Procurement transformation at Lebanon’s oldest university
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Procurement transformation at Lebanon’s oldest university
The American University of Beirut (AUB) has been a pioneer for over 150 years. AUB became a co-educational institution in 1924, some 50 years before Harvard, Yale, or Princeton University. Today, one of its alumna, Hanan Itani Ramdan, is helping to drive transformation within the university’s procurement operations
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he American University of Beirut is the oldest university in Lebanon and one of the oldest in the region. Founded in 1866, it bases its educational philosophy, standards, and practices on the American liberal arts model of higher education. It is a teaching-centred research university with around 800 instructional faculty staff and a student body of around 8,000 students. “I joined AUB in 1989 as an Assistant Director of Purchasing
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with no experience in the field. It was difficult for the team to accept me as their supervisor being a young, inexperienced female,” explains Hanan Itani Ramadan, Director of Procurement and Contracts Administration. “However, I was able to prove myself by revamping the procedures and practices and introducing efficiencies into the process. As a result, I gained the trust and respect of the team, users and suppliers.” Despite this challenging start, Itani became an expert in her field. In 2002, she was promoted to the position of Director of Purchasing. “I played an important role in adopting the latest technologies to automate the transactional process and was able to keep up the performance of the department. In 2013, I started driving the transformation and restructuring process of the department and was promoted to Director of Procurement and Contracts Administration,” she reveals.
The ultimate goal The role that Itani and her department
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play is integral to the operations at the department, Itani has witnessed AUB. “As a department, our ultimate how procurement has changed at goal is to provide a centre of expertise, AUB over the years. “Purchasing provide superior value to our university as a function was perceived as users and optimise the performance an accessory component in the of the organisation. Today we are university and was merely playing engaged with the users and the a servicing role,” Itani comments. faculty members from the initial Since early 2013, major changes have phases of when they identify their been introduced to the department needs,” Itani advises. “We are to address the challenges, providing to them guidance such as the need to and support through manage and control The American University all the phases of the the large database of Beirut is the oldest purchasing process.” of the suppliers university in Lebanon and Indeed, the and cope with the one of the oldest in the concept of optimum rapidly changing region. It was founded in value for money has technological become embedded advancement in everyday decisionin the field of IT, making management consolidate and centralise for all aspects of AUB contracting activity, and expenditure. “Our focus shifted develop a customer service section. towards improving the quality and “In order to address all these timeliness of our services, installing needs, we decided to restructure best practices, and increasing the organisation of the department,” awareness and use throughout Itani explains. The transformation the university,” remarks Itani. started by changing the name of the department from purchasing Major changes to procurement and contract With 28 years’ experience within administration. “The change
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“It was difficult for the team to accept me as their supervisor being a young inexperienced female. I was able to prove myself through revamping the procedures and practices and introducing efficiencies into the process” – Hanan Itani Ramadan, Director of Procurement and Contracts Administration properly reflects the expansion of functions, evolution in the roles of the transactional base, and a more customer-focused type of operation,” she adds. “Later on, in early 2014, the first reports that were produced showed a positive impact on the sourcing process in terms of cost saving and in terms of timeliness of the operation.”
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The increased customer focus has certainly been of core importance to the department’s operations. “One of the key elements in improving our cost saving margin is innovation. Learning about users’ needs early in the process helps us better understand the requirements and research the market for economical alternatives,” explains Itani.
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Investing in training To achieve such transformation in procurement, significant investments have been made in the department’s staff. “In the department, we’re always investing in training and upgrading the skills of the team because we depend on the communications, knowhow and expertise of the team in procurement,” explains Itani. There are 22 employees within the team, spread across five units – supplier risk management, compliance and customer support, international sourcing, local sourcing, and contracts administration. Such investment in the team helps
to make AUB an attractive employer to the best candidates within the field. AUB has been ranked as one of the most attractive employers in the world by the 2018 QS Graduate Employability Rankings, due to its excellent reputation, benefits, and motivating work environment. AUB was also ranked the top university in the Arab region by the international QS University Rankings for the year 2017/18. “I would like to emphasise the importance of the leadership’s attention to and support of our vision and talent as a department,” states
Hanan Itani Ramadan
Director of Procurement and Contracts Administration Hanan Itani Ramadan is the Director of Procurement and Contracts Administration at the American University of Beirut. Over the past 28 years she has assumed various roles of increasing levels of responsibility in procurement, having started as Assistant Director of Purchasing in 1989, promoted to Director in 2002, and then Director of Procurement and Contracts in 2013.Currently, Itani manages a team of 22 members responsible for all procurement activities, strategic sourcing, contracting, and supplier management. While at AUB, Itani played an essential role in streamlining the procurement processes and implementing an e-procurement system where 90% of the transactions have been automated. Itani first earned a Bachelor Degree in Environmental Health, followed by a Masters Degree in Health Care Administration from the American University of Beirut in 1987, and received her CIPP in 2015. She serves on several administrative committees at AUB and is a NLPA member.
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Itani. “This played a major role in the success of the transformation. If we didn’t have the leadership, attention, and support we would not have been able to achieve this transformation.”
A bold future Having celebrated a major milestone last year, AUB as a whole is already focusing on the future. “This year, AUB launched a campaign called the Boldly AUB Campaign. This campaign looks ahead to the next 150 years because last year we celebrated our 150-year anniversary and now we’re looking ahead, we’re planning for the next 150 years. We have a long list of plans, expansions, and investments,” Itani notes. The five main components of the campaign are education and research, healthcare, innovation and entrepreneurship, community relevance, and sustainability. “AUB looks forward to creating new micro-economies, contributing to the flourishing of SMEs in Lebanon and the region,” she concludes.
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American University of Beirut P.O.Box 11-0236 / Riad El-Solh / Beirut 1107 2020 Lebanon +961-1-340460 visitors@aub.edu.lb