“Business-critical software needs to evolve and remain aligned with the technology and security requirements that apply to our operations.” – Mark Forrest, Serco Leisure Management System & Information Manager

“Business-critical software evolving and staying current with modern technology standards is so important to us because we’re governed by our parent company,” said Mark Forrest, Serco Leisure Management System & Information Manager. “We keep business-critical systems under review and expect them to continue developing in line with our operational, technology and security requirements,” said Forrest.

One recent development has been the migration of Legend’s hosting to Microsoft Azure, alongside the platform’s wider programme of technical change.

“If you look at some of the global fines that can be levied on a business for negligence and losing personal data, that can have a significant cost attached to it,” said Forrest. “We also don’t want to be that company that’s letting sensitive data get out there in the wild either. It’s paramount importance.” Planned developments within Legend, including the transition to single sign-on, support Serco Leisure’s ongoing confidence in the platform.

“Business-critical software evolving and staying current with modern technology standards is so important to us because we’re governed by our parent company,” said Mark Forrest, Serco Leisure Management System & Information Manager. “We keep business-critical systems under review and expect them to continue developing in line with our operational, technology and security requirements,” said Forrest.

Communication with a provider like Legend is as equally important as the technology itself. “I think where we are today [with communication with Legend] has improved significantly over recent years,” said Forrest. Serco Leisure has had a strong working relationship with their key account manager for many years. “There are times we’ll need her involvement to escalate things,” said Forrest. “She’ll will help with that. And we have good banter as well,” he joked.

Legend’s account management team keeps Serco Leisure informed about relevant planned developments. “Our account manager always has an eye open to see if there’s anything going on that we need to be aware of,” said Forrest. This dialogue helps Serco Leisure assess potential operational impacts and prepare for planned changes.

“I can then speak to [my] people and say, ‘Hey, Legend is considering doing this. What do we need to know?’ And then I’ll ask our account manager to find me a whole heap of information that she probably loves going to find for me,” laughed Forrest. “They’ve been responsive in providing the information we need to assess those proposed changes.”

Legend is moving forward through a powerful push to a modern, browser-based platform, which Serco Leisure’s team has thoroughly approved. “Key tasks have been streamlined with the new platform,” said Forrest. “If you want to sell something at front of house, that’s what you see. If you want to book someone on tour or you want to set up some bookings, you can do that in the booking section.” With clear delineations and accessibility not tied to a downloaded program, efficiency and ease of use have improved.

There are other benefits to the new platform that reflect in daily onboarding across centres: “When you’re training on a specific aspect, you can just do it quite cleanly and easily,” said Forrest. “It was very clear when we trained people before the launch. People were very receptive and got to grips with it very quickly.”

In a sector where access to customer data needs to be controlled, reporting permissions form an important part of the overall approach. “The reporting module is good,” said Forrest. “It allows us to give people access to reporting with the level of detail that we want them to have. We don’t want people to be able to print off lists of people’s details. We restrict what our staff can print off down to the member number only.”

If a team member prints a list of bookings for the day, the reference point is only the member number, “which reduces the personal data visible on printed operational lists,” said Forrest. “If somebody wants to know who that member number is, they’d need Legend access to go and cross reference that member number with the system.” This carefully curated level of access allows staff to accurately view the information they need while limiting unnecessary exposure of personal information.

Legend supports the use of Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to transfer data for use in Power BI reporting, subject to Serco Leisure’s applicable access and data-handling controls. “The ability to transmit that data by SFTP or download it as we want it and then surface that in Power BI is really powerful,” said Forrest.

“We were reintroduced to the Contact Centre about four years ago,” said Forrest. “At the time, we were struggling to deal with the amount of inbound enquiries.” When the opportunity of Legend’s Contact Centre came along, Serco Leisure made its move.

“It delivered a positive operational outcome,” said Forrest. “It’s allowed us to focus less on the back end of what we do as a business and more on the front end, making sure customers get the best face-to-face service.”

The Contact Centre doesn’t just allow enquiries and queries to be picked up in a timely manner – it also supports Serco Leisure in helping customers stay on their journey to their fitness goals. “If they’ve missed a payment, they get an automatic e-mail which asks them to call the Contact Centre,” said Forrest. “They call, and the Centre works with the customer to get their account back on track.” The implementation of the Contact Centre even earned the Serco Leisure team an internal Impact Award from Serco.

Across online transactions, bookings, scheduling and contact handling, Legend supports a broad range of Serco Leisure’s day-to-day operations. “Legend allows us to run effectively an e-commerce store for each of our clubs. So, customers can join online, book online, pay for classes online, at all of the sites that we operate,” said Forrest. “Plus, all the scheduling that Legend does for us. All that management of people’s bookings and schedules… Legend does an awful lot.”