Procurement Transformation & Supply Chain Digitalisation at the Department of Culture and Tourism
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The vision for procurement transformation and supply chain digitalisation at the Department of Culture and Tourism 03
WRIT TEN BY
DA LE BENTON PRODUCED BY
GLEN WHITE
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Waleed AlSaeedi, Director of Procurement at the Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi, outlines the vision for procurement transformation and the digitalisation of the department’s supply chain
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s a government agency, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) is tasked with a major goal: to
further the development of Abu Dhabi as a dynamic 04
and fast-evolving global destination of distinction through diverse leisure, business, culture and entertainment experiences for residents and international tourists. With a responsibility driven by government, achieving this places greater scrutiny on the organisation’s resources, budget and in turn its procurement function. Waleed AlSaeedi, Director of Procurement at DCT Abu Dhabi, recognises this responsibility. “In order for the organisation to best serve the people of the UAE, my procurement department has to consistently innovate and operate with agility and foresight in order to ensure that our operations have the goods, services and materials that it needs, and that the most cost-effective resources in the market are procured,” he says. DCT Abu Dhabi’s departments uwalse a variety
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“ As an employer of choice for the profession we were able to attract industry experts and enhance our internal capabilities” 06
— Waleed AlSaeedi Director of Procurement DCT Abu Dhabi
of inputs, ranging from ‘common types’ such as training, facilities management contracts, computers, furniture and other standard items, to ‘rare services’ such as the transportation and handling of antiquities, hiring performing artists and the refurbishment of historic buildings. As a result of this, the organisation’s supplier base is extensive, complex and requires procurement to “cast its net far and wide in order to find the right solutions to the organisation’s needs”. Since 2015, the organisation’s strategy has focused on cost minimisation and the
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for ways in which it could rationalise
oriented approach. While previously
purchasing in order to be ready for the
DCT Abu Dhabi was tasked with just
2015 agenda. “We put an emphasis on
providing services, today its various
supporting DCT’s strategy in develop-
departments are also required to make
ing Abu Dhabi’s supplier base with
business cases for their initiatives and
three core purposes: to support local
look for ways in which they can pay for
businesses, particularly the SME
the services that they offer to the
sector; to help to develop local
public and to other government
capabilities – which will benefit us in
entities. Following his appointment as
terms of costs and simpler supply
Procurement Director in 2013, AlSaee-
chains; and to reduce the risk of
di was required to undertake a
depending on just one or two major
complete review of the spend under
suppliers.” Over time, AlSaeedi has
management against DCT Abu Dhabi’s
seen these approaches deliver on DCT
five-year corporate objectives and look
Abu Dhabi’s ambitious goals and w w w.tc a a budha b i. a e/en
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“By devolving responsibility to our end-users, we have freed up resources to look at more strategic activities” — Waleed AlSaeedi Director of Procurement DCT Abu Dhabi
This has seen an internal restructuring over the past five years, to create three units focused on spend: Procurement Operations (Buyers), Strategic Sourcing (Business Partners), which manages all the pretender work, and a section that looks after Performance Management, which develops and manages information systems and identifies improvement areas. “As an employer of choice for the profession we were able to attract industry experts and enhance our internal capabilities,” says AlSaeedi. “As part of our efforts to streamline, all the low-value direct purchasing has been
ultimately deliver success in serving
devolved to end user departments. By
the organisation’s agenda. This, he
no means do we ignore this important
feels, has resulted in the procurement
aspect of DCT Abu Dhabi’s operations,
department becoming a critical and
but we are primarily focused on and
influential department within the
responsible for setting up blanket
organisation, recognised across the
purchase agreements (BPAs) and
board as a key player driving the
managing Purchase Orders (POs). By
organisation forward.
devolving responsibility to our end-
DCT Abu Dhabi is a merger of three
users, we have freed up resources to
authorities: the Abu Dhabi Authority for
look at more strategic activities such
Culture and Heritage, Abu Dhabi
as performance sourcing and contract
Tourism Authority and the cultural
management improvements.”
department of the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC).
DCT Abu Dhabi has also redefined how it manages and approaches its w w w.tc a a budha b i. a e/en
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“ Technological and digital transformation is at an advanced stage where now the questions are: how do we make this better and how do we take it to the next level?” — Waleed AlSaeedi Director of Procurement DCT Abu Dhabi
business in order to maximise its resources and avoid unnecessary costs; achieved not only by finding the cheapest suppliers for a project but in assessing total cost of ownership of assets and the long-term impacts of BPAs and contracts. “Ultimately, our market knowledge enables us to advise the organisation’s departments on the most financially efficient way they can achieve their goals,” adds AlSaeedi. With technology redefining the procurement function globally, DCT Abu Dhabi has had to undergo a digital transformation of procurement in order to truly embrace the digital age. AlSaeedi notes that implementing new technologies and digital processes has been a key method to increasing efficiency in the department’s systems and processes while also enhancing transparency, accountability and data analysis. Some of the projects that fall under digitalisation include a new Contract Management System that allows DCT Abu Dhabi to capture risk, implement digital signatures to reduce cycle time analysis. DCT also implemented a procurement dashboard, w w w.tc a a budha b i. a e/en
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which has enabled, and will continue to
It’s fair to say also that the use of our
enable, the company to make evi-
digital cloud systems enables us to
dence-based decisions using accurate
capture meaningful data from opera-
data. “By implementing these along
tions in real time; for example, I can see
with a few other projects there have
the status of our tenders on our
been considerable improvements
dashboard or review supplier perfor-
made to processing time, oversight
mance reports as soon as they are
and accountability,” he says. “Our
uploaded. It enhances tactical decision
procurement dashboard, for instance,
making but also allows for evidence
gives us the ability to analyse data and
based strategic planning,”
supports DCT Abu Dhabi in its compet-
With technology comes a demand
itive analysis of the market, strategic
for agility and flexibility and so procure-
insights on spend as well as with
ment managers, buyers, sourcing spec-
improving individual employee metrics.
ialists, category managers and others
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E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Waleed AlSaeedi In close collaboration with the Executive Management Team, Waleed AlSaeedi is responsible for managing, monitoring and oversight of procurement, contracts, contracts administration and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) for the TCA’s corporate requirements. In addition the role encompasses responsibility for the coordination of procurement activities across the organisation, policy compliance, coordinating procurement and contracts activities, and supervising procurement and contracts employees.
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have to be able to adjust to meet an
ment, creating more data that DCT
ever-evolving digital landscape.
Abu Dhabi can use. One area of
AlSaeedi expects to see disruptive
particular interest to AlSaeedi is the
technologies take a stronger hold of
ever-increasing ability of smart
procurement as computing capacity
systems to accrue expanding data sets
and generational forces push digital
and consequently, the methods and
and technological approaches even
approaches to interpreting said data.
more into the mainstream, such as the
“It will create new challenges for
use of machine learning and AI in
procurement that we’ll need to
contracts management and the greater
respond to,” he says. “Overall though,
use of online and automated tools for
it’s clear to me that despite these
inspection and performance manage-
changes we are not replacing the
ability of people to make procurement
value complex engagements which
decisions. The difference, in fact, will
require multiple different stakeholders
be the strength of evidence, backed by
being included in the process. Stan-
smart data and tools, to make and
dalone systems are already in place
execute those decisions.”
e.g. Oracle, Dashboard and a Contract
Key to this has been the implementa-
Management System (CMS), and the
tion of automation software in the
company is currently working on
source-to-pay process. DCT Abu
integrating all of these into one
Dhabi has automated most of the low
combined system. “The benefits of this
value, less complex engagements and
are pretty obvious: the amount of time
works intensively on creating solutions
this saves to my team in terms of
and models to accommodate high
closing communication gaps and 17
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CO M PAN Y FACT S
The Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi manages the Emirate’s tourism sector and markets it internationally through a wide range of activities and major events, aimed at attracting both culturally sensitive visitors and increased investment. As part of its priorities, the Department also ensures the preservation of Abu Dhabi’s cultural heritage, especially its historic and archaeological sites. However, its focus is not solely on the past: it is also responsible for overseeing the development of the landmark museums in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island Cultural District, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi as well as the upcoming Zayed National Museum and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
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avoiding endless paper trails is exceptionally high and as a result we focus on adding more complexity to our requirements of suppliers for instance, by requesting environmental or social responsibility data,” he says. “We’ve also looked at Strategic Category Management (SCM) under the Business Partnering roles, which has enhanced the focus on analytics as an increasingly critical new approach to procurement best practice. As a first step, we have developed an advanced 20
dashboard which provides data points from our procurement operations covering all aspects i.e. spend tracking and management for instance. The next phase will be to start using data analytics reports, manage the spend performance and visualise the data.” A supply chain and procurement function can only be as strong as its supplier and vendor network and as DCT Abu Dhabi has streamlined its procurement and embraced technology, it has been able to reassess the way it categorises and measures its suppliers of choice. “Our supplier relationship management framework is designed to match risk and value with
supplier capabilities,” says AlSaeedi. “It is a question of strategic clarity and building trust through fair and open tendering and working closely with suppliers during contract implementation.” Supplier relationships can change and DCT’s core strategy is to leverage its data to measure and track performance, so relationship strength assessments are based on evidence. “Technology will help us to manage these relationships: for example, data from supply histories can be used to identify the share of spend under management that goes to each major firm, and we will then be able to look at areas where we need to work on widening the base.” With technology continuing to evolve, digital transformations never end but simply evolve alongside the technology. AlSaeedi notes that DCT Abu Dhabi’s immediate digital future will see the roll-out of a central, digital procurement portal; DCT is one of nine government entities involved in piloting the portal. “We will need, naturally, to review and change certain things as we see how they work in practice but I’m confident in the job the steering w w w.tc a a budha b i. a e/en
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committee has done over the past few years having witnessed the work first hand. The second phase will be launched later this year, by which time the portal’s functionality should be at 100% and we use can it to its full capacity.” The portal implementation will involve training for DCT Abu Dhabi’s procurement team as well as increased work with suppliers to accommodate digital procurement processes. “In the coming year we will most likely review the procurement and supply management 22
strategy with reference to DCT Abu Dhabi’s corporate strategy and will no doubt revise our category management approach as to better leverage the capabilities of the portal,” says AlSaeedi. Whatever the future holds for digital procurement, DCT Abu Dhabi’s efforts to streamline and to further embrace technology and innovation has created a foundation that it can build on. AlSaeedi is keen to stress that as an organisation, DCT Abu Dhabi is consistently looking for new ways to innovate in the digital and technological area. “Technological and digital transformation is at an advanced stage where now the questions are: how do
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we make this better and how do we take it to the next level?” he says. “And thankfully, I’m confident that my young, skilled but also very experienced team has the answers to those questions and will continue setting the high standards I’m accustomed to.”
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Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi UAE T +971 2 444 0444 www.tcaabudhabi.ae/en