Reflection on "FlairSuite Cloud ERP System" implementation in BIODERMAL Operations and Management

Gibbs' Model was used to reflect my successful experience in applying "FlairSuite Cloud ERP System" through implementing several modules to manage and operate Biodermal Therapy Center business. In their research, (Adeani et al., 2020) admitted the effectiveness of using Gibbs' model to write a firmly structured literary works for students.

Graham Gibbs created his reflective cycle in 1988 to frame the process of learning from experiences. It provides a structure for testing experiences and enables the examiner to repeat them, allowing to learn and plan successful and failed experiences. As in figure, Gibb's model covers six phases starting from describing the experience and reaching to setting an action plan. (Gibbs,1988)

Source: (Gibson, 2021)

Description

The successful experience started after two years suffering to cut the cost of resources and organize the messed work in Biodermal Body and Dermal Therapy Center which was established in 2017 and considered as small enterprise in the Kingdom of Bahrain. (Biodermal, 2019)

As Biodermal manager, I was supposed to establish this start up business along with the business owner by conserving the highest services quality and lowest running cost. The business structure based on six therapists in operation, two employees in administration and only myself in management. However, additional employees with a minimum cost of $7000 per Month were urgently required to fit in customer service, accounting, human resources, inventory and most importantly sales and marketing. I was extremely exhausted playing all these massive roles and had to be available 24 hours per day to follow up and assure everything is going in the right track. The responsibility was horribly increasing when business started to grow at the end of 2018. Personally, I was in my midway decision of either resigning or accepting the challenge of making a radical change and continue peacefully. For the sake of not to leave, the owner granted me the green light to go ahead with any modification that may facilitate the process with a maximum budget of $3000 per Month. After consulting a trusted IT British friend, he shared his mind in the cloud services and how Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can resolve our business issues with less than $3000 given budget through implementing several modules to overcome cutting our business corners.

Feelings

At the beginning, I felt oppressed and fatigued for holding such huge responsibility without being assisted. The day and night work issues overused me and distracted my family stability and social connections. In addition, certain health issues started to raise up as result of extra pressure and lack of rest. Luckily, Biodermal owner showed her understanding when I talked to her afterwards. I also found my IT friend very cooperative and eye opening. He did not skimp on giving me any beneficial advice, guided me on methods, sources and approximate cost needed to implement cloud-based ERP system. With this and that, I felt tranquil and confident to confront any upcoming challenge. As an end of any successful experience, I felt proud and satisfied for leading Biodermal business to a progressive point.

Evaluation & Analysis

Firstly, the internal situation was entirely unorganized and services were below required standards due to insufficient employees and low running budget. As (HR & Aithal, 2020) indicated in their research, it was a must for me to adopt certain modifications in order to survive in the long term.

Surfing to take a proper decision, (Peng et al., 2014) and (Elragal et al., 2012) have detailed the difference between cloud-based ERP versus In-house traditional systems and how the cloud migration contributed to exponentially grow business. I didn't quite to investigate even during our cloud migration process. Meanwhile, (Marabeh & Majdalawi, 2019) assured the participation of cloud migration in the expansion of e-commerce industry. According to (Mckinsey & Company, 2021), businesses in every industry can get best value of cloud computing at which out of 487 companies from all industries, EBITDA impact estimated an increase of more than 20% by the year of 2030. (Mckinsey & Company, 2021) also highlighted some examples of the tremendous profit behind implementing cloud-based systems in real life business.

Implementing Flairsuite cloud ERP system was one of the most courageous decisions I made in my life because it organized the unorganized within no time and effort for $260 per Month only. This magical cost-offering system provided multiple solutions for booking appointments, sales, inventory, purchases, human resources, customers rewarding points, commissioning, accounts and finance in addition to customized reports (Script IT, 2007).

Source: (Arisandi, 2014)

Thanks to Flairsuite cloud ERP system, Biodermal was able to customize all inquiries and develop an integrative smart business at the lowest cost, time and effort, that what (Sether, 2016) exactly mentioned in their research.

Also, all employees felt steady that pushed them to maintain a higher services quality. Agreeing with (Shayan et al., 2014), I complemented the advantages of mobility and flexibility which afforded me extra effort and time to arrange my personal life.

On the other hand, there were some challenges concerning staff training, workflows set up, the huge amount of data feeding and certain security issues (Abd Elmonem et al., 2016). The team work of management, employees and Falirsuites system provider overcame these matters and finally, everybody said: we did it!

Conclusion

By the time Flairsuite cloud system already took place in Biodermal, the pandemic of COVID'19 hat the entire world. Here, I realized that transferring to cloud ERP system and implementing cloud services was the best decision I made at which it prepared all of us at Biodermal to cope with such harsh circumstances (Mckinsey & Company, 2021). Frankly saying, Biodermal would not make it in lockdowns period without online orders for certain pharmaceutical and cosmetical products. Several lessons learned out of this experience starting from the possibility to efficiently run any business at the lowest cost, resources and yet, highest quality. Then, you as a responsible person must keep yourself up to date in the market in order to post your ability to adapt and compete. Though it was an incident being prepared, but a business must always have contingency plans for pandemics, disasters and highly risk circumstances (Wan et al., 2016).

Action Plan

After pandemic, Biodermal began to diversify its income sources like what (Chang et al., 2016) suggested by introducing new products and services. In early 2022, a fitness center and an organic-themed coffee shop were embedded into business and linked to original sections. Worth saying, Flairesuite cloud system facilitated online orders and bookings besides easy-going online payment for all services and products. Along with this, a regular quarter-based training is run by our provider for the purpose of new system customization updates about any new service or product, and that to assure everyone is using the Flairsuite system in the right way. Finally, management finds the experience of Flairesuite cloud ERP extraordinarily successful, employees feel steady, and customers show their high satisfaction.

References

Abd Elmonem, M. A., Nasr, E. S., & Geith, M. H. (2016). Benefits and challenges of cloud ERP systems–A systematic literature review. Future Computing and Informatics Journal, 1(1-2), 1-9.

Adeani, I. S., Febriani, R. B., & Syafryadin, S. (2020). USING GIBBS’REFLECTIVE CYCLE IN MAKING REFLECTIONS OF LITERARY ANALYSIS. Indonesian EFL Journal, 6(2), 139-148.

Almarabeh, T., & Majdalawi, Y. K. (2019). Cloud Computing of E-commerce. Modern Applied Science, 13(1), 27-35.

Arisandi, B. (2014). Biodermal Info-Camp. Looper - Bootstrap 4 Admin Theme. Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://biodermal.info-camp.net/

Biodermal Body & Dermal Therapy Center. (2019). Retrieved March 28, 2023, from http://bio-dermal.net/main/about

Chang, S. C., & Wang, C. F. (2007). The effect of product diversification strategies on the relationship between international diversification and firm performance. Journal of world business, 42(1), 61-79.

Elragal, A., & El Kommos, M. (2012). In-house versus in-cloud ERP systems: a comparative study. Journal of Enterprise Resource Planning Studies, 2012, 1.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit.

Gibson, C. (2021, April 22). Reflection means more than keeping a diary. The Society of Radiographers. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from https://www.sor.org/news/students/reflection-means-more-than-keeping-a-diary

HR, G., & Aithal, P. S. (2020). Organizing the Unorganized Lifestyle Retailers in India: An Integrated Framework. International Journal of Applied Engineering and Management Letters (IJAEML), 4(1), 257-278.

McKinsey & Company. (2021, February 26). Cloud's trillion-dollar prize is up for grabs. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved March 18, 2023, from https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/clouds-trillion-dollar-prize-is-up-for-grabs

Peng, G. C. A., & Gala, C. (2014). Cloud ERP: a new dilemma to modern organisations?. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 54(4), 22-30.

Purohit, G. N., Jaiswal, M. P., & Pandey, S. (2012). Challenges involved in implementation of ERP on demand solution: Cloud computing. International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI), 9(4), 481.

Script IT. (2007). FlairSuites The Cloud ERP. Retrieved March 29, 2023, from https://www.flairsuite.com/

Sether, A. (2016). Cloud computing benefits. Available at SSRN 2781593.

Shayan, J., Azarnik, A., Chuprat, S., Karamizadeh, S., & Alizadeh, M. (2014). Identifying Benefits and risks associated with utilizing cloud computing. arXiv preprint arXiv:1401.5155.

Wan, J., Li, R., Wang, W., Liu, Z., & Chen, B. (2016). Income diversification: A strategy for rural region risk management. Sustainability, 8(10), 1064.