Mansfield DC had been using SportSoft's LMS for about 18 months in their Watermeadows Leisure Centre and wanted to get the remaining 5 centres similarly up to date with modern tills as well as introduce a leisure card. They wanted a system which could be managed centrally by their IT staff yet one which could provide their leisure managers information wherever they were, in a centre or in the Civic Centre.
The solution recommended by SportSoft was a centrally located Windows Application server with a SQL Server back end, where PC tills and terminals connected using secure internet or WAN connections. This was not a problem for 4 of the sites as they were located where connection lines were economically feasible and secure. The remaining two centres did not have such capability. One of the centres would be moved within 6 months making the installation of a line uneconomical and the other site's simply could not get permanent access to the internet due to its location. It was therefore decided that these two sites would dial-up overnight and synchronise with the main database until access to the network was available. The downside of course for these two centres was that their data would be a day old and they would not be part of the centralised booking system. They would still be able to issue cards, join new members and take bookings for their own sites, however, so it was still a great improvement over the previous situation.
The data was transferred over to the Civic Centre and the system was trialled in the Watermeadows for a few months without problem.

Abbey Court Leisure and Fitness is in the process of introducing SportSoft's leisure management system at all its new sites, estimated to be around 2 per month. The data gathered by the management system will be used to provide performance indicator reports, which will direct the company's financial and marketing strategies for its health club franchise business.
The state of the art system will replace an existing system, which no longer caters for the requirements of the expanding business, and will include point of sale, membership administration, bookings and Access Control with photo imaging and swipe cards.
A principle factor in the decision to introduce the new IT system was the way in which this latest technology would be delivered. Instead of the software being installed on each PC at each health club, it would be installed on a group of servers based in SportSoft's offices. The health clubs log on to a server and run their normal computer programs over the Internet. This arrangement known as ASP, Application Service Provision, means that the cost of total ownership is drastically reduced, and these savings can be passed to the franchisees.
According to Lynn Woods, Abbey Court's Managing Director, one of the most exciting aspects of the new system is the ability to check instantly the up to the minute status of memberships and other revenue at any single club, or all clubs together, previously this information would need gathering by mail and fax. (243 words)

Thousands of children on hundreds of courses at various levels with different instructors all attempting to achieve their certificates and badges to proceed to the next level. A logistical nightmare. All this is to end shortly for this swimming school as SportSoft have added a certificate printing and badge handling capability to their existing system. This will not only enable staff to control who is allowed to purchase a badge or certificate but also to email all the successful participants with details of their next course.

Imagine being able to access your network wherever and whenever you like, get up-to-date information on what is happening at your sites and even take on-line bookings from members. By using the internet as a network between their health clubs, One-on-One Fitness in the Midlands, are now doing these things at a fraction of the cost of ISDN lines and dial-up connections. They have become one of the first chains of clubs in the country to use what is known as a "thin-client" solution.
The "thin-client" system involves running data files and programmes on one PC, usually a powerful server. This means PCs at centres are not clogged up with sending and receiving information, which would make low-cost internet connections prohibitively slow to use. The PCs in One-on-One's centres do not run any programmes they just "watch" them running, but the centres still have access to all the information they need. This keeps traffic on the network low so it can be easily handled on the internet.
Up till now running a centralised system like this has only been possible using leased lines costing thousands of pounds a month. The cost of having the permanent internet connection for the "thin-client" solution is only around £50 per month with additional savings in time and staff resources.
Another major advantage of using a server provided by an Application Server Provider (ASP) company is that they possess all the hardware and internet connectivity, maintain and back up the system and upgrade the software programmes when necessary. Clubs and leisure centres can also make the system as accessible as they wish from any PC in the world, because all the data is in one place, on one server, connected to the internet.