At the heart of Gladstone Health and Leisure’s product range is a single database that links with multiple modules to give the most comprehensive and flexible leisure management solution on the market. When operators choose a Gladstone system, they benefit not only from its market-leading Plus2 membership management product, but a whole range of bolt-on options aimed at reducing overheads, increasing retention and improving the customer experience.

Robust, scalable and truly integrated, the solution covers a diverse range of business requirements, from membership management to sales and marketing, bookings and resources, payments and finance, communications, point of sale, access control and security, business intelligence and reporting. Plus, having all these needs met by a single supplier has a number of clear advantages, including value for money, guaranteed compatibility and a support network that is singing from just one hymn sheet: yours.

LIFELONG PROMISE
“More than 30,000 licensed users all over the world rely on Gladstone’s applications,” says Tom Withers, Gladstone’s managing director. “Millions of their members also benefit from our products, through on-site registration, web and mobile bookings, or self-service features. This extensive market experience means we can give every customer access to the most advanced leisure management software available, backed up by a world-class support system.

“This is not just a one-off solution: it’s a lifelong promise. We believe software must adapt to the changing needs of businesses, which is why we’re committed to continually enhancing and developing our applications. Our Software for Life maintenance policy means we don’t charge for major product upgrades. Customers will never need to re-purchase a licence to receive a new version of a module.”

Hambleton District Council first installed Gladstone’s membership management system, Plus2, at its four leisure centres in 2005. Following the huge success of this installation, it then introduced Connect online booking, the Gladstone Management Console (GMC) for data configuration, eyeQ for reporting, Learn2 for course management and RFID readers for access control. All of these products have allowed the council to make significant improvements to the business.

James Howard, marketing manager, Hambleton District Council, says the recent installation, Join@Home, is an excellent example of the varied benefits Gladstone solutions offer. “We launched the product last November and have found it to be an excellent addition, allowing our customers to sign up even when facilities are shut. We’ve had over 800 people sign up or upgrade their membership through

Join@Home since its introduction.

“But we’re also using the product in other ways. In January we introduced a new scheme called ‘zest discount card’, which allows our customers a discount on pay-as-you-go activities. Join@Home gives them the option to sign up for the scheme at home to make their experience in the centre seamless.

“Learn2, launched in December 2014, has been similarly successful. Less than a year after launching the software, our swim numbers had increased by nearly 12 per cent across our four centres, from 2,400 to 2,682. We’re so pleased with the results that we’ll start using Learn2 to manage our other programmes from September.”

Howard continues: “eyeQ is another product that has been extremely beneficial. The biggest advantage is that it enables more staff to be involved in the reporting process, as it’s very easy to use.

“Query Builder allows nominated staff members to produce detailed, tailored reports, which can then be exported to and manipulated in Excel. The software also automatically updates reports using fresh data extracted by the Reporting Data Layer (RDL) overnight, which feeds our KPIs and enables easy tracking of targets.

“This year, we are adding to our Gladstone portfolio again, making further improvements to our customer journey through the implementation of Kiosk and access control solutions.

“The benefit of having all these solutions provided by just a single supplier is the easy integration of all the products, enabling us to give our customers more options without having to input the same details on multiple systems.

“Having a single point of contact at the company for all issues is also very helpful. And when introducing new products, we have always found both the project and implementation and training teams to be excellent to work with.”

TIME AND COST SAVINGS
Active Northumberland uses a wide range of Gladstone products across its 18 sites, which range from dual-use leisure facilities to a disabled riding centre.

Amy Miller, ICT systems administrator for Active Northumberland, says: “We first moved to the Plus2 membership management system in 2004, and since then we’ve added the Gladstone Management Console (GMC), self-service Kiosks, Connect online booking, Learn2 for course management, Join@Home for online joining and the business intelligence tool eyeQ.

“In September 2014 we brought in Learn2 as part of a complete overhaul of our swim programme, including continuous assessment and direct debit payments, and it quickly helped make the process more efficient. The fact that Learn2 is linked to Plus2 made it much easier to migrate people onto direct debit, and the system has been specifically designed to support continuous assessment. It has also resulted in significant time and cost savings.

“The most recent addition to our Gladstone portfolio is Join@Home, which goes live this spring. Although it’s early days, we hope the product will both ease pressure on reception and make it easier for customers to join us, ultimately increasing memberships.

“Prior to Join@Home, our last launch was eyeQ in March 2015. We invested in eyeQ after having some issues with third-party reporting tools.

“Because eyeQ has been designed with Plus2 in mind, it will continue to be developed as part of the Gladstone suite of products, so it made financial sense.

“We’re now starting to create centralised corporate reports to ensure greater consistency; this helps to avoid situations where one person creates a report on usage, which is not comparable with someone else’s report on the same thing.

“One of the great advantages of these solutions being provided by the same supplier is the confidence it gives us in their compatibility. The other is knowing there is a single, accountable support network that we can go to for help, with no fear of blame being passed to a third party.”