How Telkom Turned Oracle Support Savings into Digital Investment

When rising Oracle support costs began limiting Telkom’s ability to fund digital transformation, the South African telecommunications leader needed a smarter way to protect critical systems while freeing investment capacity. By moving key Oracle applications to Spinnaker Support’s third-party maintenance model, Telkom reduced costs, preserved operational stability, and created new financial headroom to advance its modernization agenda.

Telkom needed to reduce support costs without disrupting the systems that still ran the business.

As Group Chief Digital Officer, Selom Makaou was focused on a familiar executive problem: how to release capital for transformation without introducing operational risk. At Telkom, legacy systems were still essential, but the cost of maintaining them had become hard to justify. Licensing and support were significant IT cost drivers, and those expenses were competing with the company’s broader digital ambitions.

Much of Telkom’s Oracle environment continued to deliver business value, but the cost of maintaining those systems had become increasingly difficult to justify. Leadership needed a way to optimize spending while preserving stability across critical operations.

The issue was not cost alone. Any change in support had to protect service quality, reduce risk, and work inside a complex operating environment. Telkom also had to consider how a new provider would collaborate with internal teams and BCX, its system integrator within the group. For leadership, the decision had to stand up not only financially, but operationally and strategically.

As a regulated financial institution, the bank carried obligations under PCI DSS, Australia’s Essential Eight cybersecurity controls, and guidance from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Any move away from vendor support required confidence that those obligations could still be met. Security was a central concern in the evaluation.  

The decision was built on evidence, peer validation, and rigorous risk assessment.

Makaou did not treat third-party support as a leap of faith. He evaluated leading providers, reviewed their value propositions against Telkom’s business case, and sought outside validation through Gartner. He also spoke directly with organizations already using third-party support in Europe, the United States, and South Africa, including major enterprises and banks.

That diligence mattered. For Telkom, the right partner had to do more than promise savings. The provider needed a global footprint, strong engineering depth, and the ability to mitigate the risks that can come with moving support away from a traditional OEM model. Once Makaou was satisfied that the risks were manageable and the service model was sound, the case became easier to take to both the executive committee and the board.

The relationship with Spinnaker Support had already begun during an earlier SAP support evaluation. Although Telkom ultimately selected another provider for that engagement, the experience established credibility and trust. When Telkom later evaluated options for its Oracle environment, Spinnaker entered the process with a proven understanding of the organization’s requirements and operating model.

Spinnaker Support delivered responsive service, practical advice, and a model that fit Telkom’s ecosystem.

The engagement covered Oracle Hyperion, BRM Communications, Essbase, and other Oracle technologies supporting critical business operations. The immediate value was cost optimization, but the operating model mattered just as much. Telkom gained access to 24/7 support and the engineering expertise needed to resolve issues across time zones and service levels.

The relationship also extended beyond break-fix support. Makaou highlighted the advisory component as a meaningful differentiator, with Spinnaker helping Telkom think through day-to-day operations, risk management, and improvement opportunities without overloading internal resources.

Just as important, Spinnaker worked effectively alongside Telkom’s teams and BCX, integrating into the existing environment in a way that felt seamless rather than disruptive. The result was a support structure that strengthened operations while preserving the flexibility Telkom needed for future transformation initiatives.

Lower support costs gave Telkom financial headroom to invest in digital transformation while improving the service experience.

For Telkom, the business case proved out quickly. According to Makaou, the savings from Spinnaker Support were more than half of what Telkom had been paying before. That gave the company meaningful room to redirect funds into future-looking digital solutions and broader transformation initiatives.

The savings were only part of the story. Makaou said the quality of service exceeded expectations, challenging the assumption that lower cost must mean lower value. Around-the-clock support, accessible expertise, advisory input, and effective collaboration all contributed to a stronger overall experience.

Two years into the engagement, Telkom continues to benefit from substantial annual savings while maintaining the flexibility to modernize on its own timeline. With years of support runway still available, the organization has more freedom to decide when and how it invests in future platforms and technologies.