by John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines

It’s a natural thing to want to improve one’s self, no matter which aspect of it needs enhancement. And for a cosmetics and skin care firm like Forever Flawless, helping others improve their physical appearances entailed improving their company’s business processes first. That is one of the reasons why they made the decision to take their business under the knife and undergo a major technological facelift.

At the time when beauty and skin boutique Forever Flawless was still beginning its small operations, they handled their stream of information through a stand-alone program called Magnus POS, which effectively managed their minimal amount of data at that time.
But the growth of their business eventually became inevitable—starting with a few 12 branches sprawled across Metro Manila to as much as 30 clinics and a little over four hundred employees to date—and so was the growth of their data, especially their bill of materials.

“Our business is different from others of the same medical nature,” explains Reylourd Tinamisan, IT supervisor of Forever Flawless. “Because we provide both products and services, we require a full inventory of our materials.”

A full inventory of materials requires the accounting of all the supplies used in their clinics, down to the last kilogram of alcohol or the last ball of cotton. Compared to a whole inventory—which accounts only for the whole units consumed—Ti namisan says the former is harder to do and manage than the latter.

“That is why we are still in the development stage of our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software,” he says. “We are continually adding data for our inventory and constantly fine-tuning the system.”

INTEGRATING THE BUSINESS
It came as no surprise to them, therefore, that implementing an all-in-one, streamlined and interconnected solution would greatly lessen the stress they get from day-to-day operations and significantly benefit their organization.

“Around two years ago, we deployed an SAP Business One All-in-one solution to handle our business processes,” explains Tinamisan. Their acquisition included programs for the purchasing, inventory, business partner, marketing, cashier operations and CRM functions of the business.

The solution not only empowered their firm through every step of the business process—from warehouse management, inventory, stock transfer to branch inventory, sales, and customer data management—but integrated and interconnected their branches as well.

“With the old system, our problems stemmed mostly from it being a stand-alone application,” Tinamisan laments. “Our systems were not yet interconnected, so the application would generate reports as spreadsheet files and we would have to wait for the branches to forward them to the head office.”

With the new acquisition, all their branches became automatically synchronized with their head office. “The change has been quite drastic and very much beneficial, especially because we now have the capability to acquire information at a faster rate,” he adds.
With the implementation, Tinamisan says, they became literally a point and a click away from managing the voluminous amount of data that course through their network pipeline each day. “Most changes in the inventory and customer data happen in real time. So if a branch, for example, runs low on a certain material today, we are alerted immediately and are able to deliver the necessary products the next day,” he proudly shares.

Operations are likewise functioning better now, Tinamisan recalls. “SAP allows for 24/7 accessibility, and changes can be done remotely,” he says. “So if I’m out of the office but there are problems in the system, I can address it anywhere there’s an Internet connection.”

Since they are a cosmetics company, taking note of the customers’ physical changes is one of their priorities. “The SAP solution enabled us to efficiently take photos of customers,” Tinamisan narrates.

EXPANDING THE BOTTOM LINE

Aside from quicker transmission of data, Tinamisan reveals that the solution significantly broadened their company’s bottom line by lessening the staff needed for manned operations and delivering critical information for important business decisions.

“We have less staff manning our back office now, although they were merely transferred than let go,” he expounds, adding that their IT department, for instance, has only five employees taking care of everyday operations.

Other than having less human resource requirements, Tinamisan says Forever Flawless benefited from the SAP solution in determining its roadmap for future plans. “With faster generation of reports, we are able to know our revenue right away,” he proudly says. “And acquiring accurate and timely information about which of our products are slow- or fast-moving is really helpful for marketing purposes.”
But a common concern among CIOs and IT managers regarding application implementation these days is the return on their investment. “With our implementation, I’d say we got our ROI within a year’s time,” Tinamisan figures. This increase in revenue allowed their business to grow, with the faster processes allowing them to focus more on their core business, he adds.

With this positive return in mind, Tinamisan says their company is looking forward to improving more business processes in the future, which calls for acquiring several more applications. “We’re definitely looking into acquiring more solutions, since the ERP is only phase one of our project,” he explains. “The next phase would be the upgrading of our POS system, after which we will need to implement a system for our payroll management.”

A HERCULEAN TASK

Despite all the benefits stemming from their new system, Tinamisan cautions companies who are thinking of streamlining their business processes. “They must first determine if the system is right for them, since not all solutions fit every kind of company,” he explains, adding that it takes a few years before the full benefits of these implementations are realized.

Small and medium businesses should likewise be weary of the cost of implementing these applications. “They must study the nature of their business, and try to see what solutions are best for them,” he says, adding that knowing all these information beforehand would prevent companies from losing their hard-earned investments.
“We were fortunate because most of us in the IT department came from other companies, so we have a wealth of knowledge and experience at our disposal. Because of that, we already know which problems and issues need to be addressed head-on,” Tinamisan says, alluding to his previous experiences in other retail companies.
But these quick wins from the SAP applications are just a percentage of what they hope to achieve with the implementation. “We are still developing the system, and even though all our issues have been addressed by the application, we are still far from maximizing the benefits from the software,” he relates.

Forever Flawless is simply one of the majority of SMBs in the country that has implemented software solutions that have brought numerous rewards to their organizations. With this realization, Forever Flawless has experienced a more efficient business process, and has since then seen the beauty of technology.

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