South African businesses are paying for software upgrades they never asked for

Each year, South African businesses pay hundreds of millions of rands to maintain software that is already working. Not to grow. Not to innovate. Simply to keep their systems supported, on timelines and at costs set by the same global companies that sold them the software. For most, this has been accepted without question.

But this situation is starting to change, and the numbers explain why. Companies that have moved away from vendor-driven software support are reporting savings of between 55% and 65% on what they previously paid. In practical terms, that is money that stays in the business, and can be redirected toward growth, jobs and initiatives that actually move the organisation forward.

Spinnaker Support, backed by African Rainbow Capital, has formally launched in South Africa to give local businesses access to that alternative. Founded in the United States in 2008, the company now supports more than 1 200 organisations across 100 countries.

Its model is straightforward: Maintain the enterprise software systems that businesses already rely on, at a fraction of what the original vendor charges, without forcing anyone to upgrade systems that are already performing well.

At the company’s launch event in Johannesburg, global CEO Mathew Stava spoke plainly about the problem Spinnaker was built to solve. “Upgrading finance or manufacturing is not adding value to your business. If it works and it functions really, really well, why are you changing it based upon what a company is telling you out of Germany?”

Leading the South African operation is Teko Mojaki, appointed as managing director. Mojaki spent over two decades in enterprise technology, most recently as a partner at PwC Africa, where he led the firm’s SAP practice across the continent.

He spent years watching South African organisations spend money on technology changes they were not ready for, driven not by business need but by external pressure from vendors whose interests did not always align with those of their customers.

“In South Africa, every major technology investment is under pressure to show return on investment,” says Mojaki. “More organisations are now asking harder questions about support costs, upgrade timing and whether they really have to move when the vendor says they must. It’s a conversation that’s long overdue.”

For South African businesses, the local dimension of Spinnaker’s offering matters. The company’s South African operation is priced in rands, removing the currency risk that often inflates the true cost of working with offshore technology providers. The Johannesburg team already employs around 15 people, with a stated commitment to building a local engineering hub that serves businesses across the African continent and contributes toward high-skill employment in the sector.

Stava was direct about the long-term vision. “We want to earn the trust of those clients. It’s important that we’re going to be here a long time.”

For South African organisations that have spent years adapting to software decisions they had no real say in, Spinnaker’s entry into the market offers something that has not existed here before: a genuine choice about who maintains their systems, what they pay and when they choose to change.

Image credit: Magnific/DC Studio