This document provides a summary of a book about procurement in the telecommunications industry. It begins with an introduction by the author and overview of his experience working for major telecom companies. The book then outlines 12 chapters that will discuss topics like the future of procurement, fluid organization theory, telecom technologies, telecom business models, procurement optimization, and case studies. It provides high-level summaries of each chapter. The goal is to discuss how procurement can create more value by focusing on areas like stakeholder partnerships, data intelligence, vendor innovations, and organizational design. The case studies will provide real-world examples of procurement transformation, risk management, strategic vendor management, and value creation projects.
digital marketing , introduction of digital marketing
The Future of Procurement in Telecommunications
1. Procurement
The Future of Procu rement
REXCOM
MISSING BRICKS FOR VALUE
CREATION
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Sourcing Best Practice
An overview on Wireless & Fixed Operator’s
Business, Financial & Technology
IT & Telecommunications | Reza T. Hagel
2. Missing Bricks for Value Creation
I would like to begin this book by thanking Mr. Arash M. Moghaddas for introducing me to the world of
telecommunications. Furthermore, this book would not be possible without the support of my lovely
wife Sanaz who has encouraged me in pursuing its writing.
A special thanks to my mentor in Sony, Mr. Josuke Tomoda from whom I Iearned innovation
management and product planning and Mr. Karl Heinz Muller in Vodafone Group who has been an
inspiration in pursuing my career in the field of supply chain management.
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3. Missing Bricks for Value Creation
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHOR PRESEMTATION
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION & GRAND SUMMARY
PAGE
6
CHAPTER 2 PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW
TIER1, TIER2, TIER 3 SERVICE PROVIDERS & EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS
11
CHAPTER 3 THE FUTURE OF PROCUREMENT
CHAPTER 4 FLUID ORGANIZATION THEORY
CHAPTER 5 INTRODUCTION TO OPERATORS TECHNOLOGIES
CHAPTER 6 LTE TECHNOLOGY
CHAPTER 7 TELECOMMUNICATIONS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
CHAPTER 8 TELECOMMUNICATIONS OPERATOR
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
CHAPTER 9 PROCUREMENT OPTIMIZATION & CHANGE
CHAPTER 10 MISSING BRICKS FOR VALUE CREATION
- STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIP
- FUTURE OF CATEGORY MANAGEMENT
- FUTURE OF VENDOR MANAGEMENT
- RISK MANAGEMENT AS A SOURCING FUNCTION
- APPLICATION OF DATA INTELLIGENCE
- VENDOR INNOVATIONS
- MASTERING NEGOTIATIONS
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4. Missing Bricks for Value Creation
- WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
- EFFICIENCY & PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH OPERATIONS MODELING
- NEW GENERATIONS PROCUREMENT LEADERS
- PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATION DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 11 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOURCING RISK MANAGEMENT
PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER 12 VALUE CREATION & INTERNAL POLICAL IMPACTS
CHAPTER 13 CASE STUDIES
- ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION
- PROCUREMENT GENERATING NEW REVENUES BY PARTNERING WITH
CUSTOMERS AND ALIGNING OPERATIONS
- RISK MANAGEMENT & BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN SOURCING STRATEGY
FORMATION
- BY PASS OF PROCUREMENT & CORPORATE DAMAGE CONTROL TIER1,
TIER2, TIER3 OPERATOR
- STRATEGIC VENDOR MANAGEMENT TIER1, TIER2, TIER3 OPERATOR &
MANUFACTURER
- VALUE CREATION TIER1, TIER2, TIER3 OPERATOS & MANUFACTURER
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5. Missing Bricks for Value Creation
AUTHOR PRESENTATION
TELECOM PIONEER WITH EXPERIENCE FROM FORTUNE500
TELECOM OPERATORS, MANUFACTURERS & SYSTEM INTEGRATORS TO
EMERGING MARKET START-UPS ON GROUP, REGIONAL & NATIONAL LEVELS
WITH EXPERIENCE FROM TIER 1, TIER2, TIER3 OPERATORS WITH OPERATIONS ACROSS MORE THAN 60
COUNTRIES WORLD’S LEADING TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANUFACTURING & SYSTSEM INTEGRATORS
with a knowledge capacity, being in the global market as one of the pioneers in the
telecom revolution in the mid 1990s, Mr. Hagel has been a key player in the
development of telecom trends, market standards & price revolutions.
LATEST AS REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT PROCUREMENT & LOGISTICS FOR
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES THE LARGEST TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT
MANUFACTURER IN THE WORLD AND AS ADVISOR & CHIEF PROCUREMENT
OFFICER FOR CISCO SYSTEMS IN MIDDLE EAST
Mr. Hagel grew up in Paris, France and moved to Sweden at the age of 17 where he pursued his studies at
Catrinelund College in Gothenburg. He later graduated with honors from Scandinavian Academy of Aeronautics
in Sweden with a Bachelor degree in Aeronautical engineering and continued his education at Chalmers
University of Technology in the field of advanced mathematics and graduated 2nd in his class. He later studied
mechanical design & product development courses at Cranfield University in the UK. On his return back to
Sweden, Mr. Hagel joined Gesab consulting as Product development expert towards the automotives,
aeronautics and telecoms industries to later joining Sony & Ericsson in the year 2000 as a member of the
turnaround joint venture team. Mr. Hagel was part of the global product planning team headed by Mr. Yosuke
Tomoda from Sony Japan. MR. Hagel was responsible for the creation of business intelligence, global market &
consumer behavior analysis and became product line responsible for the end to end management of Sony
Ericsson first clamshell product developed by outsourcing manufacturing partners in Asia and the USA.
As the head of product line MR. Hagel was P&L responsible. He created innovations and products (USP) Unique
Selling Point, developed the Product & Market Business Plan and performed life cycle financial analysis,
identifying market launch price and life cycle pricing strategy.
Leading the Industrial design, together with defining the high-level technical specifications, travelling to
manufacturing sites to perform audit and quality control and managing cross functional teams in USA, Taiwan
and Sweden was the start-up activities performed by Mr. Hagel. He also initiated, studied and monitored R&D
projects to push new technologies, innovative mobile services and content such as the MP3 player functionality,
Sport mobile handset & Durability against water & dust now in use in latest Sony mobile phones.
Z200
Sony Ericsson
Sharp – Vodafone
GX35 First Music
Terminal
At the age of 29 MR. Hagel was headhunted by Sharp Electronics headquartered in the UK, where he planned,
developed and launched the Exclusive Music Mobile Handset GX35 in partnership with Vodafone Group in the
UK and Germany. Having taken the business relationship between Sharp and Vodafone Group to another level
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FREELANCE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
SINCE 2006
FOUNDER OF REXCOM FREELANCE TELECOMS SOURCING
EXECUTIVES GROUP WITH A POOL OF +1,000 EXPERT MEMBERS
GLOBALLY
and increased Sharp’s business & reputation within the European market, Mr. Hagel was offered to join the new
group procurement organization of Mr. Karl Heinz Muller headquartered in Dusseldorf Germany responsible for
the purchasing synergy of 44 group operating companies with Asian telecom manufacturers such as Samsung
electronics, Sharp, LG, Panasonic, HTC, Pantek and Curitel.
Beside participation in diverse group optimization projects such as group SAP roll-out, E-Sourcing
strategy & pilot, Mr. Hagel has been part of Vodafone Group Procurement Process, Procedures &
Policies development such as Group Vendor Management, Bid Management, Spend Management
process & tools development.
His main achievements during this period was to introduce and project manage the first Mobile TV
Service in Europe by partnership with Samsung Electronics,
He also managed the end to end engagement of a new group strategic Korean supplier Pantech &
Curitel leading the ODM/OEM strategic program to a group contract signature with competitive group prices. By
introducing the Bill Of Material analysis on components level to bring detailed cost awareness to plan multibillion group negotiations, Mr. Hagel has been instrumental in bringing manufacturing know-how into planned
negotiations to achieve new price bracket during vendor negotiations.
Having achieved significant marketing, project management and procurement experience, the way to reach
maturity and gain global exposure for the understanding of cross category procurement expertise was to enter
the consultancy sector. Since 2006, Mr. Hagel has been supporting the global telecom fixed & wireless operators
and world leading telecommunications equipment manufacturers and system integrators with change
management, transformation and operations management as freelance interim Supply chain Executive and
latest as Regional Vice President Procurement & Logistics at Huawei technologies and as Advisor Chief
Procurement Officer supporting the development of Cisco Systems regional sales organization.
Mr. Hagel has during this time been managing multi-sites operations procurement & logistics organizations in
more than 35 countries for group operators such as the Zain Group with 22 operations in Middle East and Africa,
Huawei Technologies with 12 operations, Orange France Telecom and others. He has recruited, managed and
developed multi-cultural teams of up to 130 (FTE) full time employees during challenging periods of change, by
the integration, motivation and development of multi-geographic and virtual teams on Group, Regional and
national levels.
With a background in innovation, financial & risks management for fortune 500 companies, Mr. Hagel has been
able to bring these know-how into managing consultancy procurement & logistics projects, understanding that
Price has no meaning except in terms of the quality of the product and service delivered to stakeholders and
organization. This approach has delivered unexpected outcomes, exceeding client’s expectations in different
parts of the world including Europe, Middle East and Africa. The realized savings have always exceeded the
targets set with the clients, but the aim has never been to cut cost rather than to understand it, analyzing and
optimizing it. With an in deep knowledge of manufacturing, product and service development, Mr. Hagel has
supported Operators to understand cost optimization across the value chain and driving vendor management
with emphasis on opportunity assessment and vendor innovation development. Due to his P&L background, Mr.
Hagel has always been analyzing not only the total cost of ownership but also the Business case and ROI which
has allowed him to approach the stakeholder with a business perspective of value creation. During the past 13
years within the telecommunications sector, Mr. Hagel has been living and working in France, Belgium,
Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Dubai and Bahrain but his home remains Sweden.
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7. Missing Bricks for Value Creation
The case studies below have been chosen to highlight procurement value creation and give life examples of
the topics of this book with related customer feedbacks, providing a complete outlook of the given theories
with its applications.
Organization development, change & transformation
- Procurement BU Organization Development – Large European Mobile Operator (Operator)
- Regional Procurement Organization Development – Large Manufacturer & System Integrator (Huawei)
Procurement generating new revenues by partnering with customers and aligning operations
- Fortune500 Equipment Manufacturer & System integrator and large group mobile operator key account
- Fortune100 Equipment manufacturer & System integrator using procurement to understand customer
behavior and strategic deal making (Cisco systems)
Risk Management & Business Intelligence in Sourcing Strategy formation
- Risk management & Procurement Empowerment, Large European wireless & fixed operator (Operator)
- IT outsourcing BSS & OSS for Tier 1 mobile Group Operator in Europe (Orange France Telecom)
By pass of Procurement & corporate damage control Tier1, Tier2, Tier3 Operators
- For a major Group Content frame agreement signed by a Mobile Operator top Management, returned by
Board and renegotiated by procurement (Zain Group)
- By pass of Procurement for a new product acquisition & in market risk prevention (Operator)
Strategic Vendor Management Tier1, Tier2, Tier3 Operator & Manufacturer
- Vendor Management Optimization initiative on Regional level (Huawei Technologies)
- Vendor Innovation by procurement efficiency project – Maintenance Support Services (Huawei Technologies)
Value creation Tier1, Tier2, Tier3 Operator & Manufacturer
- Creation of wireless terminal new price bracket – Cost Efficiency by Business Case & PRODUCT BOM
(ASSEMBLY, COMPONENTS AND MATERIAL) Analysis (Zain Group)
- 50% cost savings on Field maintenance service by Efficiency improvement & operations modeling (Huawei
Technologies)
- Leading ODM Project for Group mobile operator in Africa and Partner manufacturer in China (Zain Group)
- Logistics Group Optimization Program – joint optimization program with vendor (Vodafone Group)
1. Integrated Demand Management
(Forecasting and Manufacturing planning – weekly
» Sony Ericsson Global HQ in Sweden
group forecasting supporting lean manufacturing & cost
» Sharp Europe HQ in the UK
optimization in terms of Time to Market reaction
» Huawei Technologies regional HQ in Bahrain
(TTM), Production accuracy & Low inventory)
» Cisco Systems Regional Office in UAE
2. Packaging (cost optimization by procurement –
» Vodafone Group HQ in Germany
» Orange France Telecom in Belgium
30% cost reduction)
» Zain Group HQ in the Netherlands
3. Distribution center 25% cost reduction by
» Operator Group HQ in Belgium
relocation of assembly, kiting, flashing and packaging
» du integrated Telecom. Company in Dubai
centers
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8. Missing Bricks for Value Creation
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION AND GRAND SUMMARY
MISSING BRICKS FOR VALUE CREATION
THE FUTUE OF PROCUREMENT
A diet helps you lose weight quickly,
But only a lifestyle change will provide sustainable & long-lasting health
A TRUE STORY! MR. ALAN BROWN, A 53 YEARS OLD CONSTRUCTION WORKER FROM NEW JERSEY.
Mr. Brown an old friend always declare to have more than 40 years procurement experience, performing his
first buyer assignment at the age of 13 by receiving a one dollar bill to buy two bottles of milk. Alan soon was
supporting on the household daily shopping activities. During the following years he learned the importance of
benchmarking before selecting, especially when coming home with fruits & vegetables not at an acceptable
standard of his mother and had to walk back to the store to negotiate the returns!
In adult age, being a workaholic construction worker and bachelor, he paid no attention to the quality of food he
consumed and before the age of 40 he gained 120 pounds overweight and had to be urgently hospitalized. After
a recovery period and having lost his job, Alan returned home. During all these years, he had been shopping
without any concern for the quality or price of his groceries. Now with limited income and health issues Mr.
Brown decided for a lifestyle change as the only way to survive the crisis. He had to be careful on managing his
budget and searching for healthy items at reasonable price and exercising on a daily basis. During the following
weeks Alan performed a market research and soon had a helicopter view on all retails, outlet stores and low
price super markets in New Jersey. To keep his health, he needed to study in detail any consumables; Counting
each calories, Fat, Vitamins and Minerals and comparing not only the product specifications but also
benchmarking the pricing from different low price supermarkets. He soon understood that price & quality are
not the only factors to be considered and learned the meaning of total cost of ownership. So far he did not pay
any attention to the price of transportation and the impact of services that some super markets offered to its
member customers through various Loyalty programs such as free delivery, Special discounts, Credit and more.
Today at the age of 53, Mr. Brown managed to lose 90 pounds and to keep his apartment during the
unemployment period until finding another source of income.
If Mr. Brown Can…You Can ! I tell this story for my team members each time they seem not aware of the vendor
value proposition, specifications and market insides. The learning is about understanding the specifications of
the goods & services purchased and assessing not only cost but the operations underlying its final delivery to the
business owner. It’s a lesson that procurement managers should take to heart.
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9. Missing Bricks for Value Creation
RESEARCH Harvard Business school
97% OF ALL VERBAL NEGOTIATION TACTICS ARE PREDICTABLE
90% of the success in negotiation is down to proper planning
Professor Max Bazerman
The tactics used by procurement fall into two distinct stages
1. Reference an alternative to the solution (competition)
2. Then procurement use this alternative option as a way to bargain and trade for something in
return
Data isn’t glamorous, but when it comes to negotiation, it is the ultimate equalizer
Professor Neil Rackham found that average negotiators frequently spend no more than 10 to 15
minutes planning their negotiation strategy
Having been a telecoms marketing professional for Sony Ericsson & Sharp Electronics I fully understand the
value of data intelligence in different if not all organization decision making as an important support tool. In
procurement however data intelligence and its applications have not been used by its full potential. Today
procurement professionals have guidelines on using data intelligence in category planning phase. This has
not been the core activity of a busy Category manager and as such, down prioritized and not fully used in
strategic planning and negotiations.
I would like to start this book by highlighting the main issues facing Procurement organizations.
Still today, procurement performance is finally down to cost savings. Top management perception,
requirements and expectations from procurement need to be in line with the business owners
expectations. Today there is a misfit between the two causing frustrations on both sides.
Procurement being a process matter expert in center of a multitude of cross functional projects, need to be
much more than a price focused support function in a leading edge organization with focus on Market
Responsiveness, Competitiveness and Efficiency.
Today most procurement organizations are not able to fully respond to their internal business owner’s
expectations. Unless a mind-set storm to revive the spirit and motivation of procurement professionals in
sustainability and value creation will be just other words in the procurement dictionary.
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Missing Brick for Value Creation
Market maturation brings challenges to operators business. Wireless has been the growth engine for the
telecom industry in the past decade. With the maturation of this market operators are facing challenges to
growth.
For majority of mobile operator’s profitability voice services have been the cash cow that is driving their
business.
Procurement in the center
Many research from leading universities show that organizations are more aware of not being able to operate
without reference to the markets into which they sell and also the markets from which they purchase their
inputs. Procurement is the part of the business most exposed to the latter and therefore a potential important
source not apparent to other executives on:
•
•
•
•
•
opportunities
innovation
competitor behavior
best practices
and most important Risk management
In my years as sourcing performance improvement advisor I have come to believe that the major issue for the
procurement function is how it can utilize all these strengths for the profit of the organization. Today’s
businesses are under constant pressure to reduce costs yet many find it hard to do so in a sustainable fashion.
RESEARCH STUDY KPMG
NINE OF TEN COST REDUCTION PROGRAMS FAIL TO ACHIEVE THEIR TARGETS,
AND THE GAINS THAT ARE ACHIEVED APPEAR TO BE SHORT LIVED.
Procurement differentiator
In the majority of telecom organizations and starting by the highest level being the CEO, the mindset is
still ‘’I can procure it myself !’’ forcing procurement to establish its main differentiator to gain a sit at
the strategic table.
•
•
•
•
•
Trusted advisors: supporting solution design and recommendations based on a sourcing risk
management and mitigation report to be established as a trusted expert advisor
Genuine functional insight: up-to-date procurement professionals managing complex client challenges
with the support of a domain knowledge and industry database
Collaboration in vision and execution: acting as business advisors to stakeholders and management
from concept to realization of future state vision
Focus on total value delivered: enhancing value across end to end supply chain instead of localized,
incremental cost savings
Sustainability of benefits: with focus on structural improvement and people development to deliver
sustainable benefits
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PROCUREMENT WILL WIN A SEAT AT THE STRATEGY TABLE ONLY WHEN DEMONSTRATING ITS VALUE
TO THE WIDER BUSINESS
FINDING THE TRUE IDENTITY OF PROCUREMENT
as long as you see me as a support function, I will act as such…
The mentality of procurement organizations if tolerable on being a support function will never be the
generation of value for the organization. Too many cases of frustration from both the internal
customers not receiving the support required and the procurement team frustrations on the bypass
and late involvement of procurement are few cases to highlight this misunderstanding of the function
and to expect from it to perform at its highest potential.
SALES ORGANIZATIONS PERCEPTION ON PROCUREMENT
During a Chief Procurement Officer Workshop held by a leading telecom equipment manufacturer and system
integrator, I had an interesting time with the regional sales organization about Procurement not understanding
the product or service offered and the value it brings to the organization and are just focused on price reduction
only by playing competitors against each other. I started to ask myself why procurement organizations can’t
succeed in being seen as a strategic contributor and to provide Value rather than just cost reduction.
Procurement professionals are using competition price benchmark to negotiate. As far as this approach is
leading the procurement negotiation planning, the function will be seen as a support and administrative. This is
a lesson that Sales organizations have understood and nowadays when a procurement professional is just price
focused they immediately classify him as a non decision making component of the deal.
PROCUREMENT LEADERS
Professor Richard Lamming, Director, University of Southampton, School of Management, goes slightly
further: “I don’t think there is a hope of procurement being seen as advisors on what to buy. Instead, as markets
get more difficult, there is going to be a role for somebody who can say ‘here is the macro picture’, and
sometimes to say ‘what you want is unavailable and here are alternatives’.”
The maturity of procurement departments varies enormously across different operator organizations. In my
experience, it is this level of maturity that determines the profile of the function. A procurement team with a
strong leader and capable senior people, and a lean and integrated sourcing process and IT systems will have an
organization that is relevant, central and responsive to the business. A team that lacks this leadership and
necessary IT systems to provide visibility will tend to function in isolation, irrelevant to the business, remaining
removed from core business decision makings.
Still management are not convinced of the ‘’Realized Savings’’ delivered by the procurement organizations.
When savings are created by procurement, they may disappear if not protected from being spent. This is done
by working with P&L officers at budgeting times, and focusing on reducing where and how departments spend
money.
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Today Procurement professionals consider the biggest barrier to their increased contribution to corporate
strategy a lack of interest by others in what they have to offer and the necessary support from top management.
Those outside the field, on the other hand, are more likely to see the function as too focused on costs and
compliance instead of value and innovation. To play a greater role, procurement needs not only support from
the corporate suite, but also to engage partnership with colleagues in other departments. Large technology
investments risk being underused, especially because of inadequate skills. Procurement functions are investing
in a wide range of technological tools, from reverse auctions to SRM (supplier Relationship Management)
software, to help in their mission. Unfortunately these technology deployments often fail to deliver on initial
expectations.
Since the establishment of Rexcom in 2006, as freelance international management consultant I have
developed a procurement best practise dashboard that has been in use in all client assignments around the
globe. Information visibility, accessibility and accuracy is the most important approach to keep a close
collaboration with stakeholders and suppliers.
A Category Database, Vendor Contract Database and Registered Risk Database have been continuously
supporting an accurate execution of each assignment. The unique differentiator which has enabled the success
of my projects as a consultant was to establish trust and proactively engaged the stakeholder and developed the
relationships to a collaborative planning and execution of assignments. To be able to establish trust, I am
required to show the added value and differentiator of procurement each time I enter a new organization.
FIVE MAIN ACTIVITIES HAVE SUPPORTED THIS APPROACH:
1. I have developed and used a standardized approach that has supported the development of multi-billion
projects (UAB) Understanding, Analysing & Benchmarking. The main activities consist of performing (PRODUCT
BOM Bill of material Analysis (ASSEMBLY, COMPONENTS AND MATERIAL)) and (SOM) Service Operation
Modelling, (SBR) Supplier Business Review. Understanding, Analysing Vendor Business Case and performing
(ROI) Return On Investment & (TCO) Total Cost of Ownership calculations. Performing global benchmarking of
identified cost drivers at component level; all this to provide complete visibility and transparency.
2. Risk Management clearly has been the driver behind the trust established between me and my clients. It has
been a major contributor for the value created and to establish a stakeholder and organization dependency to
the services provided. I have used a defined risk management methodology and developed a specific tool in all
assignments to manage telecom projects in a structure manner.
3. Opportunity assessment has generated the Wow! Factor as called in marketing. Delivering above
expectations of stakeholders, top management and board of directors using methodology developed and used
in majority of assignments.
4. Operations strategy and alignment have supported the growth of sales operations, customer satisfaction, and
supplier engagement. The power of procurement as process matter expert to support a streamlined delivery of
sales projects; managing customer expectations, aligning internal resources, suppliers and sub-contractors.
5. Partner supplier satisfaction rating becomes as important as Stakeholder satisfaction as both are elements to
company success and need monitoring and support. An unsatisfied supplier who is not performing due a poor
management of stakeholder needs immediate attention to secure business continuity.
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CLIENTS’ FEEDBACK:
SOME EXAMPLES HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO HIGHLIGHT THE PROJECT OUTCOME OF THE 5 DEFINED
STANDARDIZED APPROACH ABOVE:
‘’Reza managed in a short time to understand the business models that were being used and opened the doors
for new opportunities with our vendors. Besides this Reza has a very good knowledge on the Mobile Industry
and shared with us his strategically insights..” Max Gobbaerts, Vendor Manager Data Devices, Belgacom
‘’Reza helped the Commercial team better understand procurement strategies and took the effort to assist in
negotiations with suppliers to the great benefit of the Commercial Team. His capability to quickly grasp strategic
thrusts and to co-operate as a willing, outcome driven team player and leader as the situation demanded was a
.
great asset.’’ - Michael Dabaly Jimma, Group Marketing Director, Celtel International
‘’As the Vice President of Procurement at Huawei MENA, Reza brought leadership to an organization that was
struggling to find direction in the complex field of Procurement. Being the Regional Manager of MENA Site
Business, it was important from a delivery perspective, for Procurement to be on the same page with my
department to achieve customer goals during implementation. Without Reza involvement, we could not meet
some of the deployment commitments.’’ - Patrick Hart, Regional Site Design Director, Huawei Regional Office,
Bahrain
“Reza has been able to optimize the Huawei performance and market positioning within the region by meeting
the customer’s executive management and aligning our sales, PMO and procurement teams improving the end
to end efficiency of the entire organization. I have seldom come across someone who has more charisma and
gravitas than Reza.” - William Weihoo Loke, Procurement Specialist, Huawei Technologies, Saudi
“Reza is highly knowledgeable in the Telco industry and understands fully the added-value role of purchasing in
strategic deals. Negotiating with Reza can be a real challenge at times for any salesperson but his
professionalism keeps even the most difficult moments a pleasure thanks to his keen sense of humour!”
- Yves Dubus, Account Director, Atos Origin
‘’As Head of IT Procurement interim, Reza provided a new way of thinking and new approach to build, negotiate
and finalize supplier contract & partner contract which are supporting our long term procurement strategy.
Attend with Reza to contract negotiation phases is really an empowerment for technical profiles and a challenge
for suppliers; he is always looking for his company interest. Great job. Thank you.’’ - BAYET Jean-Christophe,
IT Project Manager, Orange France Telecom
I found Reza to be an utmost professional in the field of telecom industry while working with him for the largest
telecom operator in the Benelux market. He has the talent of displaying both sound business acumen as well as
understanding how to manage and optimize business/ customer’s relationship getting the optimal effect of
vendor potential into an organization. His strategic procurement approach and risk management, allowed our
organization to get a very good insight in the market mechanisms behind a number of telecom services avoiding
mistakes made by other operators. He has been able to implement new ways of purchasing for particular
commodities, mitigating risks and improving our customer satisfaction in terms of improved efficiency, faster
delivery and higher quality of products and services. Reza demonstrates a high level of energy and commitment.
He operates with high integrity and knows the value of strategic procurement and relationship management.
Willy Vyncke Procurement Expert, Proximus
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Some of the key operators concerns
More Visibility
More Choice
More Value
More Time
SOME OF THE KEY ISSUES
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Higher labor costs
Security risks
Difficult to extend or modify business processes
Proprietary interfaces, architectures, tool sets
Custom, expensive integration
Complicated and risky upgrades
Unpredictable dependencies between products
Constant patching and sub optimal configurations
Vendor viability risk
Fragmented service and support
Inefficient licensing and portfolio management
Fragmented customer and product data
THE BEST IN CLASS ORGANIZATION ARE BECOMING EXPERTS IN DEVELOPING, ESTABLISHING AND
MANAGING
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Industry-specific processes
Model driven services
Global Data Hubs
Real time analytics
Large transaction loads
Standard. Hot-pluggable.
Predictable tune-ups
Proactive Support
PROCUREMENT NEED TO IDENTIFY THE ORGANIZATION PAIN POINTS TO SUPPORT A VENDOR
DRIVEN STRATEGIC SOLUTION
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