Club Trends interviewed Noel Wixsom, founder of Country Club Technology Partners (CC Tech), who since 2007, has worked with clubs of all sizes, assisting them on both short- and long-term technology strategy.
CLUB TRENDS: Private clubs run pretty lean organizations and typically don’t have a large IT staff or budget. What should a club do to make sure it’s running and funding the right technology systems?
NOEL WIXSOM: The starting point would be creating a 24- to 36-month plan and a budget for that. The budget years should ideally tie together, building on each year. So if a club is going to spend a total of $100,000, allocate about $30,000 each year—but the club should have a longer term, strategic goal, in which step one builds on step two and then step three builds on what went before.
CT: Mobility and edge devices (that network by connecting networks or to the internet) such as smartphones, tablets, beacon technology and even drones, are a dominant trend in strategic technology. What are a few of the more promising applications you see of this trend in the club world?
NW: I see increased use of geofence, which creates a virtual geographic boundary tracking what enters or leaves a particular area and links to the smartphone. It’s often used for club member recognition. I think one of the biggest trends is hand-held devices, like tablets, for point-of-sale orders. This reduces the time from ordering to when the food comes out to the members. Smartphone apps are being used more and more to track and optimize club usage and activity—by both staff and club members.
CT: More club back-of-the-house operations are computer-assisted or internet enabled. When you review a club’s technology or assist in information technology (IT) strategic planning, what do you see as important priorities?
NW: The first important one is the core IT backbone—that’s the data highway. A good, strong backbone equals good network uptime and fast transmission and processing times. This also allows a club to add more devices and new technology platforms more easily. This is often overlooked in a club today. It’s also increasingly important for clubs to employ internet segmentation in which the private admin and member Wi-Fi connections are separate. If a club has copper circuits as well as fiber internet connections, then segmenting the admin and member systems will provide internet redundancy or failover, which then prevents downtime and adds further protection for the internet setup. This is important as clubs move applications to the cloud.
CT: Clubs typically look outside their organization for IT support and hosting solutions. How should they make these decisions wisely?
NW: Clubs have to rely on vendors and this can be tricky at times. Some vendors can have inherent conflicts of interest. Clubs will want to consider unbundling design, purchase/lease and IT support decisions. Clubs should consider references from other clubs. Having an IT plan would also help: Part of that plan might include criteria for selecting and vetting IT vendors.
CT: When it comes to club management software (CMS) what do you see now and on the horizon?
NW: I think the biggest innovation will be the Salesforce-type applications (i.e., cloud-based membership relationship management systems)—bringing Fortune 1000-type solutions to small businesses, like clubs. Vendors are innovating in areas like e-procurement, inventory control and payment systems, less in CMS.
CT: Is technology a budget-buster for clubs?
NW: Clubs need to do a better job of IT budgeting. Instead of just allocating an expenditure amount for IT maintenance, clubs need to focus on what they want to accomplish. What is your vision? If your vision is all over the place, then that lack of strategic focus will be reflected in the quality and effectiveness of your budgeting.
CT: Are there any developments of special note on the security front?
NW: There are two fronts: IT security and security cameras. Clubs are conducting security audits, and this is a positive development. They also are creating related IT policies. These crucial policies are addressing password protocols, system and data back-ups, patching, website, terms and conditions and so on. Then there is actual physical security, which takes us to the application of security cameras. Clubs need to stay current here as well. New cameras have much higher resolution, bigger archives and, now, built-in intelligence and analytics capabilities. Quality is improving while prices are coming down.
Club Trends Summer 2018