Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority - Support Team of the Year

Company: Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority
Company Description: The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority -TDRA ( known as TRA previously ) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was established in 2003 to regulate the burgeoning tele-communications and digital sector in the UAE and enable government entities in the field of smart transformation. The UAE is ranked first in the Arab region in the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII).
Nomination Category: Support Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Support Team of the Year

Nomination Title: Best Supplier Collaboration Procurement Team

At the tail end of 2019. TDRA signed an MOU with CIPS to affirm its commitments to become a global center of excellence in procurement and supply in the telecommunication and digital sector. TDRA have devoted to develop procurement team to become a fully qualified procurement professional. We have established a massive procurement transformation at TDRA that would see procurement becoming much more than a merely transactional aid. The roadmap focused on the governance, people and partnership.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges at all levels of business and has no precedent. It has led to the fundamentals of sourcing, supply chain and supplier management to be reevaluated and questioned on its effectiveness and relevance. Sole Sourcing, Force Majeure and Just In Time (JIT) are just some of the practices and principles under scrutiny. TDRA had taken the lead to react and develop the foundation and effective actions on how to react to recover from the disturbance caused by COVID19. To achieve a high level of agility and resilience in supply chain, you need to integrate a well-established physical capability with emerging digital technologies and value driven by its strategic level collaboration with partners and suppliers. TDRA believed that it requiresa new business models and game changing competitive advantages to move from exploring and planning to integration and optimization. TDRA procurement function mapped out several steps actions which can be used as a reference or a framework by any organization duringcrises. Ex. Review of the procurement strategy in a one-page format onperiodic manner. Activate emergency purchasing which involved direct purchasing with the qualified suppliers and delegation of authority to speed up the process. Supplier communication planwas an important element considering a secured channel like, hotlines and dedicated support team. TDRA also had taken important role to review all the strategic contractsand identify opportunities. The goal was to achieve a win - win approach while negotiating in good faith the changes of scope (through offshoring and nearshoring). Reschedule Payment terms and milestone by speeding the process of payments and provide suppliers with exemption not to apply any delay penalty, and also consolidation of contracts with strategic suppliers to increase financing to supplier wereessential steps taken by TDRA to support the suppliers financially. We have also considered speeding up the payment process from 30 days to 15 days in order to provide financial support to suppliers". TDRA focuses was not only to reduce cost, rather than focusing on the impact on Society, Economy overall. This led TDRA to take a call to finance the services which been affected during the pandemic and will be required post pandemic instead of onboarding a new supplier. TDRA also shift the procurement through local and SME suppliers to mitigate the risk due to lock down of the airports. Increasing the minimum inventory level of strategic items was essential part in the supply chain to secure equipment's for employees and suppliers to sustain the project delivery and manage resilience.

The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has achieved a new milestone by winning the Best Entity Award in procurement and supply in the "Best Response to Supplier Collaboration during COVID-19" criteria as part of the Charted Institute of Procurement and Supply Chain (CIPS) Mena Awards. With this accomplishment, TDRA is the first entity to receive such award in the region. This recognition is a reflection of the measures taken by TDRA during the past period, as it was keen to bolster its cooperation with suppliers, while facilitating and accelerating supply operations.

1- CIPS Mena Award in " Best Response to Supplier Collaboration during COVID 19 "
2- Best Business Award in " Best Procurement "
3- Best Business Award in " Best Sustainable Product / Process
4- Establish "CIPS Youth Procurement Committee in Mena and Global" and chair the committee
5- Establish "CIPS Telecommunications Procurement Group" in Mena Region
6- Achieved ISO 20400: 2017 for " Sustainable Procurement "
7- Achieved BS 95009: 2019 for " Procurement for Public Sector "
8- Achieved CIPS " Corporate Ethical Procurement and Supply " and ethical mark
9- Publish " CIPS Fresh Graduates Program " for Government Employees
10 Implement Smart Business Card instead of paper based