DUBAI - Dubai's Department of Health and Medical Services (Dohms) yesterday said it had realised major cost efficiency benefits by procuring a major portion of medical equipment and consumables through Tejari's online marketplace.
"Dohms is responsible for sourcing material required for all the medical facilities in the emirate, including four hospitals, six health centres and more than 20 clinics, and ensure they have sufficient stocks," Mohammed Juma, Director of Purchasing and Contracts Department, Dohms, said.
"Procurement is a key element to ensure first-class health service, and an average three-year contract with a pharmaceutical company would be worth Dh10 million. To make sure that our contracts are competitive, we turned to Tejari."
The first government organisation to join Tejari's online marketplace about five years ago, Dohms has recorded significant savings following its decision to purchase online.
"Prior to switching over to Tejari, our procurements were only through the manual method. Subsequently, thanks to Dubai e-Government's initiative, we consolidated our procurement online and obtained greater purchasing power," Juma said, adding that costs like fax and international telephone calls had substantially dropped subsequently.
"As of today, around 60 to 70 per cent of our pharmaceutical, 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 manual procurement in transparency, besides providing a level playing field," he said.
Not only has Dohms achieved significant saving on the price list of medical consumables from international suppliers, but it had also increased efficiency by 40 per cent through e-procurement.
"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.
Dohms is considering expanding our relationship with Tejari to include the possibility of contracting Tejari procurement professionals to develop and deliver a performance assessment record of all suppliers, ranking them for efficiency, timeliness and other key criteria to further improve our service," Juma said.
Commenting on the benefits that Dohms and other institutions had experienced since joining the Middle East's largest online marketplace, Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Tejari CEO, said: "Right from its inception, Tejari's mission has been to push 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 utilise the service, be it purchasers or suppliers.
Dohms is a fine 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," Shaikha Lubna said.`