Etihad Aviation Group and Al Dahra Drive Digital Transformation to Enhance Middle East Resiliency Post-Pandemic

Etihad Aviation Group and Al Dahra Drive Digital Transformation to Enhance Middle East Resiliency Post-Pandemic

The global pandemic is prompting companies to accelerate digital transformation to help drive economic resilience and competitive endurance, leaders from Philips, Etihad Aviation Group, and Al Dahra discussed at the recent Procurement Reimagined, an SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) virtual event for procurement, supply chain, and external workforce management professionals.

Etihad Aviation Group, incorporating the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s national airline Etihad Airways, adopted SAP Ariba solutions to consolidate procurement operations in an effort to reduce negotiation cycle time, improve user experience and introduce e-invoicing with suppliers. With the first nine e-auctions, the organization achieved double-digit cost savings, significantly reduced its vendor count, and awarded business to more local suppliers, helping to stimulate the local economy.

“The recent global pandemic accelerated execution of our digital transformation strategy to support our growth, enhance resilience in our supply networks, and advance our social and environmental agendas,” said Cassie Mackie, Vice President of Sourcing and Procurement, Etihad Aviation Group. “SAP Ariba solutions help us drive efficiencies, transparency and process governance.”

Al Dahra, a world-leading agribusiness, needed storage options for grain in desert conditions to support the UAE’s food security. After posting its sourcing needs on SAP Ariba Discovery, Al Dahra received in under three days 142 enquiries from suppliers around the world. An online auction created a 15 percent price reduction.

With SAP SuccessFactors solutions, Al Dahra centralized, standardized and streamlined human resources (HR) functions for more than 5,000 employees in 20 countries.  The company has a completely digital payroll in 13 countries. It has reduced reporting time from weeks to minutes and set five KPIs as performance goals for every employee.

“With SAP Ariba we ran 160 e-auctions from early to January to September! Our suppliers became more equipped to use the platform. It’s a great way to ensure governance, and it enabled us to adjust to working from home from day one without impacting the business!” said Mohamad Saker, Chief Corporate Services, Al Dahra. “One of the key reasons why we have opted for SAP Ariba was the power of its network — the ability to source suppliers in different countries is unique. And for us, it’s quite important on a strategic level. It gives us a lot of assurance and it helps us to comply with the growing demands of the business.”

Claudio Muruzabal, SAP President Middle East, Africa, and Southern Europe, commented: “As the Middle East faces significant supply chain disruption and changes in consumer demand, Etihad Airways, Al Dahra, and Ahli United Bank are demonstrating how the acceleration of digital transformation contributes to ensuring that businesses survive and thrive not only during the pandemic but beyond.”

“SAP’s Procurement Reimagined event is providing a global platform to showcase how Middle East organizations are using SAP’s innovative procurement technologies to become Intelligent Enterprises that are more resilient, competitive and sustainable,” added Claudio Muruzabal.