Dis-Chem Archives - 51��Africa News Center

African 51��Users Showcase Real-world Innovation at SAPHILA 2025

51��News — Tue, 27 May 2025 07:43:25 +0000

Real-life African customer experiences and transformation journeys will be a strong focus at this year’s , the local biennial 51��user conference.

A number of leading local organisations will take to the stage to share their successes, challenges and lessons learned in leveraging 51��technologies at the upcoming event, which is set to take place from 01 to 03 June 2025 at Sun City in South Africa’s North-West Province.

Day one of SAPHILA features an Executive Fireside Chat, where , SAP’s SVP and GM for Middle East Africa – South, will host a panel discussion with , the City of Johannesburg’s Group Chief Technology Officer, and , Deputy Director-General: eGovernment and Chief Government Information Officer at the South African Department of Public Service and Administration.

Also on the first day of the conference , Head of Applications, and , Chief Information Officer (CIO) of , will discuss how the pharmaceutical retail group effectively de-risked and accelerated its S/4HANA RISE transformation. In addition, , ’s 51��Extended Services Manager, will highlight Aspen’s metamorphosis.

Day two of SAPHILA continues the customer-centric theme, with several prominent African organisations set to share their 51��journeys.

Dinesh Ramasamy of Said Salim Bakhresa & Company, the flagship company of the Bakhresa Group, will present on its experience in the deployment, consumption and adoption of 51��technologies.
Sasol’s Vice President of Supply Chain Services and Leverage Sourcing, Hendrik Steynberg, will unpack the company’s story in a session titled ‘Transforming Procurement: Sasol’s Journey to Innovation and Efficiency with 51��Solutions’.
From Mozambique, Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) – the country’s national energy company – will share its success with 51��S/4 RISE and SuccessFactors, presented by Director of Information Systems, Inácio Mateus Fumo.
In the local transport sector, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (PRASA) Vukile Nduli will explore how it is leveraging 51��to digitise and track assets, creating a digital twin framework that enhances visibility and control.
Further insights will be shared by Nick Jackson, CIO of the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, discussing the expansion of the company’s public cloud ERP system with 51��SuccessFactors.
Dis-Chem returns to the stage with Dawid Oelofse, Supply Chain Executive, revealing how the group has implemented over 100 automated warehouse management processes.
Tatenda Mandeya, Group IT Manager at Northern Tobacco will co-present with Carsten Friedman of 51��on how IT supports sustainability in tobacco sourcing in rural Zimbabwe.
Tiger Brands’ Ntsako Ngobeni, S&OP Capability Manager, will explain how the food and beverage giant has reimagined its planning function to enable end-to-end optimisation and improved working capital efficiency.
Nedbank’s Justin Tobias will present with Felix Chebeli from Strafore Tech the bank’s success in test automation using Tricentis and 51��Solution Manager.
Simon Marlin, GM of IT at Toyota South Africa Motors, will walk the audience through Toyota’s S/4HANA transition.
Ashlita Barlow, Head of Retail Technologies at the Shoprite Group, will showcase how 51��Fiori and BTP are driving business changeby improving stock availability, ensuring transaction accuracy, and reducing waste.
Rounding out the customer stories, Regardt Wolvaardt, Solutions Architect at PG Group, will share insights on how digital supply chain planning has enabled unified operations.
Finally, Chris Kien, Enterprise Solution Architect at Implats, will present on driving efficiency and agility through the organisation’s 51��S/4HANA transformation.

“SAPHILA has always been about more than just technology – it’s a space for meaningful collaboration, shared learning, and community,”

explains Amanda Gibbs, AFSUG CEO.

“In 2025, we’re placing an even greater spotlight on African success stories, because our local customers have such valuable experiences to share. It’s important that we learn from each other, celebrate progress and inspire the next wave of transformation across the continent,”

she concludes.

The post African 51��Users Showcase Real-world Innovation at SAPHILA 2025 appeared first on 51��Africa News Center.

Dis-Chem Improves System Health with a Cost-effective Migration to HANA

EPI-USE Labs — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:28:01 +0000

Dis-Chem Pharmacies is a large retail pharmaceutical chain in South Africa with an aggressive growth path.

Dis-Chem has been South Africa’s first choice in pharmacies since 1978, with their linked dispensaries, family clinics, wound-care clinics and comprehensive self-medication centres. As a leading specialist in beauty, sport supplements, health and well-being, they offer expert advice and a wide range of products in these categories.

The Dis-Chem Story

Requirement: New infrastructure and move to HANA

In 2018 Dis-Chem decided to invest in new infrastructure and align their choice of platform with the 51��roadmap.
The outcome was to migrate all non-HANA databases to HANA. Dis-Chem considered this an attractive commercial opportunity
as a result of previous HANA migration projects, as well as having a positive commercial impact through the elimination of DB2
licence costs on all 51��instances.

Solution: Migration to HANA on-premise and Managed Services

Dis-Chem considered both cloud and on-premise options, selecting on-premise with new hardware. They selected EPI-USE Labs
and First Technology, using Hitachi equipment. This decision was influenced by a successful BI HANA migration, as well as the
hyperconverged solution which EPI-USE Labs implemented in 2016.

The EPI-USE Labs Managed Services team undertook this project by migrating each 51��system landscape separately, as planned in
collaboration with Dis-Chem. The following system landscapes were migrated to newly acquired infrastructure, in this order:

Re-platforming of the 51��Business Warehouse (BW) landscape
51��Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) landscape (DMO Migration DB2 -> HANA)
51��ECC HR landscape (DMO migration DB2 -> HANA)
51��PI migration landscape (DB2 -> HANA)
51��ECC FILO landscape (DMO migration, combining a Unicode conversion and DB2 -> HANA)

Aside from the above, the Fiori Gateway and Solution Manager systems were also migrated to HANA DB.

As part of the solution, EPI-USE Labs integrated innovative solutions including Unified Platform™ to monitor, automate and
orchestrate this complex landscape; Data Sync Manager™ to aid in maintaining refreshed non-productive systems; and Client
Central™ as an incident and change management tracking facility.

EPI-USE Labs is providing ongoing Managed Services that comprise 51��monitoring and housekeeping, break fixes and ticket
resolution against an SLA, support pack and 51��note technical upgrades, proactive Basis processes, 51��Platform and Basis advisory and a regular set of non-productive client refreshes.

“The EPI-USE Labs and First Technology teams delivered the project in record time with flying colours. The migration was seamless, and they overcame all the technical barriers with ease. Their communication was very good throughout; they kept our stakeholders well-informed, and aligned expectations. And they’ve continued to provide us with excellent support.”
Kim Sim, Chief Information and Innovation Officer, Dis-Chem Pharmacies

About Dis-Chem

Dis-Chem Pharmacies is a large retail pharmaceutical chain in South Africa with an aggressive growth path.
Dis-Chem has been South Africa’s first choice in pharmacies since 1978, with their linked dispensaries, family clinics, wound-care clinics and comprehensive self-medication centres. As a leading specialist in beauty, sport supplements, health and well-being, they offer expert advice and a wide range of products in these categories.
§ Founded in 1978 by pharmacists Ivan and Lynette Saltzman
§ Over 150 stores in Africa and more than 18,000 employees
§ Listed 27.5% of its issued share capital on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in November 2016
§ The Dis-Chem Foundation provides care and support to improve the lives of individuals while relieving the burden on communities, families and friends

This case study first appeared on

The post Dis-Chem Improves System Health with a Cost-effective Migration to HANA appeared first on 51��Africa News Center.

Dis-Chem Acquiring a R502m Distribution Centre to Launch Store Growth

Business Report — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 07:24:37 +0000

Dis-Chem Pharmacies’ imminent acquisition of a 63 000 square metre distribution centre would add warehouse capacity for the group to double its store count and grow market share in the independent market, the group said Friday.

The group said in their annual results that it was in the final stages of entering into an agreement to acquire the distribution centre in Gauteng.

The new distribution centre investment comes at a time when retail sales generally are flagging, with Statistics South Africa last week reporting that retail sales fell 1.6% in March year-on-year, 0.3% in February and 1.6% in January. Some economists have warned SA might slip into a recession this year.

“The rapid growth of the group has necessitated the need for additional warehouse capacity to service increased demand from both our own retail stores and the independent market. The warehouse will be debt funded.”

A new loan facility with Standard Bank of R455m would fund the acquisition of warehouse properties.

The group admits there are headwinds in its new financial year, as it expects the South African consumer will continue to face financial hardship, while load shedding related cost increases were also likely to negatively impact group earnings.

This was in spite of early investment in generator capacity that resulted in minimal disruption to the ability to trade in the past year, but the diesel expense increased by 65% to R91m over the period.

Ivan Saltzman announced last week he was stepping down as CEO at the end of June, and that chief financial officer Rui Morais would succeed him. Saltzman (73), co-founded Dis-Chem with his wife Lynette in 1978 – she stepped down as an executive director last year. Ivan Saltzman would remain a board director and continue to serve as an executive management team member.

The group said Friday the succession implementation would ensure a “smooth leadership transition and executive management’s commitment to deliver on the group’s strategic ambitions over the long-term.”

The final dividend was 8.7% lower at 18.45 cents, but the total 2023 dividend was up 17.3% to 46.57 cents.

The group said the result was pleasing considering the abnormal shopping patterns after Covid-19 and the weak economy.

During the period, Dis-Chem said it had continued to increase its dispensary market share.

Thirteen retail pharmacy stores were opened to February 28, 8 were closed (all former Medicare stores) and 8 retail baby stores were opened. Twelve Baby Boom stores were acquired, resulting in 258 retail pharmacy stores and 54 retail baby stores at the end of February 2023.

Retail revenue grew 6.5% to R28.9bn with comparable store revenue at 3.3%. Retail revenue growth was impacted by Covid-19 vaccine and testing in the prior period compared to the current period and if this was excluded from both periods, retail revenue grew by 8.4%.

Wholesale revenue grew 10.4% to R24.2bn. Wholesale revenue to own retail stores, still the biggest contributor, grew by 9.6%, while external revenue to independent pharmacies and The Local Choice (TLC) franchises grew by 7.7% and 23.9% respectively.

The TLC growth was due to an increase in TLC franchise stores from 147 to 171, with increasing support of the supply chain from existing TLC franchisees. Independent pharmacy growth was attributed to new customers and more support from the current base.

Total income grew 15.7% to R10.2bn, exceeding the targeted 30% total income margin eighteen months sooner than initially anticipated.

On April 1, 2022, 100% of the shares of CT Distribution Proprietary, KZN Warehouse Proprietary and Eleadora Proprietary were acquired. It was a related party transaction due to the companies acquired being owned by directors, previous directors and prescribed officers of Dis-Chem, who are also shareholders of Dis-Chem.

The acquisitions resulted in the release of the lease liability and right-of-use asset on the statement of financial position resulting in a R72m gain in the income statement.

When this gain was excluded, wholesale total income grew 18.3% with the wholesale margin at 8%.

This increase was attributable to a higher contribution of more profitable pharmacy volume following the Medicare acquisition, and a focus on increasing fees earned on increasing wholesale scale.

Retail expenses grew by 15.8% as the group invested in new stores and acquisitions. Employee costs increased 14.5%, IT costs including the new point-of-sale system increased by 32%, and there was additional advertising spend due to retail trade normalisation.

Wholesale expenses grew by 12.2%, mainly driven by a 10% increase in employee costs due to inflationary pressure, a 56% increase in diesel costs, unrealised and realised forex losses totalling R43m as a result of exchange rate weakness, as well as higher IT costs with the stock management system being migrated to a 51��hosted cloud solution.

This article first appeared here:

The post Dis-Chem Acquiring a R502m Distribution Centre to Launch Store Growth appeared first on 51��Africa News Center.

Dis-Chem Archives - 51����Africa News Center

African 51����Users Showcase Real-world Innovation at SAPHILA 2025

Real-life African customer experiences and transformation journeys will be a strong focus at this year’s , the local biennial 51����user conference.