Procurement involves much more than issuing a purchase order. It connects suppliers, stock planning, shipping, warehouse operations, finance and sales. When these teams work with clear processes and reliable information, purchasing decisions become easier to manage.
In my role as Procurement & IT Manager at Tyres and Equipment Centre, part of Altayeb Group in Qatar, I work across both procurement operations and business systems. This combination helps me understand the operational problem before deciding how an ERP system should support it.
Start with the business process
Before configuring a system, I believe it is important to understand how people actually work.
For a purchasing process, that means asking practical questions:
- What triggers a purchase requirement?
- How are stock availability and expected shipments checked?
- Who compares quotations and approves purchases?
- What information do warehouse and finance teams need?
- How are delayed shipments, partial deliveries and supplier issues handled?
These questions help turn everyday activities into clear requirements.
Connect purchasing with inventory and finance
A purchase order is one part of a wider process. Supplier information, item records, quantities, prices, payment terms and delivery details need to remain consistent as the order moves through the business.
My procurement experience includes supplier coordination, quotation comparison, negotiations, purchase planning, shipment follow-up and import documentation. Working with warehouse, sales, finance and logistics teams has shown me why an ERP workflow must support the complete process.
A system is most useful when users can understand what has been ordered, what is on the way, what has arrived and what still needs attention.
Turn operational needs into ERP requirements
Within my current role, I also serve as an ERP application lead and business systems coordinator. My work includes coordinating requirements, vendor discussions, testing and user support for our Odoo ERP project.
An important part of this work is translating a business request into something that can be implemented and tested. For example, “we need better purchasing visibility” needs to become a clear description of the information required, the users involved and the decisions that information should support.
My experience implementing a purchasing-plan module in Focus ERP reinforced the value of connecting stock planning with practical purchasing needs.
Test real working situations
A workflow may look correct in a demonstration but still create difficulties during daily operations.
User acceptance testing should reflect realistic situations: partial receipts, changes to quantities, approval steps, access permissions and the reports users need. Recording issues clearly and checking fixes helps business users and implementation partners work towards the same result.
User training matters as well. People need to understand both how to complete a task and why accurate information matters to the next team.
Use reports to support decisions
My software development background and SQL Server knowledge help me approach reporting from both a business and a technical perspective.
ERP reports and Excel can help teams review stock, follow up on outstanding orders and identify information that needs attention. The starting point should always be the decision a report is intended to support.
Responsibility beyond ERP
My role also extends to the company website, IT infrastructure and administration. I am the sole person responsible for managing these functions, coordinating external support where needed.
For the Altayeb website, I make minor changes myself and manage contracts and coordination with external developers for larger work. My software development background helps me explain requirements, review changes and connect technical work with business needs.
I also oversee IT requirements across more than 16 branches, warehouses and the head office, including CCTV systems and employee attendance machines, alongside administrative responsibilities.
Managing these areas together has reinforced an important lesson: business systems need clear ownership, consistent follow-up and an understanding of how each location operates. Whether the task involves procurement, Focus ERP, Odoo, the website or branch IT, my responsibility is to coordinate the work and help resolve operational issues.
What I have learned
My experience across procurement, IT and ERP has taught me to start with the business need, make requirements clear, test realistic scenarios and support users through change.
Successful ERP work depends on understanding operations as much as understanding technology. Bringing these two perspectives together is the part of my work I value most.
I’m Jainul Abdeen, a procurement and IT professional based in Doha, Qatar, with experience in ERP application support, business analysis and software development.
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