Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services slashes costs and drives efficiency with Tejari

Managing and operating the essential infrastructure of the Emirate's medical facilities, including Dubai's four main hospitals - Rashid, Dubai, Al Wasl, and Primary Healthcare (formerly Maktoum) - DOHMS is one of the most important government departments, responsible for the well being of hundreds of thousands of citizens and residents of Dubai.

"It is the duty of DOHMS to source medical materials to ensure that each and every facility in the Emirate, including four hospitals, six health centres and more than 20 clinics, has the required stocks," explained Mohammed Juma, Director of Purchasing & Contracts Department, DOHMS. "To guarantee a first-class health service requires that procurement remains a major element of our organization -- a single long-term, three-year contract with a pharmaceutical company can be valued at Dhs10 million, and so to make certain that our contracts are competitive, we turned to Tejari."

The first government organization to join the Tejari's online marketplace almost five years ago, DOHMS has achieved significant returns on its decision to purchase online.

"Prior to Tejari, we conducted 100 percent of our external procurement from supplier's offline, but aided in part by Dubai's e-government initiative and by the increased integration provided by Oracle Financials software, we took the decision to use Tejari's online marketplace and consolidate procurement in order to obtain greater purchasing power," added Juma.

Since making the transition to online auctioning and fully appreciating the advantages of Tejari's unique services, DOHMS has made rapid progress in switching from offline to online trading.

"All of our purchasing used to be completed manually on paper - taking time to ensure that the correct documents were in order and involving hidden costs such as faxes and international telephone calls. With Tejari, we have eliminated these hidden costs, and streamlined the number of suppliers we do business with," explained Juma.

"As of today, around 60 to 70 percent of our pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and consumables are bought online, allowing us to make considerable actual cost savings through Tejari's open and competitive marketplace. Our suppliers also prefer this method of tendering, as online trading surpasses its offline equivalent in transparency and the ability to compete on an equal playing field," he added.

Not only has DOHMS achieved significant savings on the price lists of medical consumables from international suppliers, but it has also increased efficiency 40 percent by shortcutting its procurement process.

"Working with Tejari has proved so successful that we conducted 700 auctions in the first quarter of 2005 alone, and have concluded more than 6,000 auctions since joining Tejari. Looking forward, DOHMS is considering expanding our relationship with Tejari to include the possibility of contracting Tejari procurement professionals to develop and deliver a performance assessment framework and annual exercise of all DOHMS preferred suppliers - ranking our suppliers by efficiency, timeliness and other key criteria - to further improve upon what is already an excellent service," concluded Juma.

Commenting on the benefits that DOHMS and other institutions have experienced since joining the Middle East's largest online marketplace, Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi, Tejari CEO, said: "Right from its inception, Tejari's mission has been to drive down hidden procurement costs and increase efficiency in the supply chain."

"We have strived to create an open, competitive and efficient online trading marketplace that benefits all those who partake of the service, be they purchasers or suppliers. DOHMS is a superior example of what the region's organisations can achieve through online procurement, and we will continue to improve our service and make available Tejari's exceptional trading facilities to more businesses in the region," she added.