These organizations include educational institutions such as Detroit City Public Schools, Heald College, and Vanderbilt University; city governments such as Flint (Mich.), Ontario (Calif.), and the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Canada); counties such as Douglas County (Wis.), Frederick County (Md.), Oakland County (Mich.), and Spokane County (Wash.); non-profit organizations such as the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging; and other public sector organizations such as the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities and Sam Houston Electric Cooperative.

aAs public sector leaders look for help navigating their unprecedented economic challenges, Rimini Street is partnering with public sector organizations to ensure that they can immediately slash their enterprise software maintenance costs substantially and enjoy a premium level of service,a said Seth Ravin, Rimini Street CEO and president.aWe are committed to helping all our clients drive maximum value out of their existing enterprise software investments. Rimini Street is proud to help public sector organizations save now and far into the future by providing the ultra-responsive support and the tax, legal and regulatory updates they need to keep their current systems running smoothly for the next decade and beyond.a

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street is the leading third-party provider of enterprise software support services. The Company is redefining enterprise support services with an innovative, award-winning program that enables Oracle and SAP licensees to save at least 50 percent in annual support fees and save up to 90 percent in total support costs over a decade. Clients can remain on their current software release without any required upgrades or migrations for at least ten years. Hundreds of Global, Fortune 500, midmarket, and public sector organizations from virtually all industries have selected Rimini Street as their trusted, software vendor independent support provider. To learn more, please visit [ http://www.riministreet.com ] or call within the USA (888) 870-9692 or internationally +1 (702) 839-9671.

Rimini Street and the Rimini Street logo are trademarks of Rimini Street, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved.

¹ Elizabeth McNichol, Phil Oliff, and Nicholas Johnson, aStates Continue to Feel Recessiona™s Impact,a updated October 7, 2010, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, D.C., p. 1.