Rimini Street CEO sounds death knell on ERP software

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that has served as the backbone of large enterprises for decades is on its deathbed, according to Seth Ravin, CEO of technology services firm Rimini Street.

In a recent interview with Computer Weekly in Singapore, he argued that the era of monolithic ERP systems from companies like SAP and Oracle is ending, destined to be replaced by what he dubbed as “ERP agentic processes”.

“ERP software, we’ve declared, will be dead in five to 10 years,” said Ravin. “AI has been an extinction event for that generation of software.”

Rimini Street, a company that built its name by providing third-party support for legacy ERP systems and saving enterprises from expensive, supplier-mandated upgrades, is now looking to help customers transition to a new technology era where AI agents run complex business processes across the enterprise.

But more than just about technology, Ravin said the move towards agentic AI is a response to a volatile business environment marked by deglobalisation, supply chain disruptions and fluctuating trade tariffs – which require a more agile and cost-effective operating model than what traditional ERP systems offer.

While legacy ERP systems will not disappear overnight – Rimini Street has announced it will support them until at least 2040 – Ravin is convinced the move to an agentic world is the biggest technological leap since the dawn of the internet.

“To me, this is like the internet part two,” he said, noting the fact that his 84-year-old mother is using AI to analyse her medical reports is a sign of how quickly the technology is becoming mainstream.

To help enterprises running ERP systems harness agentic AI, Rimini Street has teamed up with ServiceNow, a major player in digital workflow automation. The partnership, brokered by Ravin and ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott – his former rival when McDermott headed SAP – combines ServiceNow’s technology with Rimini Street’s deep expertise in ERP processes.

Specifically, Ravin said Rimini Street will use ServiceNow’s ERP modernisation products to build new agentic ERP processes over current ERP systems. “Their technology, married up with our knowhow of ERP, is what creates the one-plus-one-equals-three equation when we go to market together,” he said.

For those daunted by AI deployments, Rimini Street is also offering an AI explorer pack that lets enterprises set up a non-production environment to experiment with agentic AI and allow their teams to get hands-on experience.

To be sure, Rimini Street is entering a fiercely contested space. The very ERP suppliers it has criticised are not ceding ground, and are aggressively building generative and agentic AI capabilities for customers. They have long argued that the deepest and most contextually aware AI comes from being integrated within the core ERP product, leveraging decades of business process data.

For example, SAP has started introducing Joule agents across its cloud applications to simplify processes and automate tasks. Similarly, Oracle has embedded over 50 generative AI capabilities into its Fusion line of business applications, designed to improve reporting, manage supply chains and enhance customer experience. Oracle also offers an AI agent studio for customers to build custom agents.

Ravin acknowledged the potential for job disruption from the growing use of AI, estimating it could cut 40% of administrative roles. However, he noted that governments and educational institutions across the region are already preparing for what lies ahead.

“You’ve got Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in this region, where everybody wants to be a leader in AI,” he said. “They fear that if they do not, they are going to fall behind. It’s a national imperative.”

To support its growth in Asia, Rimini Street is setting up a new global capability centre in Kuala Lumpur, with plans to hire up to 1,000 engineers and other staff to serve the region. The company is also partnering with Sunway University, located near its office in the Malaysian capital, to create a pipeline of fresh talent.

Ravin noted that Asia continues to be one of the company’s fastest-growing markets. “I’m here probably three times this year, to give you some sense of the amount of business that’s happening,” he said.