Woodcote Park GC on the Open Solutions package

The club’s secretary, Adrian Dawson, talks about the system, which is the only software to link automatically with Croft’s accounting package

Woodcote Park Golf Club in Surrey has just had its best financial year ever. It has been using its fully integrated Open Solutions package – two EPoS tills, three back office licences, Croft membership and accounts, HandicapMaster, BRS Golf’s online tee time booking system, CLUBView website and Open Solutions’ web based members’ account information app – since 2005.

Club secretary Adrian Dawson has looked at other business solution packages and still hasn’t seen anything to rival what he’s got, so what’s the explanation?

Adrian Dawson

Adrian, 12 years is a very long time for any golf club to run the same software, even with upgrades, so why is that?

We originally needed a system that did ‘everything’, and that meant it had to be a fully integrated system where all the parts talked to each other. That meant our membership administration software, our handicaps and competitions’ software, our website, our bar tills, stock control and so on. And all that also had to work with our Croft accounting system which is vital to the efficient management of the club.

To demonstrate that last point, the Open Solutions EPoS tills automatically download overnight all completed sales data and then load it all straight into Croft. So first thing in the morning we can see all the reports of our daily sales. That integration also saves bookkeeping time and resource.

To date, we’ve not seen anything that matches this capability, and that’s got a lot to do with why we’ve kept Open Solutions for over 12 years. The simple fact is that everything works, it’s stable and does everything what we want it to do. It’s well supported too, which for me is critical. As a club secretary, once everything’s been installed and the training’s completed, you’re reliant on the support. If there’s any kind of an issue, with Open Solutions all I have to do is pick up the phone.

Open Solutions has been acquired by investor Simon Kimble, and the support is one of the things CEO Ed Beale and Group Operations Director Tony Jones are improving. On top of calls being answered and handled, each customer gets a dedicated support engineer who will call every month to check if there’s anything you need or want, plus two site visits a year and a regional annual user group. They’re even considering a Google forum customer group so managers can ask any questions of peers and share experiences, including those that aren’t software related. How does that sound?

We’re excited about this. It’ll help Open Solutions stay well ahead as far as I’m concerned.

The acquisition also means that their club members’ app will be available early 2018. So in two taps on their mobile devices your members will see their bar and pro shop account balances right down to the receipt copies, do online top ups, check competition results, follow club news, check latest handicaps and book tee times and lessons online.

That’s exactly what we want. High speed and plenty of information is what members expect now, so it’ll be another feather in Open Solutions’ cap from Woodcote Park’s perspective.