Evolution, not defeat, says Pick n` Pay

Pick n` Pay has lashed out at critics who say the national retailer spent over R350 million "reinventing the wheel" by developing a customised retail management system, known by the acronym, ARMS.

This follows an article that appeared in Finance Week on 1 June, alleging that Pick 'n Pay`s decision to stop developing its own IT system in favour of the mySAP enterprise resource planning solution, raises the corporate white flag of defeat.

"ARMS is the evolution of Pick 'n Pay`s base legacy system which runs the entire retail group and has cost R200 million to date, including hardware, security and development costs," says Pick 'n Pay spokesman Bronwyn Rohland.

"Moving to SAP does not mean we have raised a 'white flag of defeat`, but have recognised a better way forward in a progressing and changing world," says Rohland.

The Finance Week report claimed that the R350 million spent included 200 computer servers that were bought five years ago, but never used.

Rohland says Pick 'n Pay acknowledges that with the evolution of technology and the increasing complexity of organisations, there will always be some elements of redundancy. She says 1 500 Sun network computers were purchased for the company-wide ARMS implementation, 1 300 for stores and 200 for spares.

Finance Week claimed Pick 'n Pay tried to implement ARMS at its Australian subsidiary Franklin`s, with disastrous results, but Rohland denies ARMS was ever deployed at Franklin`s, saying the subsidiary went straight from the legacy system to SAP.

"It was the introduction of a new supply chain model which necessitated a move from the legacy software, which supported a decentralised supply chain model. The mySAP solution facilitates an 'end to end` visibility of supply chain processes and controls," says Rohland.

Pick 'n Pay has been developing its own IT systems for the past two decades. However, Rohland says the company now believes it is a more cost-effective model to migrate from its traditional system in favour of the SAP solution to meet the complexity of its business requirements.