A Whole New World, A – Lad – In – Bahrain
Tuesday November 20th saw Bahrain Rugby Football Club rub the magic ESP lamp and an Elite Version 6 Software Genie came with a bang, this is the story of ESP’s first Arabian adventure.
Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) formed in 1971, and now has over 3,000 members. The Club’s legendary hospitality mixed with it’s fun for all the family vibe provides a home away from home for a huge expatriate community, with classes and activities for Old and Young.
The team is headed by GM Derek McKenzie, a CMM accredited General Manger with over 30 years club management experience; 17 years working overseas.
BRFC has grown to become one of the largest and prestigious private members club in the Bahrain. Traditionally one of the finest sporting clubs in the region, the Rugby 1st XV are the current West Asia Cup Champions.
The Club itself hasn’t stopped growing since it’s formation in 1971 and whilst the facilities are of good standard there are plans afoot for a club house and sporting arena development in the future. Not only is BRFC Club with great sporting pedigree, it is equally as famous for it’s events – not at least the huge ‘Trib-Fest’ Concert held at the club bi – annually, ‘Trib-Fest’ a 12 – hour music festival featuring the best Tribute acts from all over the globe.
In a project spanning 3 visits to the Arabian Gulf, Implementation & Training Consultant Bob Howe configured the system and was responsible for ‘showing the staff the way’ in like with all the club’s requirements.
ESP’s Elite system has been installed throughout the club across all departments to assist the club in running both smoothly and efficiently. The installation of a new system has promoted some important operational changes. The Stock Management and Booking System have been particularly welcomed with open arms by Derek and his team enabling monitoring of member usage and stock levels at a touch of a button.
Changes in operational practices are never easy and from the very first day every member of the team at BRFC offered a warm and friendly welcome and their superb hospitality, was only rivalled by the dedication and attentive approach to the project. It is never easy for any site to have a new software implemented but the team at BRFC embraced it with total enthusiasm! The sessions were sometimes lengthy as the team wanted to know so much and got really involved with the set up and configuration. We did encounter one delay to training though, when despite the 37 degrees outside temperature, the heavens opened and hail stones descended.
It was amazing to see how well the team at BRFC took to the system on the live days,
working hard across busy front desk and bar areas.
Since the live days the team at BRFC have continued their great progress in using the system and are displaying all the practices that a more advanced and experienced site would.
It is quite remarkable, and all the team at Bahrain Rugby Football Club should be immensely proud.
What’s next for ESP and Bahrain Rugby Football club?
Well our partnership continues with both Elite Live and Elite Engage on the horizon.