Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) has switched to Rimini Street for support of its Oracle applications.

The move will allow the organisation to continue using its current oracle software without forcing it into upgrades. The education provider will also receive more responsive and robust support.

MIT says the change will also help them gain the flexibility to develop their future IT roadmap, providing better solutions for students and staff with the support of Rimini Street.

The educational institute hosts 11,000 students on five campuses and provides technical, vocational and professional training education on a variety of subjects, including hairdressing, automotive, engineering, and digital technologies. The nursing school also provides a unique opportunity for Māori and Pacific students to study cultural health care practices and learnings to best support their communities.

MIT runs several Oracle applications critical to the institute, including finance, student management and data warehousing.

A problem arose, however, when the vendors providing MIT's student management and finance services decided to move away from Oracle support, as each application had been earmarked by the vendor with end-of-life dates where full support would cease in 2023. This means they would have faced costly upgrades to the latest versions in order to remain fully supported by the software vendor.

"We were in a bind. We knew the software vendors support for each Oracle application would cease next year, but we wanted to continue using our current applications," says MIT head of technology Gerald Masters.

"Our current Oracle version was stable, and there was no reason for us to move off it other than Oracle saying we had to."

Rimini Street took the project on board and helped successfully support the advancement of the roadmap as the institution looked to the future, he says.

"Rimini Street stepped up with a unique value proposition and service solution. They could keep us on our current version, which meant we could avoid upgrading to a new Oracle version, at great expense, that we didn't want or need.

"Rimini Street will provide support for our existing system while giving us the flexibility to decide our next steps in our IT roadmap without pressure. This was a key reason why we made the shift as it really helps us out of a tough situation with a great solution."

Rimini Street group VP and regional general manager for Oceania Daniel Benad says the company is committed to supporting organisations of all sizes and in all sectors to achieve their digital IT goals.

"Our goal is to ensure our clients support needs are met, whatever they may be," he says.

"Many organisations are pushed into costly, unnecessary and disruptive upgrades by enterprise software companies, because they don't know about Rimini Street's proven alternative support programs that do not require upgrades or migrations. MIT proves that you can avoid both upgrades and disruptions by turning to Rimini Street support and gaining years of application and technology roadmap flexibility."