Purchasing Management Paper Read and increase the word count by 950 words for the uploaded report. Check any parts which required to increase. Running head

Purchasing Management Paper Read and increase the word count by 950 words for the uploaded report. Check any parts which required to increase. Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Supply Chain Management
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course Title
Date
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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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Supply Chain Management
Purchasing is a crucial role in business and impacts all levels of performance. It is a
sensitive job done by a procurement officer, purchasing manager or general manager to meet a
company’s bottom line. Companies closely monitor their purchasing procedures to ensure they meet
set expectations. Purchasing practices include cost reduction, team-based procurement, supply
management, and ISO certification. This essay compares purchasing practices employed by
Sultanate of Oman’s Omantel and Ooredoo telecommunication Companies.
Supply chain management is an area that encompasses planning and execution of supply
chain (Ahmad &Saifudin 2014). Management practices include a strategic partnership with
suppliers, customer relationship and information sharing. A typical supply chain entails the flow of
goods from suppliers, manufacture of sellable products, inventory tracking and warehousing, order
management, channel distribution and delivery to customers.
Supply Chain Management cycle
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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Omantel Company, a locally based business enterprise in Sultanate of Oman has its own
managerial structure for both Procurement & inventory management. This has resulted in signed
agreements and management of request and demand by each concerned department. This Company
engages in partnership, customer relationship, and information sharing. It has a strategic partnership
with Huawei telecom and Bahwat IT. These partnerships promote collaboration and benefits of
technology, the market, and product offering. This Company uses a friendly strategy to relate with
its local customers based in Oman. Finally, Omantel developed Omantel 3.0 as a corporate strategy
to focus its efforts and drive performance.
Ooredoo telecommunication Company has strategic partners such as Brightstar Cooperation
and Nokia. The Company’s customer relationship management focuses on both inbound and
outbound customer relationships to determine their desires and aspirations. This move helps the
Company maintain its market share in Oman, Qatar, Tunisia, Kuwait, Maldives, Iraq, and Indonesia.
Lastly, Ooredoo shares information with all its business partners to improve visibility of its supply
chain which ultimately helps in decision making. It uses 4G and 3G networks to provide mobile
services.
Omantel’s Vs. Ooredoo’s Supply Chain Management Practices
Supply Management
Omantel
Ooredoo
a) Strategic Supplier
It has few partners who are
It has several partners which
Partnership
Bahwat IT and Huawei
include Telefonica, Ericsson,
telecom.
Brightstar cooperation and
Practice
Facebook.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
b) Customer relationship
c) Information sharing
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Implements a knowledge
Strives to achieve inbound and
management system to boost
outbound customer
the loyalty of its customers.
relationship.
Uses copper cable for an
Uses fiber optic cable to share
internet connection to
information.
communicate with customers.
The two Companies have strategic alliances with major trading partners. As the largest
Telecom Operator in Oman, Omantel has some strategic alliances. This is very important to capture
the fluctuated demand and technological revolutions. Besides, from a cost optimization perspective
to ensure the efficient practices is obtained. This Company uses collaboration as a competitive
strategy to provide better services to its customers in the Sultanate of Oman. Ooredoo is a leading
global communications company and partners with Facebook, Smaato, Google Play, Ericsson,
Rocket Internet, and Telefonica. Ooredoo partners with these like-minded telecom and technology
companies to develop innovative solutions and promote inclusive access to resources and digital
services to improve the quality of its customers’ experience.
Omantel and Ooredoo use unique strategies for procurement and outsourcing services.
Omantel uses different strategies including Request for Information (RFI) to analyze the market. In
addition, request for quotation (RFQ) to procure materials of services. Furthermore, The Tender
Mode is very important tactical method in any procurement process. Also, Ooredoo outsources its
ICT services to Huawei that is its primary vendor through business process outsourcing (BPO).
Huawei is keen in both the technical environment and commercial compliance.
Telecommunication business has several challenges at the international level (Dubey et al.
2017). These challenges include stiff competition posed by OTT services, integration of the IoT,
reduction of voice revenue and developing a 5G network. Omantel Company faces the challenge to
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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improve its bottom line due to international competition and rapid technological evaluation with
customers’ expectations. To overcome these challenges, Omantel has started implementing the
Information and Communication Technology for the Smart Cities.
Ooredoo Company also faces challenges during its operations. It faces the challenge of
connectivity in some regions and implements the 4G network with a support center backup to help
customers faced by this challenge. Similarly, the Company faces the challenge of decline in its
profits in markets such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and Algeria due to variations in foreign currency
exchange. This challenge is beyond the Company’s control, and it only tries to implement a
knowledge management system to increase the loyalty of its customers to generate substantial
revenue.
Information technology plays a vital role in the coordination and management of supply
management activities. Omantel has its own E-Tendering Portal. All tenders related to Omantel are
published online. Many facilities are included in the Portal to allow bidders to register free and
automatically. All communication can be done online. The automated issuance of work orders, etendering portal and other applications give Omantel advantages from Supply Chain perspective.
Ooredoo, on the other hand, depends on IT for supply management of transaction execution,
coordination and collaboration, and decision support. This technology makes Ooredoo grow rapidly
at the international level and simplifies its management of telecommunication network.
Conclusion
To sum up, Omantel and Ooredoo telecommunication Companies are successful in their
business ventures since they earn more profits than losses during operations. A critical aspect which
contributes to their success is the use of information technology to coordinate and manage supply
management activities. The management practices focused on strategic supplier partnership,
customer relationship and information sharing (Patil & Patil 2014). The two telecommunication
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Companies strive to achieve efficient supply chain management since it leads to supply chain
responsiveness and give them a competitive advantage in business.
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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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References
Ahmad, N. and Saifudin, A.M., 2014, August. Supply chain management in telecommunication
industry: The mediating role of logistics integration. In ICTOM 04–4th Int. Conf. Technol.
Oper. Manag. Supply (pp. 648-653).
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Childe, S.J., Shibin, K.T. and Wamba, S.F., 2017.
Sustainable supply chain management: framework and further research directions. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 142, pp.1119-1130.
Patil, S. and Patil, Y.S., 2014. A review on outsourcing with a special reference to telecom
operations. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 133, pp.400-416.

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