As software firms spent the last 12 months fending off fears of a “SaaSpocalypse”, with investors worried about the impact of AI development and an increase in in-house automation, third-party support providers have so far avoided most of the scrutiny.
“People are seeing that they can bring in-house business process optimisation, workflow automation, and other kinds of automation for ERP-related tasks,” admitted Rimini Street CTO Eric Helmer during a recent interview with The Stack. But where does that leave third-party support companies, like Rimini, that have so far benefited from licensing changes and enterprise moves to decouple from proprietary software?
According to Helmer, AI-driven work to bring processes in-house shouldn't be confused with a move from break/fix support: “You need that industrial, carnal knowledge of how an ERP works. So that when this thing goes down, or is otherwise unavailable, you need somebody on that immediately to get it back up and running.”
Nevertheless, SaaSpocalypse fears, the increase of “headless” options opening software up to AI services, and AI investments by software giants like SAP and Oracle raise questions about the future of third-party support services.
