Flexitech, a leading global supplier of brake and cooling hoses with production facilities across all major automotive regions, has shifted to Rimini Street’s third-party SAP support to enhance system stability, reduce costs, and refocus resources towards strategic initiatives, compliance, and innovation in automotive technology.
Flexitech is one of the world’s leading suppliers of brake and cooling hoses for the automotive industry, with manufacturing facilities across Europe, Asia, North America and South America, making it the only brake hose supplier present in all four major automotive regions. Flexitech’s technology is embedded in millions of vehicles worldwide, from combustion to hybrid, electric and hydrogen-powered models.
“We are a leader in Europe and North America and are experiencing strong growth in Asia. We supply US brands like General Motors and Tesla, as well as German OEMs such as BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes, and Jaguar Land Rover in the UK. We also ship to prestigious brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Jaguar, Maserati and Rolls-Royce,” Thierry Le Gouanvic, CIO at Flexitech, explained. “What we do is very concrete and tangible. We can see it every day in the cars on the street, in the car with our family, where what we’re doing is applied to keep people safe.”
Flexitech operates two major manufacturing hubs in Romania (serving the European market) and one Mexico (serving the American market), with additional plants in Brazil and China and a subsidiary in Italy supporting the aftermarket. A centralized IT team of approximately 15 professionals, led by CIO Thierry Le Gouanvic and primarily based in France, supports these operations across multiple time zones.
Flexitech takes control of its SAP roadmap
Flexitech’s SAP ECC 6 environment had proven stable and reliable for many years. However, rising SAP maintenance costs prompted a reassessment of the value received from vendor support. As regulatory pressure increased and competition in the automotive market accelerated, the manufacturer needed to ensure its SAP environment remained stable, compliant, secure and flexible – without diverting resources away from strategic initiatives.
“We had been working directly with SAP for many years, but the maintenance services were costly, and the value added was questionable in comparison,” said Le Gouanvic. “Our SAP platform is very stable, and we didn’t have a business case to migrate other than the end of vendor support for ECC 6. Then we discovered Rimini Street’s third-party software support.”
With Rimini Support™ for SAP, Flexitech preserved the stability of its ECC 6 platform and gained the ability to:
- Extend the life of existing SAP systems for 15+ years without forced migrations
- Save 50% annual support fees, with additional savings by avoiding a disruptive move to S/4HANA
- Receive expert Level 4 support, including French-language engineers and industry-leading SLAs
- Meet global compliance requirements through Rimini Street’s fast Legislature-to-Live™ tax, legal and regulatory update services
- Achieve business-driven flexibility instead of vendor-mandated upgrades
“The strategic move to Rimini Street freed up significant budget while giving us faster, better support, and we were able to extend the life of our very stable SAP ECC 6 platform for at least 15 additional years without feeling pressure to take on a disruptive move to S/4HANA,” Le Gouanvic said.
Switching to Rimini Street empowers Flexitech with funds, focus and flexibility to pursue strategic initiatives
Automotive OEMs increasingly require suppliers to comply with strict information security standards, including TISAX, an assessment and exchange mechanism that governs the processing of sensitive customer information. Without compliance, Flexitech risked losing business with some of its largest customers.
By choosing Rimini Street, Flexitech redirected resources toward TISAX audit preparation and strengthening system security. According to Le Gouanvic, “Investing in security and compliance is not a nice-to-have, it’s a constant, growing effort. For the 2026 e-invoicing compliance, Rimini Street will help us implement the system changes that will be required to be compliant with digital invoicing and reporting, where we’ll have changes to apply in our systems.”
“Very recently, there was another regulatory evolution in Europe that impacted our Romanian and French operations, related to the format of bank interchange files. We used Rimini Street’s Tax, Legal and Regulatory Service to help us through that too,” he shared.
Additionally, Le Gouanvic was able to reallocate time to update Flexitech’s Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to improve the quality and efficiency of its manufacturing operations. “The funds we saved, and the system stability achieved by moving to Rimini Street have empowered us to reinvest our people, time and money towards initiatives that put us at the forefront of innovation,” said Le Gouanvic.
A trusted partner with a deep bench of expertise and capabilities
With Rimini Street handling SAP, Flexitech’s IT team can focus on growth initiatives, including potential expansion in Asia, acquisitions and exploring new hose technologies that support increasingly sophisticated vehicle designs.
“We’re planning to invest in diversification in other types of hoses, which is another trend in the automotive market,” said Le Gouanvic. “Cars are increasingly sophisticated with onboard features and appliances that require hoses, for example, to maintain a fridge in the car or to move air or liquid for additional features in windshields or fans.”
By moving away from a vendordriven support model, Flexitech now controls its IT roadmap – preserving a stable ERP foundation while funding innovation and longterm competitiveness.
“If we decide to acquire competitors or set up new manufacturing facilities in Asia or diversify into new types of hoses for cars, Rimini Street gives us the flexibility to support and optimize SAP to align with our strategic direction,” said Le Gouanvic. “Rimini Street’s extensive capabilities and experienced team give us confidence that whatever our next step – acquisitions, new manufacturing sites or product diversification – our SAP systems will be supported and optimized to match our strategy.”
