Leading the IT Procurement Transformation
DIGITAL REPORT 2021
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Leading the IT Procurement Transformation
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Mariam Saad, Director of Procurement, IT & Technology Services at TELUS, discusses the importance of digital transformation and partner ecosystems
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Mariam Saad, Director of Procurement, IT & Technology Services at TELUS
ne of Canada's largest telecommunications companies, TELUS, is leading the way in terms of digitally transforming its operations using advanced technologies to drive efficiencies. In 2020 the organisation won the Digital Transformation Award under the AI-fueled Digital Transformation category from IT World Canada (ITWC). This award was presented to TELUS in recognition of its industry-leading innovation for AI chatbots and robotic process automation (RPA) solutions. While TELUS became a national Canadian brand in 2000, its history dates back to the late 1800s when Alberta Government Telephones was founded to provide telephone lines for people in the western province. When the company was reorganised, it became part of the newly established TELUS Corporation, and sales of TELUS shares were the largest initial public offering in Canadian history up to that point, raising $896 million. Following a merger with BC TELECOM, and acquiring Clearnet, TELUS is today one of Canada's largest technology companies and a leading national telecoms provider. But as Director of Procurement in IT & Technology Services Mariam Saad tells us, now they are focusing on growing several new verticals including home security, agriculture, and health. Saad has a background in sales. After studying international business and marketing she completed a leadership telus.com
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" Bringing our data into the Google Cloud Platform will enable us to clean the data, create actionable insights for teams, and integrate the data flow right across the organisation" MARIAM SAAD
DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT, IT & TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, TELUS
certificate in the Executive MBA programme. She spent the first 10 years of her career in sales, specifically in IT sales, working for Compuware and Upland among others. Then she was headhunted by mining company Rio Tinto, who were looking for someone with commercial and business skills - Saad was a perfect match. This led to working in procurement, and after 6 years at Rio Tinto she joined TELUS, initially as their Strategic Sourcing Manager for IT software and hardware. Within five years she moved up to her current role as Director of Procurement, IT & Technology Services, TELUS. "At TELUS, my role in procurement has been heavily weighted towards transformation of our overall capabilities," Saad says. "From a day-to-day delivery 6
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MARIAM SAAD TITLE: DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT, IT & TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
EXECUTIVE BIO
COMPANY: TELUS Having studied business and completed a Certificate at the McGill Executive MBA programme in leadership, Saad's career led to her working in the three top industries in Canada: IT, natural resources and telecoms. Currently, Saad actively supports the Montreal Women's Network, and sits on the board of Business Development Committee for WBE. Saad is a mentor to numerous supply chain and procurement professionals, and is a mentor for MOSAIC, a multilingual non-profit organisation dedicated to addressing issues that affect immigrants and refugees in the course of their settlement and integration into Canadian society. Additionally Saad is the proud mother of Maya, 13, and Michael, 7.
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TELUS Health’s IT Procurement Transformation
" We've built very strategic partnerships that have allowed us to build the fastest, highest quality network in the world" MARIAM SAAD
DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT, IT & TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, TELUS
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standpoint I support IT software, cloud, and the technology business." The organisation has a clear goal: to become a software-first, cloud native organisation. Within procurement, key strategic aims are to reduce purchase order cycle time, and drive end-to-end integration across all TELUS platforms. To do this they are leveraging automation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics, all of which are helping them accelerate their digital capabilities. Saad explains that this digital transformation is delivering four major benefits: reducing time, reducing risk, leveraging more innovation, and creating more actionable insights. "I would say the benefits are reducing time to source, reducing risks, leveraging more innovation
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and driving incremental value. in a digital format, in language Also bringing our data into the that is readable by both humans Google Cloud Platform will and machines. Typically run on a TELUS became a enable us to clean the data, create blockchain, they can also contain national Canadian brand in actionable insights for teams, and an algorithm that automates the integrate the data flow right across performance of the agreement the organisation." itself - in procurement and supply but its history dates back to the late "Reducing the time it takes chain, they are increasingly used to get the relevant data is our for inventory management and the biggest challenge" Saad adds. To automation of payments. address this they are deploying a range of The aim of these tools, Saad explains, is to advanced technologies like NLP, machine do the administrative work to enable their learning, advanced analytics and AI. teams to focus on leveraging relationships Deploying AI tools with hyper automation with suppliers, as well as innovation. is particularly important, to enable them While their priority is to develop their to automate tasks, and to aid end-to-end core competencies and enhance in-house visibility from suppliers. capabilities, only using third parties when Another important tool is smart necessary, their partner ecosystem is contracting. Smart contracts are written crucial to advancing the business, as
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Saad says, "we've built very strategic partnerships that have allowed us to build some of the fastest, highest quality networks in the world." Several of these have won awards, including Best Customer Service Strategy for their partnership with Samsung Electronics, and being named Cisco’s Cloud Partner of the Year for Americas-Canada. Along with important partnerships with IBM, AWS, and Microsoft, in February this year TELUS announced a 10-year partnership with Google Cloud. "This will help us accelerate our digital transformation journey to become a software-first company cloud native organisation" Saad says.
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" I really take pride in driving our team members, allowing them the autonomy to select and take on their own projects" MARIAM SAAD
DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT, IT & TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, TELUS
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"We have these partnerships because they are mutually beneficial, and they really have a high degree of collaboration with a focus on a multi-year relationship and consistent business results. They enable our business customers to streamline their IT and network operations. These partnerships are crucial because they help us deliver on our priorities." As part of this partnership, both companies will generate new industry solutions and strategies to drive growth in telecoms, healthcare, home security and agriculture. Their focus on agriculture is a great example of innovation. Launched in November last year, TELUS Agriculture has the ambitious aim of digitally transforming the global food system. Using advanced data analytics and AI, the goal is to streamline operations and improve food traceability. "TELUS is redefining the way healthcare and agriculture are delivered by increasing collaboration efficiency between healthcare providers, and providing consumers with fresher, healthier food, by creating systems that allow people to trace the origins of their food, which can lead to better nutrition and ultimately, health outcomes" Saad explains. Despite forming relatively recently, TELUS Agriculture already supports more than 150 million acres of agricultural land, with a team of over 1,200 experts across the Americas, the United Kingdom, Europe, China, and Australia.
It's certainly something that sets TELUS apart, as Saad says, "other telecom companies here in Canada focus on media for example, but our focus is really on helping Canadians by delivering healthcare, We are helping Canadians live healthier lives by applying innovative technologies to revolutionise healthcare. For agriculture, we are on a mission to tackle one of the most signifcant social challenges of our generation—feeding the world—while improving the quality and safety of our food by leveraging technology innovation and human compassion and home security, and in the future we will continue to invest in these key industries. That's how we'll become the leading company in these sectors."
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