Not that many years ago, using technology in the club and resort environment meant purchasing individual software applications for each operational area. These were the early point solutions: one application for food and beverage management, one for the pro shop, and maybe another one for inventory or an accounting application for general ledgers, accounts receivable/payable, and keeping track of fixed assets. Somewhere, too, you kept a list of members and some of their demographics, maybe in a spreadsheet application.
In this kind of environment–which still exists far too frequently in many clubs and resorts today–getting information out of one application and into another is time-consuming, usually painful, and often ineffective. It's either a manual process, or it's done through balky, one-way system interfaces that can mangle your data. Sometimes the same information is stored independently in several places; rarely is it in synch. Producing financial or operational reports to let you see how well–or badly–you are doing is problematic, and again very time-consuming. There is really no way to get a current, accurate overview of the business.
For an overall management view of the pieces, their interaction, and the sum of all the parts, you need something to pull everything together into a true system. Integrated software solutions, or enterprise systems, are the answer. With them, you can map your business model, dig as deeply as you want into any discreet part of your operations, and still get a 20,000-foot view of everything that's going on.
Choosing the right integrated solution requires that you know your business well, ask the right questions of software sales people, and are willing to spend the time required to make the system work for you, your staff, and your membership. As the following two case histories illustrate, if you can do all of that, integrating enterprise systems into club operations can mean the difference between red and black ink on the comprehensive Board reports that true "systems" can easily and efficiently generate.
Finding Gold in the Silver State
What does a former savings-and-loan CEO, who had never played golf, do in his "retirement?" How's this for a plan: First, take an extended world tour, then settle down and buy a golf course and very quickly lose a lot of money. Then dig in and figure out why, so you can turn it around. Finally, after you've made a little money with the first course, reward yourself by buying a second one. Certainly sounds like an interesting and different way to spend one's "idle years," doesn't it? While golf remains a popular activity for the comfortably retired, Mario Antoci had other ideas about the sport.
After his S&L was acquired, Antoci, his wife, their yacht, and its crew set off to see the world. They covered a good piece of it in five years, eventually settling down in northern Nevada. Looking for something to keep him busy, Antoci thought that buying a golf course might be a good idea. He didn't know much about the business of running one, but he had been a successful top executive in the multifaceted financial world. How hard could it be?
So Antoci bought a very pretty piece of green earth. Genoa Lakes Golf Club, in Genoa Lakes, Nev., is a semi-private, 18-hole course set in the ruggedly beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains, just outside of Carson City and "eighteen miles down the hill" from Lake Tahoe. As scenic as it was, though, underneath the covers was a "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" muddle. And the technology "base" that Antoci started out with was at the core of the structural problems.
Nothing to Bank On
"We had technology strictly for golf and food and beverage," Antoci remembers. "Our POS application was very old; it was one used by lots of clubs in northern Nevada and California, but then the (software) company just evaporated. It worked, but there was nobody around to take care of it. One small group promised that they would do a Windows conversion (the system was DOS-based), but they never got around to it. So I was getting nervous."
Needing a better view of his new business, but without the technology or tools that were readily available to him in his old S&L days, Antoci had to quickly do some homework. While he was looking for business software that could tie things together, he also needed to understand the business of running a golf course, so he could make sense of the numbers.
The first attempt at integrating his operation went badly. He delegated the critical design stage, and to make matters worse, he says, "that [software] company seemed to be imploding, too."
"We were already into [the conversion] when I realized that [the system] was not an accrual system, it was cash-based," Antoci recalls. "Looking back, I think that's something [the vendor] should have told us. They knew we had accounts receivable, but when we pointed out that their system [wasn't compatible], they said we should have asked."
So Mario's "first tip" for building an integrated system is make sure you ask if all of the pieces–new and old–will fit.
On the second attempt to get a system in place, Antoci knew he needed to learn enough to be directly involved. "If you don't know what you're doing," he counsels, "once you make the big mistake–and I have–there's no going back."
That leads to Mario's Tip Number Two: In your evaluation of systems and vendors, make sure to take a close look at the reports that the system generates. "They should look like they are designed by someone who knows what they are supposed to do," Antoci says. "I'm an accountant and a CPA, so I need a real-time system that generates 'as of' data."
An Outsider's Perspective
Obviously, Antoci is not your typical club manager. He's an entrepreneurial owner. Since he didn't know the club business, he had no fixed pre-conceptions. But he was observant, and he had his business instincts.
"In the S&L industry," he says, "there were reports available, based on your size and other things, that told you how many employees you should have [and other metrics]. But there is no model that tells you how many employees you should have in golf."
The tightly integrated system that Antoci finally chose gave him POS for food and beverage and retail, inventory, event management, timekeeping, membership and tee-sheet/tee-time records. Even though he chooses to manually post journal entries into an accounting package he acquired two years earlier ("It takes fifteen minutes to do it," he explains), Antoci still feels he's ahead of the game.
"Maybe someday we will convert to the new system's accounting; I'm sure it's good," he adds, in testament to his satisfaction with the seamless integration of those modules he does use. But even with his own custom fittings, the big picture is much clearer because of the true integration. "Now I can see how we're doing," he says.
"Boy, did I learn some bitter lessons," Antoci says, looking back. "In a private club, the members get the assessment [for any shortfall in operations]. But here, I was the big 'member' getting the assessment."
Coming Through With Flying Colors
In the third year of ownership, with a true system in place and a poorer but wiser Antoci in the front office, Genoa Lakes broke even. Profitability–the result of better operations driven by timely data–came the next year. About 70% of the turnaround came from reduced expenses, Antoci estimates, and 30% from increased fee income.
For the expense-reduction side, Antoci found out how to cut the fat the old-fashioned way, "I did time-and-motion studies for my operations,"
he says. "I cut my payroll by 35%. I hired a good superintendent with 30 years experience, and I cut staff by 40%. I don't have a food and beverage manager anymore, because [he was] just keeping the peace and ordering things that we felt the executive chef could order. Plus," he adds with a chuckle, "they always have ideas for spending more money."
Finally on a sound operational footing, in March of this year Antoci bought his second course, the Sierra Nevada Golf Resort, re-naming it Genoa Lakes Golf Resort. He expects to use the integration available from his technology to drive economies of scale for both properties.
"Putting the second course up on the system was just a matter of entering a code," he says. "Now I can print reports on either course, or a consolidated report for both." Showing low-tech versatility to complement his high-tech savvy, he adds, "I use green, blue, and white paper to keep them straight."
So thanks to successful integration, it's no longer Antoci's system that's being taxed. But if he keeps using the system's benefits to fuel further expansion, he may soon run out of colors for his various reports. Not a bad problem to have.
From Half-Baked to Full-Bore
David Jewitt has been the General Manager and COO of Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Ark., for nearly a year and a half, having made the move from a club in Sarasota, Fla. When he arrived, Jewitt recalls, the club's IT situation at the time was a "half-baked" assortment of locally developed independent applications with unstable interfaces between them–not very helpful in managing the business.
It was so hard to get a good picture of operations, in fact, that after a few weeks in Little Rock, Jewitt admits to thinking, "What am I doing here…I should have stayed in Florida."
Pleasant Valley is a private club with a 27-hole course, 14 tennis courts, a pool, spa, and dining and banquet facilities. While the club has many long-time members among its current 700, a recent influx of younger members has brought the average age down to around 46 years old.
"There's been a lot of business activity in the area, which brings in new people," Jewitt says in explaining the trend. "And, it's just a great, great golf course, always one of the top three in the state"
But technology was a different situation. "There was no way to easily respond to questions from committees, the Board, or members," Jewitt recalls. "It took days and days to get member statements out. We had to wade through boxes and boxes of chits. I didn't know what last month looked like until the 16th of the next month. We were guessing."
To understand what was actually happening operationally, new integrated technology was clearly needed. Jewitt has a ready answer when asked how the initial investment decision (for $120,000) was ap-proved: "Fortunately, I have a very forward-looking Board. I told them we absolutely needed this to run the business."
A Plunge Into Real Time
With the backing of the Board, and capitalizing on system conversion experience he'd had in Florida, Jewitt and his staff plunged into a general upgrade of the application environment, as well as the technical infrastructure. "We upgraded servers and PCs," he reports, "and we now have fiber optics to the tennis area, the pool, the fitness area, and the halfway house."
The new integrated software package included application modules for general ledger, payroll and timekeeping, inventory and accounts payable, POS for food and beverage and the golf and tennis shops, as well as accounts receivable and web site tools. An upgrade to the phone system is also in the works.
In November of 2004, the club went live with its new system, networked throughout the property, running off a single, real-time database. "I'm absolutely delighted," Jewitt says of the results to date. "I'm an accountant, and I'm very much into it. Statements now go out the 2nd of the month; I can check by 10:30 every morning and I've got a daily P&L. I can deliver real information to the committees and Board."
Jewitt credits his staff for the success of the conversion and installation. "My controller, Andy Coulter, and Assistant GM, Lori Meyer, were just great," he boasts. "They worked very hard to make it happen."
No More Freezer Burn
The benefits of operating under true integration come in many forms, Jewitt reports. "Before, we would just throw a budget together," he remembers. "We had no history. Now, I have visibility to four or five dining areas, I can see the tickets, the budgeted tickets, the averages. I know what we're selling. We don't stock as much inventory because I know what members are buying. No more freezer burn for slow-moving items."
Overall, he adds with emphasis, "When we're not running around doing things the system can now do, we have more time for members."
The newly integrated environment, in fact, has greatly enhanced the ability of Jewitt's staff to provide value-added and more personalized service to the Pleasant Valley membership. The system installation included the addition of member-facing technology, which permits such things as wireless access within the club for members with laptops, and the launching of the club's new Web site, where members can view their summary statements and all activity detail online. Club financials and budgets are also available online, as well as a member newsletter that is produced in-house.
"We survey members' likes and dislikes for spot and strategic planning," Jewitt adds, "and put the results in PowerPoint presentations for committees and Board meetings." Survey results are stored in the database, along with individual member preferences, member photos and the common associated demographics.
Retaining the Personal Touch
But Jewitt recognizes that not every use of technology is desirable, even if it seems to save time or reduce head count. Those technologies that extend and enhance services are usually desirable; those that are purely operational or administrative might not be.
When adding technology that replaces person-to-person contact, Jewitt stresses, you need to be clear about what the unintended consequences of its use might be. As an example, he cites the ubiquitous use of the ACD, or automatic call distribution, feature available with most modern phone systems. After a brief experiment with ACD at Pleasant Valley, "we're back to a live person answering the phone," he reports.
Citing the book, Service in America, Jewitt stresses that when a customer comes in contact with your business–be it face-to-face or over the phone or Web–they form an opinion about the quality of your service. "It's one of those 'moments of truth,'" he says, "where the perceptions of the membership are very important."
The Path to Positive Perceptions
When club operations add services and perform more efficiently without increases in member fees, there's no doubt that the perception of the membership will be favorable. Through intelligent use of technology and systems integration, the staff at Pleasant Valley is now able to get granular in places that were unreachable earlier. At the same time, they can now see the club's operations as a systematic whole.
"Since we now have the numbers," says Jewitt, "We're always doing a forward look. We are creating the budget for next year as we go. If I can say this is where we'll be eight, nine or ten months out, it gives the Board confidence."
The new systems infrastructure is also creating opportunities for both growing existing businesses and establishing new ones. Jewitt points out two su
ch examples. "When we get a banquet call," he says, "we can now just drop the numbers in and immediately provide a quote." That newfound ability has translated into an increase in banquet bookings, he reports.
Further, Jewitt adds, "We have actively gone after corporate business for meetings, parties, etc., which required renovating the boardroom into a small business meeting room for up to twenty people with dropdown screens, wireless hubs, conference calling, etc." Finding new uses for the facility, once the technology is in place, is a positive unintended consequence.
Another new area offered by a consolidated database is data mining. The easily searchable database has created some interesting possibilities for targeted services at Pleasant Valley.
"I can identify and communicate with specific groups," Jewitt remarks, "If there's something interesting to tennis players or golfers, I can send them a notice. Looking at demographics or psychographics, I can discover things about other groups, like lady golfers or even"–he pauses, as he realizes he's not sure what he'd want to know about this next group–"lady card players." C&RB
Summing It Up
• In an environment of unconnected software packages–which still passes for "systems" in far too many clubs and resorts today–getting information out of one application and into another is often difficult and error-prone.
• Choosing the right integrated solution requires that you know your business well, ask the right questions of software sales people, and are willing to spend the time required to make the system work for you, your staff, and your membership.
• Be careful when adding technology that replaces person-to-person contact; there may be unintended consequences that work against your goal of serving members better.
How to Recognize Real Integration
"Integration" has been loosely defined in many club environments, but here are some characteristics that need to be present for a system to be truly integrated:
Consistent platform and database. An integrated system should have an easy-to-understand architecture. It should be uniform in its use of hardware (servers, client PCs or terminals) and underlying software and communication protocols. Data for the system should reside in a single, relational database. Application modules should populate and query this database. It should also be accessible for ad hoc queries and report writing via common SQL (Standard Query Language).
Single-user interface. There should be a common look and feel throughout the system. Screens, menus and buttons should look and function in the same or similar fashion, from module to module. If your vendor uses third-party applications in his suite (e.g., reselling an off-the-shelf accounting package) the look and feel shouldn't radically diverge between the two.
Adherence to standards. "The nice thing about standards," the saying goes, "is that there are so many to choose from." There is a measure of truth to that ironic joke. From the club software user's perspective, there are two aspects of standards to consider. One set belongs to the technology community, and the other belongs specifically to the club and resort/hospitality industry. A good integrated system should adhere to the common standards of both, and be able to adapt to and adopt new standards as they emerge. These Web links can give an idea of how work is done on each set: www.ietf.org and www.w3.org for Internet and Web standards, and www.hitis.org for the hospitality industry.
Network-friendliness. If the integrated application only works on a single PC, skip it, unless you are the smallest of operations. Server-based, database-driven systems that can be accessed from any client on a network are now the norm.
Flexibility. Not all businesses are alike, either in form or philosophy. A good integrated system solution will let you map your view of your business to it. Most club software systems are loaded with features you may not want or need; make sure what you choose has the features you do need. Document "your system" by answering the question, "What is my business model, not just in its parts (i.e., departments), but as a whole?" Then see if you can create that model with the software in question.
One-stop support. When you need help, you want one number to call or one help center to e-mail. Integration should be end-to-end, with a seamless team from the customer's perspective, starting with sales and carrying through conversion, installation, training, enhancements/updates and back-end support. —TG
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