Third-Party Support Special: About the Third person — 2

INDIA: Sunil Padmanabh, Research Director, Gartner cautions. “Customers select such options based on the provider’s familiarity with the product. Confidence won’t come unless OEM part is certified, by SAP. By and large a customer may like it as an alternative proposition but certification or ability to map it on a particular vertical will be very important.”

That’s why it does not come as a surprise to find Rimini Street etching a loud mark in the market. This October, it announced that it has become the world’s first and only third-party enterprise software support provider to receive ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certification. This covered processes for client on boarding, building of client environments, and worldwide research, development and delivery of tax and regulatory updates.

It is now a formidable option to consider when it calls itself the maintenance and support provider for enterprise software, including Oracle Corporation Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and E-Business Suite software, and SAP AG software

Interestingly, the assessment focused on a wide range of requirements, including management commitment to quality, customer focus, adequacy of the organization’s resources, employee training, process management, quality planning, design, purchasing, process monitoring and measurement, and processes put in place to gather client feedback and utilize that feedback for corrective, preventive and improvement actions.

"The responsiveness and quality of Rimini Street's support has been impressive," said Joel Gibbons, senior manager for enterprise systems, National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organization in the press release.

“Becoming the first and only ISO-certified provider of third-party software support services is an important next milestone in our quality commitment to our global clients,” Brian Slepko, senior vice president, global operations, Rimini Street added proudly.

The company also announced delivery of its Tax, Legal and Regulatory Update 2011-E. Update 2011-E contains critical tax, legal, and regulatory updates for the U.S., including deliverables to assist organizations in preparing for U.S. and Canadian 2011 year-end reporting and visibility into the remaining year-end updates.

The point that catches attention is that it claims confidently that like all previous tax, legal, and regulatory updates, Rimini Street provided the update ahead of the software vendors' own planned release dates for equivalent updates.

As to how much of these promises by the third-party providers are worth switching for, let's find out the CIO's angle to understand it better. In the next part.