Procurement cost savings, United Arab Emirates
We find lower costs in what you already buy. You pay from the savings your finance team verifies.
We map what you spend, renegotiate your supplier terms, and measure every dirham against a baseline your finance team signs off before we start. Our fee is a share of the savings verified against that baseline. If there are none, there is no fee. The first review carries no charge either way.
We have been reducing what companies pay their suppliers since 2021, first in the Nordic market and now from Dubai. BIDMA PROCUREMENT - FZCO is the licensed entity we operate through in the United Arab Emirates.
The overspend is not in the invoices you check
The money is rarely in the invoices your team approves each month. Those are approved against terms somebody agreed years ago, and the terms are what set the price. The money sits in the agreements behind those invoices, in categories nobody has tested for years, and in spend that quietly split across several suppliers.
- Agreements that renewed automatically and were never tested against the market. The price carried forward year after year, and nobody ever decided that it should.
- Spend split across several suppliers in the same category, so none of them ever sees the volume that would have earned a better price.
- Index and escalation clauses nobody challenged. They apply in full each year because no one holds the original wording next to the invoice.
- Terms that have drifted from what was signed. Delivery, service levels, payment terms, and what you are actually being charged for.
None of this is your buyers' fault. It is what happens when the people who agreed a contract have moved on and nobody owns its history.
Why now
UAE e-invoicing is putting structured supplier and invoice line data into a standard format, wave by wave. The data a spend analysis needs is being assembled anyway.
Payroll and premises are largely fixed by contract. Tax is fixed by statute. What you pay your suppliers is the one large cost still genuinely in your hands this year.
Source: the Ministry of Finance e-invoicing programme page, accessed in July 2026. For context only. This is not tax or legal advice.
What we do
We do one thing, and we run it end to end. We work on what you pay third parties: what you buy, who you buy it from, on what terms, and at what total cost. It starts with a first look at your spend data and ends with savings traced in your own ledger.
- Spend analysis and category mapping
- Category strategy
- Market testing and competitive sourcing
- Commercial negotiation support on total cost
- Consolidation across entities and tail spend
- Implementation and savings tracking
If your group runs several operating companies, the same categories are usually bought several times over. In our experience that is one of the largest items we find. It can be set up as a group agreement each company chooses to draw against, so no managing director loses control of their own suppliers.
How we are paid
We get paid out of the savings you keep. Nothing to start, nothing while we work, and nothing at all unless your finance team verifies a saving against the baseline it signed. The share, the measurement period and the carve outs are all in writing before anything begins.
Our fee is a share of the savings your finance team verifies against a baseline it has signed. The share is a single digit to low double digit percentage, and it falls as the spend in scope rises. We agree it in writing before any work starts.
No verified savings, no fee. The initial spend review carries no charge, and there is nothing else chargeable at any stage.
Once savings are verified, the fee is payable across the measurement period set in the engagement letter. That holds if you end the engagement earlier. The period never runs longer than twelve months from the date each new agreement takes effect, and we invoice quarterly in arrears, against savings already in your ledger.
We take no commission, rebate or payment of any kind from any supplier. Your verified savings are the only money we make on the engagement.
How a saving is counted
A saving is only a saving if your own finance team can see it. So we fix the method before the work starts, and it does not move afterwards. The baseline comes from your data. What counts and what does not is agreed in writing. Every figure is measured against invoices and purchase ledger entries your finance team can trace on its own.
We build the baseline from your own paid prices and volumes over an agreed reference period, normally the previous twelve months.
Your finance team signs the baseline in writing before any work starts. If we cannot agree one for a category, that category stays out of scope.
A saving counts when the new terms are signed, in effect and traceable in your invoices or purchase ledger. Changes in volume and changes in scope do not count.
Where a price is index linked or driven by a traded commodity, the baseline moves with the published index. We are paid on the improvement against that index, not on the movement of the market.
If a category or a negotiation is already in progress when we start, we list it and carve it out at baseline sign off. If your own team delivers a saving on a category in scope without us, it is excluded on your written confirmation.
Working capital gains such as extended payment terms, and one off rebates or credits, are reported separately. They stay out of the fee base unless you agree in writing that they belong in it, and never on the same basis as a recurring price reduction.
Each saving is counted once, in AED, on what is realised within the measurement period and net of recoverable VAT. We do not charge on annualised or run rate figures.
Download the one page method note the page to forward internally
What this costs you even if it works
- Your finance team's time to agree and sign the baseline, typically two half days.
- A named contact per category, roughly two hours of their week during the engagement.
- Decision time from whoever signs contracts.
- One data extract from accounts payable. Most organisations can produce it in a day, and you can redact it.
- Our fee, as a share of savings your finance team has verified, on the terms above.
Categories that would have repriced anyway are carved out at baseline sign off. You do not pay us for a renewal you already had in hand.
Better terms, same suppliers
None of this starts with replacing your suppliers. Most of what we find sits in the agreements you already hold. The people you buy from stay where they are unless you decide otherwise.
- We work to reset terms with the suppliers you already use before we suggest replacing anyone.
- We never contact a supplier without your written approval.
- You see every message before it is sent.
- You lead the discussions, you decide, and you sign. We sign nothing on your behalf.
- If a supplier will not deal with an adviser in the room, we prepare your team and stay out of it. The analysis is what does the work.
In our experience a supplier protecting a long standing account will usually protect it with price. A long relationship is leverage, not an obstacle.
How an engagement runs
Four stages, in order, with a decision point after the first. Each one leaves you with something you keep, whether or not you take the next.
01
Spend review
You send twelve months of spend data. You get back a written view of where the savings are and what they are worth. Two to four weeks, at our cost. A redacted extract is enough to start.
02
Category strategy and baseline sign off
We pick the categories together. Your finance team agrees and signs the baseline, the carve outs are listed, and the engagement letter fixes the scope and the measurement period.
03
Market testing and commercial reset
We renegotiate first, and test the market where that is warranted. Always on your mandate, always with you leading and signing.
04
Implementation and savings tracking
The new terms take effect. We trace the savings in your ledger and report them against the signed baseline, and your finance team confirms the figure.
You decide whether to continue after the review. Nothing is committed before that point.
Who this is for
A good fit
- Annual third party spend roughly AED 20 million to AED 500 million across several categories.
- Privately or commercially funded.
- A finance function that can agree a baseline.
- Contracts approaching renewal.
- More than one site or operating company.
We work with organisations across the Emirates. Our base is in Dubai and we travel to you.
Probably not a fit
- Spend concentrated in a single regulated or sole source category.
- Organisations that finished a full sourcing programme in the last twelve months.
- Organisations funded from public budgets, which we do not serve.
Your data stays yours
- We sign a non-disclosure agreement before you send us any spend data. Yours rather than ours, if you prefer.
- We can start from a redacted extract. Mask the supplier names, and unmask them only for the categories you decide to take forward.
- If you would rather the data did not leave your systems, we can work inside them. Otherwise the working copies sit with the named providers listed in our privacy notice, and they are returned or deleted when the engagement ends.
- We never tell a supplier what you buy elsewhere or at what price. Your data is not pooled with other clients, and there is no group buying arrangement.
- Where what you share contains personal data, we act as your processor under a written data processing agreement.
Common questions
How does the fee work?
Before any work begins we agree a baseline for the categories in scope. Our fee is a share of the savings your finance team verifies against that baseline, once the new terms are signed and in effect. If no savings are verified, you owe us nothing.
How is the baseline set?
From your data, not our estimates. We take the prices and volumes you actually paid over an agreed reference period, normally the last twelve months, then adjust for known changes. Your finance team signs it in writing before work starts.
How do we know the saving is you and not the market?
Where a price is index linked or driven by a traded commodity, the baseline moves with the published index, and we are paid only on the improvement against it. Categories already under way when we start are carved out when the baseline is signed off.
What happens if the savings do not appear?
Then there is no fee. That is the point of the model, and it is why we are careful about which engagements we take on. If the first review shows there is not enough to work with, we say so at that stage.
What data do you need, and how much of our team's time?
Twelve months of accounts payable or purchase order data, your contract register, and the current agreements for the categories in scope. Supplier names can be masked. During the engagement, one named contact per category and roughly two hours of their week.
Request a spend review
Send us twelve months of supplier spend, redacted if you prefer. Within two to four weeks we will tell you where the savings are and what they are worth. The review carries no charge, and you are under no obligation to go further.
Not ready for that? Take twenty minutes with us instead. No data needed.