The Benefits of Centralized Data

Whether you’re an independent club owner, franchisee, manager or on the corporate side of business, boasting clubs with easily accessible centralized data can be beneficial to all parties involved.

Why? According to Mark Walker, the VP of technology integration for Anytime Fitness, the answer is convenience. “Anytime Fitness was built on the idea of convenience,” he said. “For a multi-club operator, quick and easy access to their member data and reporting is critical.”

Anytime Fitness has accomplished this through the Club Hub desktop app and the Club Hub iPad app, which gives franchisees and corporate access to information from virtually anywhere. Information includes member demographics and statistics, billing information and usage tracking and reporting.

“Club Hub also features an agenda and calendar component that is critical to tracking new prospects, booking tours and appointments and generating various ‘touch points’ with members to help enhance the member experience,” added Walker. “The information is always available.”

Having centralized data doesn’t just make the management of franchisees’ clubs easier. Walker explained it is critical to Anytime Fitness corporate as well. “As the master franchisor, Anytime Fitness corporate has access to all of the same information as our franchisees,” he said. “Our ‘Coaches to Inspire’ team uses this information to help educate our clubs on the best business practices that built our brand, and to help identify any areas where the club may need improvement. Critical to our success is both our franchisees profitability and their satisfaction. On a broader scale, having all club data in one place makes it easier to track the overall performance of the franchise as a whole.”

There’s another added benefit to centralized data, said Walker: security. “With centralized data access to the information is quicker, generating reports is faster and benchmarking against KPIs is more automated, but it also means a heightened level of security and having a solid disaster recovery plan in place,” he said. “We take the security of our clubs and members’ information seriously and ensure it’s protected and backed up in the event of an emergency.”

However, convenience is still one of the greatest benefits to having data that’s easily accessible at anytime, from anywhere. “Remember, convenience is key to our brand so the franchisees have access through both a desktop program and the iPad app,” said Walker. “Considering that the world is ‘going mobile,’ we are focusing on enhancing the iPad app this year to include paperless and electronic agreements. The idea of a paper-less, office-less Anytime Fitness is moving closer and closer to reality.”

By Rachel Zabonick