Eng. Nayef Al Ibrahim (first left), Haya Al Ghanim (second left), Abdulaziz Al Meer (second right) and Jose Angel Iralde during the panel discussion at Le Royal Meridian, yesterday.
Emerging innovations and technologies and leveraging procurement frameworks require distinctive approaches, strategies, and best practices to derive the right solutions.
During a round table event held yesterday at Le Royal Meridian, experts from reputable organisations discussed some of the best practices for tailoring procurement frameworks and strengthening modern and adaptable innovations.
Eng. Nayef Al Ibrahim, CEO and Co-Founder at Ibtechar in his opening statement expounded on the general process of procurement, which includes market and research, vendor selection, award and contract management, and quality control. He also outlined the innovation process that starts from ideation development, prototyping, implementation, monitoring and improvement, feasibility, testing and evaluation, and commercialization.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event, Al Ibrahim said: “Today, the nation is moving towards innovation in different sectors and verticals. Therefore, procurement is a crucial part of such approaches and movements. This is important for us to look into the right procurement process that really enables innovation and adaptation with the organisation.”
“Procurement process is a rigid straight-forward process dealt to manage. However, with innovation, uncertainty is very high, and it’s important for us to go through the process to clarify the uncertainty. That’s why we look into new models and new solutions to be able to adapt and acquire innovations yet enable us to move,” he added.
Haya Al Ghanim, Program Director at Qatar Research Development and Innovation Center (QRDI) said that “We want to centralize and facilitate early adoption of innovation in our industries. As a result of that realisation, we created an open innovation program.”
She empasised that Qatar has invested in developing a research ecosystem and the country has top-notch infrastructures and facilities that are driven by a national vision. Through QRDI’s initiatives, the first phase is building the foundation for Research and Development (R&D) followed by innovation through R&D.
She also highlighted that numerous scientific and academic research entities and institutions have interacted with the national RDI system to grow business R&D activities.
QRDI program connects with strategic entities within the country such as government agencies and large local enterprises with a local and global pool of innovators and technical experts to pilot innovation solutions. Through funding, facilitating, commercialization, worldwide reach, and innovation solutions, the program aims to benefit a broad spectrum of innovators.
Speaking on executing modern and reliable solutions for customers, Abdulaziz Al Meer, Head of Public Sector Partners in GCC for AWS marketplace said “With Amazon web services, we decided to enable this for our partners to give them access to several exchange solutions and software professional services. The AWS marketplace enables customers to innovate and transform.
Stressing customer satisfaction, Al Meer said that there is a 75 percent reduction in onboarding effort for new vendors, 66 percent time savings due to procurement efficiencies, and a 10 percent drop in licensing cost due to increased licensing flexibility.
Highlighting the relevant domestic approach, Jose Angel Iralde, Chief Strategic Officer at Hassan Food said “In addition to our efforts on the international front, we worked in parallel domestically to increase the production of several strategic sectors.”
Iralde also mentioned the approaches towards providing innovative solutions including people management and business approach. Creating trust by collaborating, inspiring creativity, recognising dedication, and working together with people are some of the solutions that come under people management.
On the other hand, approaches to business ethics include rethinking and changing perspective, learning and partnering with experts, planning again, and taking action among others.
