SATS, the Nordic region’s largest fitness center chain, has been a partner with Exerp for many years.
According to Christian Øvregaard, the Nordic chief digital officer at SATS, when the brand was considering options to switch their enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to, Exerp was a smaller company with a solution that had a vision and a strategy for the product the SATS team could identify with.
They were looking for a complete system that could support their club operations from A to Z, and a system that could scale well together with the growth SATS had planned. Exerp was the perfect company for the job.
Here, Øvregaard shares how Exerp’s expertise has helped SATS advance their initiatives:
What are the benefits to your business as a result of this partnership?
With Exerp as a partner we have been able to grow our business both in the number of members, but also in other services and revenue streams. Exerp has been a supplier we could discuss the needs of our business and strategy with, and through these discussions they have developed and improved the system to support our needs.
What are the benefits to your members as a result of this partnership?
I think our members look at SATS as a gym at the forefront of new services and technology. Many of the initiatives we have introduced during the past years could not have been possible without the support from Exerp. Some examples could be mobile club access, retail sales, campaigns and our personal training business.
Have you been pleasantly surprised by working with Exerp in any way?
I’m not sure I would define it as surprising, but I would like to emphasize that Exerp is very close to our industry in general. And they are more than willing to share knowledge from other clients — in non-competing geographical areas —and to share best practice and knowledge across clients. They have also shown a very agile approach to the development of Exerp during the COVID-19 pandemic to support their customers with new functionality or a more operational support if needed.
What else can you tell other club owners about the benefits of working with Exerp?
For most gym operators, having all the functionality you need in one solution is optimal and allows for a full view of the member and the services they use. I would advise any gym operator that is looking for a new system to really take advantage of the competence that is within Exerp’s team, as they have years of experience. I would also advise them to use as much standard functionality as possible and adjust the routines and the business slightly, rather than trying to adjust the system. Going down a route of customization for your business is challenging and usually is not beneficial in the long run.
