IN 19 Contractors web site and web booking system

NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1988

LEISURE MANAGEMENT NAME OF SCHEDULE:

IN 19 Contractors web site and web booking system

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NO AMENDMENT BY ANY TENDERER WILL BE ACCEPTED AND MAY BE CONSIDERED AS INVALIDATING THE TENDER.

ADDITIONAL SHEETS WILL SHOW THE PAGE NUMBER AND BE AFFIXED TO THIS SCHEDULE. ALL ADDITIONAL SHEETS WILL BEAR THE NAME AND NUMBER OF THE SCHEDULE AS SHOWN ABOVE. ***************************************

Contractors shall explain how they will provide a interactive web based booking system and how this will provide an enhancement to the current system.

The contractors shall explain how the system will be maintained to prevent down time.

The contractor must demonstrate how you will manage your web site, what mechanism will be put in place to update and review information and how frequently this will be done.

The contractor must explain what future development plans will be envisage to improve the web interactive booking system that they have explained

SLL delivers an online service in two forms: Leisure Management Software, providing

front of house services and online membership booking and signups. This is directly linked to SLL’s hosted websites, which provide centre and corporate information including: hours of

opening, directions, feedback channels, details of programmes and activities, and the latest news as well as upcoming events, promotions and client profiles.

Leisure Management Software

After an extensive market wide review of current suppliers of Leisure Management Software, Stevenage Leisure Limited has established the ‘Legend Club Management System’ as their system of choice. This cloud-based solution demonstrated to be the best fit to the requirements of the new age of online bookings and web interactions.

The software has already proved its worth within all Stevenage Leisure sites. A number of key successes include:

 An increase in the collection rate of direct debits from 79.6% (with previous software) to 96.3% with Legend Club Management

 Reduced customer comments relating to waiting times from more efficient front of house service

 Within the first seven months of using Legend, 38% of bookings are now made online  From August 2012 to May 2013, online bookings have increased by 359%

Legend Club Management System (LCMS) enables Stevenage Leisure to deliver a secure and reliable bookings system that has been built around the ease of use for end users, both over the web and from within centre’s, as well as being responsive towards the changing needs of clients and customers.

The core design of the LCMS is around functionality. Made up of a number of modules, these centre on efficiency and ease of use. The functional areas include:

 Front of House

 Back Office Management  Invoicing and Debt Management

 Member Online Services and CMS (Content Management System – full control of website functions)

 Vision KPI Reporting  Legend Support

The key benefits and features of each of these are discussed in greater depth below and are important to identify when considering the durable nature required for the online bookings and membership services.

Front of House

Legend’s Front of House module offers efficiency and real time information, incorporating point of sale provision, access control, course and class bookings, activity reservations and membership management, all designed around speed of use, with the processing of customers requests firmly the top priority.

Key features include:

 Intuitive ‘basket-based’ point of sale layout

 Ability to control member access through a number of permissions for entry  Fast account information detailing customers bookings history, account balance,

membership status and event and communication history

 Ability to send messages and alerts for individual members and centre wide promotions  Bookings displayed in a diary format around activity areas provide real time information to

users booking through reception and online portals

 A cash management system which is fully auditable, securely tracking amounts from customer interactions, through daily reconciliation, right through to external cash collection Back Office Management

LCMS Back Office Management gives sites all the tools to manage the customer journey of all users of the centre. A number of modules working together cover all administration tasks for the running of the system as well as easy access to modules to drive forward commercial activities of the centre.

Bookings – The ability to schedule and amend classes and courses, taking place over a

number of locations, select activities to be available to book online, programme club and special events bookings

Price Management – A module to allow sites to make a uniformed price increase across a variety of income lines and also to schedule promotions and assign promotional codes allowing online discounts to new members.

Reports – A comprehensive and extensive reporting module, including break down of income over selected time periods as well as departmental breakdown. Reports can also be generated on sales activity, membership/cancellation/retention figures, class utilisation and a number of financial and patronage and usage information and splits. Schedule the generation and email distribution of these reports can be set for an indefinite period of time.

Sales – A tool to log all prospective membership and a complete contact history with the ability to schedule daily, weekly and monthly sales activity and diary for all lead appointments.

Payments – Automated Direct Debit management, processing payments, cancellations and returns to re-present in the event of failed payments as per membership terms and conditions, and a full log of past presentations

Key features of the Back Office Management include:

 Maximised use of wizards to channel workflows effectively

 Fully automated BACS service with second phase debt management recovery  Fully controlled security functions including fraud checks and account verification  Fully integrated prospecting tools

 Ability to schedule activities and extend these onto the web with a tick of a box  Create promotional codes driving web income and online membership sales

 Ability to schedule reports to be received by relevant individual on a pre determined frequency

Invoice and Debt Management

LCMS Invoicing and Debt Management programme enables effective control of raising, managing and paying invoices, with automated debt letters generated at escalating date periods, users have the ability to pay off invoices and debts through the centre’s reception as well as a secure online payment provision to eliminate the hassle associated with debt recovery.

Key features of this include:

 Integrated with all Legend modules allowing all level of users to pay off debts and access account details

 Generation of invoice in either PDF format with remittance advice or email with a HTML link to a secure payment provision

 Automated creation of reminders for any outstanding debts at pre-determined intervals  Ability to create and schedule reports from actions within the Invoice Management module  Set and assign tasks to users of the module, allowing clear communication through an

important revenue stream

Member Online Services

The Member Online Services provided by LCMS provides a booking and joining capability to all members and perspective users of the centre by fully utilising emerging technologies ensuring that bookings are truly welcomed, any place at any time.

Non-members are able to purchase memberships by selecting a choice of membership options available, and sign up to this by following a clear sign up wizard, guiding through each stage of the process, ensuring sufficient data capture as well as answering a health questionnaire. This paper-less system confirms with the new member via email, and new members are presented with further information including a membership card on their first visit to the centre.

Bookings for classes and sports activities are available to members and non-members of the centre via the same Member Online Services. The ability to make, amend and cancel bookings relieves pressure on reception and provides greater flexibility to individual’s busy schedules. Customers can book by following a link on the Stevenage Leisure

website, directed through large icons, users travel seamlessly through to the bookings portal. Customers are presented with a secure and

branded registration and login screen, and are able to book onto a variety of classes, activities and sessions. Information is provided to members through an information sheet shown below.

Online Member Service is administrated through the Content Management System (CMS),

enabling corporate wide and site-specific amendments to the publicated web page. Sites are able to perform a number of functions including set engaging auto responses that can be posted to the users’ social media following an online booking

Figure 1 - How to make an Online Booking Information Sheet

Due to the integration between the Legend Back Office Modules and the information displayed on online bookings, any changes made to classes or bookings is immediately updated to the web, ensuring accurate information is always displayed and always up to date.

Centre’s are encouraged to regularly log onto a fictional online account to gain a

customers perspective on the information displayed. Stevenage Leisure’s Marketing Department checks content on a weekly basis as part of their internal marketing processes and responsibilities. Key features of this include:

 Online paperless membership sales

 Online bookings available for both members and non-members  Real time view of booking timetables

 Able to be controlled by users on site

 Booking history and ability to make ‘suggested bookings’ for the customer Vision KPI Reporting

Vision KPI Reporting is LCMS dynamic reporting tool. Presenting large quantities of specified data in a very visual and informative display.

Reports can be customised and automated to generate and send to designated recipients at agreed frequencies ranging from daily to annually. Alarms, trigger points and targets can also be set and integrated within the reports providing feedback on key performance.

The ability to identify trends, immediately correlate data and benchmarking opportunities this provides, proves a valuable tool in the operation of the centre.

Key features of Vision KPI Reporting include:

 User defined parameters of both upper and lower levels.

Support Centre Opening

Hours

Mon – Fri:

6am – 10pm

Weekends/

Public Holiday:

8am – 8pm

Figure 3 - Summary Usage - Last 3 Months - Stevenage Arts and Leisure

Centre

Legend Support

Legend’s extensive network of support to its end user exceeds the demands of a leisure centre’s extensive opening hours and diverse base of customers.

Phone support’s extensive hours ensure users have help on hand to respond to queries, observe screen through remote dial in, and provide guidance through all of Legend’s features. Three lines of support ensure any issues needing to be

escalated can be dealt with in a timely manner covering all day-to-day tasks as well as any feature developments.

Legend statistics show that over 90% of issues can be resolved on first reporting to legend. A clear process is in place for all escalating support queries following Legend’s manageable ticketing system.

Legend’s Ticket Support System, available through a Legend desktop icon, enables users to ‘log a ticket’ as a request for help for Legend to investigate issues. The ticket interface logs the two-way conversation between site users and Legend engineers to keep an up to the minute record of progress. These are monitored on a corporate basis, identifying trends and developments throughout the entirety of the system, as well as within sites, allowing colleagues to view

outstanding tickets, maintaining clear communication throughout. Tickets will be logged for all support contact with Legend ensuring a comprehensive audit trail is always achieved. Legend Releases is a support website accessible from all Legend terminals ensuring support is within reach of all users. The site has an extensive library of help notes, interactive video tutorials, system news and updates to ensure resources are only a few clicks away.

Figure 4 - Legend Releases Website

Legend Release’s keeps users up to date of all future Legend developments. A visual

‘Development Pipeline’ provides informative information to upcoming features and likely timescale.

Figure 5 - Legend Development Pipeline

All users can make a ‘request for change’. Either through the Legend Support Centre or through the Legend Ticketing System, requests for change can come in many forms with Legend very

of impending updates via email, and release notes provide details on the works that have been completed.

Large-scale requests can also be made. Legend have responded to suggestions and develop further modules like the recent Price Management module, with a similar Sports Course module and a mobile application for online bookings, currently nearing the end of the testing phase ready for release.

The development of the latest Sports Course module, soon to be implemented, has a number of key functionalities improving customer experience. Waterproof tablets on poolside provide interactive registers for teachers, monitoring and recording of progress, ability to move children between classes and stages and eliminating the need for duplicating paper based information. All information is sent in real time back to all front of house and back office users.

A number of benefits of this are also available to parents. Parents can securely log in and track their child’s progress online and when ready, move classes by viewing available spaces and selecting. Automated emails can be generated when their child is ready to progress.

The impending release of Legend’s mobile application is particularly revolutionising the way online bookings can be made. Complete with SLL branding, this development, ready to be implemented for summer 2013, is likely to have a big impact of bookings and retention rates.

The reliability of Legend means an uninterrupted service is constantly available. Scheduled maintenance takes place over night, and any foreseeable downtime during the day is effectively communicated well in advance.

As with any IT system, unforeseen issues can arise. These are dealt with promptly to reduce downtime and resume operations as soon as possible.

Figure 7 - Major Incident Feedback

Following instances such as these, Legend issues a report communicating the issue, downtime and further actions to prevent reoccurrences. This leaves users with the confidence that issues are being dealt with, and reliability in the system is restored.

SLL’s Websites

SLL has a range of websites that cumulatively welcome over 400,000 visitors per annum: Home page of SLL’s corporate website

As seen above, the other websites below are all additionally directly linked to the SLL corporate site through buttons on the home page. This allows the sites an identity in their own right for marketing and branding purposes, but also helps to keep them under the SLL ‘umbrella’.

Home page of the Gordon Craig Theatre Website, where over 30% of total tickets are sold online

Home page of lifestyles@houghton website

Each centre has its own home page and functional pages. For example the pages for the Letchworth centres are as follows:

North Herts Leisure Centre  Home Page

 Sports Information & Prices  Fitness

 Pool Information

 Childrens Activities and Parties  Other activities

Letchworth Outdoor Pool

 Pool Information and Prices  Childrens Activities and Parties Fearnhill Sports Centre

 Sports Information & Prices  Childrens Activities and Parties

Each page has relevant downloads allowing the customer to download and view or print high quality pdf versions of brochures, price lists or promotional leaflets.

The North Herts Leisure Centre also has online timetables for workout classes and the pool, which can be downloaded onto an I phone as a mobile app.

SLL’s website links directly to the webites of its local authority partners:

The home page for North Herts Leisure Centre is shown below showing the buttons that link directly to the Legend online booking and joining software:

SLL’s website is reviewed regularly as part of its quarterly Quality Audits, carried out by an external company. (please see IN’s 2 & 4 for more details).

An example is shown below. SLL’s website also scores highly in Quest assessments.

Review and update of information

SLL appreciates that fresh or updated material needs to be added regularly to its site to keep visitors coming back to see what's new. It therefore seeks to feature creative new content, text, graphics or images, to build the traffic of repeat visitors

The various centres and their departments are required to routinely check their web content and request updates as needed

The new content is jointly created by the requestor and SLL’s web editor. The subject matter and facts are provided by the centres themselves, and the presentation, wording, and tone are created by the web editor who aligns it with any branding guidelines.

Website updates are part of SLL’s Quality Management System (please see IN 2 for more details) under procedure 2.9- ‘Marketing & Programming’ as below:

‘Website marketing

The website is updated by the web editor. The Centre Manager will email the web editor

with amendments or additions, and he will update the SLL website or forward amendments

to the relevant council’.

As part of the QMS, the procedure is regularly updated with training given to new staff and refresher training given to existing teams and managers.

The Corporate Graphic Designer and the Marketing Director also have access to the Content Management Systems of the various sites and are therefore able to provide back up to the web editor in the case of absence or sickness

Update Procedure

 Requests for routine updates should be sent to: dan.brawn@stevenage-leisure.co.uk  If for a specific or timed promotion, the time when the content should be removed must be

included

 Simple updates will be made quickly (normally within 24 hours) and a confirmation email will be sent upon completion

 Complex updates will require more time and will be reviewed by the web editor before a completion date can be given. Confirmation will then follow by e mail

Review

As highlighted earlier, centres and departments are required to routinely check their web content and request updates as needed. SLL’s web editor also carries out a quarterly ‘web critique’ focusing on the areas of design, accuracy of information and functionality

The web editor also ensures that the sites remain listed properly as the success of our websites are largely dependent on whether people can find them from a search engine or link index, particularly as directories are constantly changing the way they rank and display sites, and some search engines will not index sites unless the pages contain appropriate meta tags, well-structured content or error-free HTML code.

SLL also employs the services of Impakt Media, a specialist web design and new media agency (who designed the original SLL website) who regularly ensure that the site remains accessibility compliant in the light of any changes made.

About Impakt Media Ltd

Impakt Media Ltd is a Web Design & Development and New Media agency based in Kettering, specialising in web design, website development and advising on business strategies, accessibility, search engine optimisation and technology issues. Bringing together a blend of creativity, technical ability and strategic consultants, Impakt Media Ltd is able to work with your business to produce highly effective results.

Monitoring Performance

SLL carefully monitors the performance of its websites through weekly dashboard reports through Google Analytics. SLL is continually seeking to drive traffic to its various sites, and does undertake some pay per click advertising through Google AdWords, but as a policy we look to drive traffic and

Web Developments

SLL, as in all other areas of its operations and marketing, is continuously looking to

improve and develop its online capabilities. Some examples are shown below:

To reflect the fact that, by end of 2013, 75% of the population will own a smartphone (Ofcom) SLL is working with Archant to optimise its various websites for mobile usage, please see example shown below ,and this will be carried out early into thee lifetime of the contract

Virtual Magazine

As a way of providing more added value content and to promote the benefits of sports and fitness, SLL’s will introduce an online ‘Virtual magazine’ that will be part of the SLL website. This will contains much information on areas such as:

 Family fitness  Weight loss  Group fitness  Dieting  Healthy living

and is updated monthly. This magazine will be freely available to all the community, and not just solely as a member benefit.

Health and Wellbeing

As part of SLL’s move into health and wellbeing (please see INs 1 & 3) SLL has developed excellent links with the East and North Herts CCG. Part of that relationship will involve developing a range of health and information pages, on behalf of the CCG with relevant health information, so that the SLL website becomes a primary health information portal for the area

Interactivity

SLL will also increase the interactivity that customers can have with its websites, directly linked to the increased social media capabilities that the centres now benefit from. SLL has introduced this in its newest websites with a view to rolling out to the rest of the sites.

Using Word Press software, SLL will introduce blogging on all of its sites as well as live twitter feeds.