To streamline its IT operations and maintain its competitive edge in the local retail market, SPAR South Africa is undergoing a transformation of its digital strategy.

The SPAR Partner has deployed Microsoft Office 365 and is using the cloud computing service, Microsoft Azure, to reduce its server footprint by a third and its virtual machine count by half in just two years.

As a result, its system set-up time has been reduced from hours to just minutes and issues can now be quickly resolved with access to Microsoft Professional Direct support.

The current push for efficiency is part of a larger digital transformation effort that includes moving key on-premises IT workloads to the cloud.

SPAR South Africa has chosen to embrace the cloud sooner rather than later to stay ahead of the competition.

This move is about gaining independence more than just cutting costs, says Greg Hay, group technology and operations executive at The SPAR Group LTD: “The cloud gives us the flexibility and scalability we need to expand operations at will and not be constrained by the capacity limits of an on-premises IT infrastructure.

“At a tactical level, we’re using the Microsoft Cloud to implement practical steps that drastically reduce IT overhead and make us a nimbler company.”

Source: SPAR South Africa

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About SPAR South Africa

SPAR South Africa was established in 1963 and operates four retail formats: SPAR, SPAR Express (operated in conjunction with Shell as a petrol forecourt store), KWIKSPAR (which focuses on convenience in city centres and high footfall locations) and SUPERSPAR (similar to the European EUROSPAR Supermarket in offer and size).

South Africa was the first country outside of Europe to join the SPAR organisation and continues to grow; granting licences to independent retailers to operate stores under one of the four formats, with almost all of the current store portfolio being independently owned.