Skin Renewal is an aesthetic center that was created to provide alternatives to traditional surgical cosmetic procedures. As new treatments were developed using laser, light, radio frequencies and ultrasound technologies, Skin Renewal founder Dr. Maureen Allem saw an opportunity to bring them to a broad consumer market. Dr. Allem opened the first Skin Renewal clinic in 2005. By early 2018, Skin Renewal had 16 clinics in four cities in South Africa. Today, the company operates under the umbrella of the Renewal Institute, which includes the Skin Renewal, Body Renewal, Health Renewal, Brain Renewal and Sleep Renewal clinics, the Oasis Spa, and a companion online skin-care store. Skin Renewal deployed Zenoti for its centralized inventory management features, reduction in hours spent processing inventory, and robust inventory processing and reporting capabilities.

Challenges:

• Centralize inventory management
• Improve ordering and stock fulfillment processes
• Enhance organizational insight into orders and stock levels
• Deploy an enterprise-level solution

Benefits of Zenoti:

• Saves time spent on inventory management by nearly 525 hours per month
• Eliminates errors in ordering and stock caused by human error
• Streamlines stock transfer between branches and online order fulfillment
• Provides immediate access to company-wide cost and stock level reports
• Frees branch managers to focus on their customers and staff

Rapid expansion grows inventory challenges

As Skin Renewal grew, so did their inventory challenges. Branches tracked vendor orders in separate Excel spreadsheets that had to be manually reconciled at the corporate level to ascertain the total cost of vendor orders to the company.

Manual ordering

Monthly stock ordering required two separate processes: Low-value consumables were ordered monthly by branch managers after a manual stock count, while high-value consumables and retail stock were calculated and ordered at the corporate level using data from the previous three months of retail sales and stock holdings.

Time-consuming stock management

Managing stock was similarly tedious. There was no link between orders and delivery at the branch level, making it difficult for branches to ensure their deliveries were accurate. Once stock arrived, it was manually entered into stock software, resulting in a high number of mistakes. Transfers between branches weren’t linked, making it difficult to track stock between branches, and the process for expiring stock was time intensive.

Problems fulfilling online orders

Online orders were also fulfilled from stock held in branches, adding another level of complexity to the company’s inventory management. Skin Renewal’s software solution, Merlin by ikosoft, was designed to manage salons and spas. It didn’t provide the centralized inventory management the company needed to support its rapid growth and expansion. “Our previous software provider told us we were at the top of the product range so we were concerned there wasn’t a solution that would meet our needs,” said Petra Brandt, group accountant at Skin Renewal. “We’d developed workarounds but they weren’t very effective and tended to be time-consuming.”

Multi-location clinics demand centralized operations

Skin Renewal considered the features of many different spa and salon management software solutions before making the switch to Zenoti. The company selected Zenoti for its flexibility and willingness to create a customized enterprise-level, centralized inventory management solution. “The amazing thing was that Zenoti didn’t have the degree of centralization we needed at first. We asked them to create it and they did,” said Brandt. “The ability to create the software to our requirements was unexpected and amazing. Zenoti’s attitude and ability to adapt and listen to our concerns was phenomenal. That was the big plus from our side.”

"Zenoti’s attitude and ability to adapt and listen to our concerns was phenomenal. That was the big plus from our side."

Streamlined ordering and reporting

With Zenoti, all branches’ retail orders are centralized in one system. The data is imported on the back end, removing the need for manual order input and the risk of human error. Because ordering is centrally managed, corporate has instant access to company-wide order costs and reporting, and purchase orders can be mailed at the organization level with a few clicks.

Automated stock counts

Stock counts are streamlined and largely automated. High-value consumables are now tracked by consumption, removing the need for daily branch stock counts. When questions arise, the company can view individual item transactions, making it easier to audit and reconcile discrepancies.

Easy stock transfers

Skin Renewal’s once manual process for maintaining stock level across branches has likewise been optimized. When a branch needs stock, branch managers are no longer required to assist. With Zenoti, the company can facilitate stock transfers from other branches on the organization level, which speeds up the transfer process. Deeper organization-level insight into branch stock levels has also aided the fulfillment of online orders, since they’re shipped from branch stock.

Centralized inventory management saves time

Since deploying Zenoti, Skin Renewal has saved nearly 525 hours of time each month on inventory management alone.

Retail orders time saved: 244 hours

With Zenoti, centralized retail ordering has been faster and more accurate than the company’s previous manual process. This has saved the company approximately four hours each month. Replacing the weekly manual process for high-value consumables with consumption tracking, eliminating the need for daily stock counts, has saved each branch 30 minutes per day while also reducing the number of errors.

Order reporting time saved: 8 hours

Tracking the cost of orders to the company has transformed from a tedious manual process of compiling data from 16 branch-level Excel spreadsheets to an instant view that’s populated on the back end. This has saved the company approximately four hours of cost analysis each month. Likewise, sending purchase orders to more than 50 vendors has shifted from a lengthy manual process to a click of a button on the organizational level, saving about another half a day each month. “It’s become a much more efficient process now,” said Brandt. “We’re able to pull centralized data in one go to create orders, load it on the back end and then release it. It’s a much quicker way of processing orders.”

Stock transfers time saved: 272 hours

Once stock is delivered, branches can accurately process deliveries by accessing the purchase order on Zenoti. Because branches no longer need to capture stock deliveries, they spend at least 16 fewer hours per branch processing stock deliveries each month. Stock transfers between branches are also captured in Zenoti, eliminating the need to manually process stock transfers, which previously took about eight hours each month. Expired stock is also logged in Zenoti, removing the need to spend an additional eight hours each month compiling that information.

Data-driven decisions

These centralized inventory management capabilities give Skin Renewal immediate access to their stock levels, purchase orders and company-wide retail costs, enabling the company to make critical business decisions with agility. “The fact that we’re able to pull centralized reports gives us the data we need to make strategic business decisions,” said Brandt.

Improved customer experience

With Zenoti’s centralized inventory management capabilities, branch managers spend less time capturing stock levels and reporting orders so they’re better able to focus on the needs of their customers and staff. “One of Skin Renewal’s strengths is that we pride ourselves on creating an intimate experience for our customers,” said Brandt. “Branch managers used to be in the back doing a lot of reporting due to administrative and reporting load. Now they are in the front much more often so they can ensure our customers have a more personal, one-on-one experience.”