Spar in R35.8 million trouble thanks to botched software rollouts

Luis

Luis

Journalist
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2026
Messages
313
Reaction score
350
Spar in R35.8 million trouble thanks to botched software rollouts

Recent major software rollouts at South African retail giant Spar Group have been financially severe, with the company highlighting direct losses of R35.8 million.

In its latest interim financial results for the 26 weeks ended 27 March 2026, the retailer detailed the negative consequences of two significantly troubled software projects.
 
oros said:
Arrogance I'm smelling here that caused this....??
Click to expand...
Lack of attention to the importance of accurate data is usually the biggest problems in ERP system.

When you cant trust the underlying data, the whole system and project comes apart. You need Product information, stock levels and the processes controlling them to be watertight.

Its why even checkers cannot get their sixty60 app stock levels right. Their stock control processes are too reactive. They only know the stock totals are out when they do a weekly stock take. In the meantime, they will try to sell a missing box of Pro-Nutro to multiple people, the shopper will say its unavailable, the customer does not get what they want, and then the error only gets corrected at the next stock take.

Arrogance might well have played a role, where the decision makers underestimated how much work will be required to fix the problem, likely so they can under-bid on the contract. This is why, on a project of this scale, lowest bidder is a terrible metric to select a service provider on. Lowest bidder is fine if you need a component with exact specifications, not for complex projects.
 
I don't have such a short memory that I've forgotten that they announced in 2023 that a SAP rollout had cost them R1.6bn (with a "B"). Are they really still wasting money on this?

supermarket.co.za

Spar’s IT system failure has cost the company R1.6 billion

By: IOL NewsLocal retailer Spar has been hit hard this financial year and said on Thursday that it will have to withhold a final dividend to save cash after a huge IT system failure this year. In September, Spar informed its shareholders that the software system blunder had cost the compa...
supermarket.co.za supermarket.co.za
 
Sapphiron said:
Lack of attention to the importance of accurate data is usually the biggest problems in ERP system.

When you cant trust the underlying data, the whole system and project comes apart. You need Product information, stock levels and the processes controlling them to be watertight.

Its why even checkers cannot get their sixty60 app stock levels right. Their stock control processes are too reactive. They only know the stock totals are out when they do a weekly stock take. In the meantime, they will try to sell a missing box of Pro-Nutro to multiple people, the shopper will say its unavailable, the customer does not get what they want, and then the error only gets corrected at the next stock take.

Arrogance might well have played a role, where the decision makers underestimated how much work will be required to fix the problem, likely so they can under-bid on the contract. This is why, on a project of this scale, lowest bidder is a terrible metric to select a service provider on. Lowest bidder is fine if you need a component with exact specifications, not for complex projects.
Click to expand...
Does this really happen in the Sixty60 app? I have not heard of this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X