Spinnaker Support has finally stepped onto the South African stage, offering local enterprises a cost‑effective alternative to the pricey support contracts bundled with SAP and Oracle ERP systems. The US‑based third‑party support specialist entered the market in partnership with Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC), which has taken a minority stake in the venture. At the helm of the new South African operation is Teko Mojaki, appointed managing director, while Jon Gill – Spinnaker’s vice‑president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa – will steer the broader regional rollout.
A purpose‑built support centre now buzzes in Johannesburg, staffed by roughly 15 engineers and backed by Spinnaker’s global hubs, notably London, to align closely with South African business hours. Although the formal launch was announced this week, the company has been quietly signing customers for the past two years, with Telkom among the early adopters. Telkom’s chief digital officer, Sello Mmakau, disclosed that the operator has saved close to R800 million over five years by switching its Oracle support to Spinnaker, adding that price was only one factor in the decision.
Founded in 2008 in the United States to service Oracle JD Edwards users, Spinnaker broadened its portfolio four years later to include SAP, Oracle‑fusion applications and VMware. Today the firm serves more than 1 200 customers worldwide, operating delivery hubs in Denver, London, Dubai, Brazil and Melbourne. The South African launch marks the latest step in an ambitious expansion across emerging markets, positioning the company as a direct challenger to established OEM support providers.
Spinnaker Support South Africa delivers up to 65 % cost savings on ERP support
| Metric | Spinnaker Support | OEM Vendor (SAP/Oracle) |
|---|---|---|
| Support cost reduction | 55 %–65 % | 0 % (baseline) |
| Average annual savings per client | R4 million (approx.) | – |
| Upgrade avoidance | Up to A$40 million/year saved (Australian case) | Mandatory upgrade costs |
| Time‑to‑resolution | 2‑3 days* | 5‑7 days* |
*Based on internal benchmarks provided by Spinnaker
The table shows that Spinnaker’s pricing model can slash support expenses by more than half, while also helping customers dodge costly version upgrades that often deliver little business impact.
Spinnaker’s pitch centres on the belief that organisations should not be forced into expensive system upgrades that add no revenue. “Upgrading finance or manufacturing is not adding value to your business, right? It’s just operational,” founder and global CEO Mathew Stava asked the Johannesburg audience, challenging the narrative that vendors from Germany or the United States dictate inevitable change.
The company estimates that most clients will see 55‑65 % savings compared with vendor‑direct rates, but Stava insists the real benefit lies in avoiding unnecessary upgrades. He cited an Australian bank that was spending nearly A$40 million a year just to keep its Oracle databases on a supported version before switching to Spinnaker.
Local pricing in rand and a tangible on‑the‑ground presence are being touted as key differentiators from rivals such as Rimini Street. While Spinnaker primarily pursues a direct‑to‑client sales approach, it has also forged channel partnerships with firms like iqbusiness to broaden reach across the continent.
Beyond the immediate cost argument, Stava foresees a shift in the ERP landscape driven by agentic AI. According to him, organisations are beginning to migrate away from monolithic SAP and Oracle suites toward “best‑of‑breed” solutions that sit in data lakes, where AI can automate processes traditionally handled by ERP systems. “What I’m starting to see is less of the SAPs, and more best‑of‑breed software being pulled in for certain pieces of the process,” he explained.
That perspective meets resistance. Both SAP and Oracle are embedding AI assistants – SAP’s Joule and Oracle’s growing suite of AI agents – directly into their core ERP platforms, hoping to retain the centrality of their software in an increasingly modular world.
Spinnaker is betting on the next wave of open‑source demand. The firm announced plans to launch PostgreSQL support in the coming quarter, followed by MongoDB and MariaDB services. The move is driven by customers looking to migrate off Oracle and onto more flexible, cost‑effective databases. Locally, the priority remains building a robust engineering hub in Johannesburg that can serve the broader Africa region while feeding Spinnaker’s global delivery network.
“The goal is to earn the trust of our clients and show we’re here for the long haul,” Stava said, underscoring the company’s commitment to a lasting South African footprint. With ARC’s backing and a clear value proposition, Spinnaker Support South Africa appears poised to reshape how local organisations manage the maintenance and support of their critical ERP investments.