Co. Meath Golf Club, Brian Lynch, I.T. Support
“Ever since Co. Meath Golf Club installed the BRS System, we’ve been constantly impressed with the features of the product, it’s superb! In fact is there anything the BRS System cannot do? The recent report showing all our registered members email addresses was so easy to access and so beneficial to keep our members up to date with activities in the club. Your helpdesk support is very prompt to answer any queries we have. I’d certainly recommend the product to any golf club”.
Ballinrobe Golf Club, John McMahon, Secretary Manager
Commenting on the latest release of the BRS Tee Time Manager (V6.0)
"I spent some time looking at latest release of the BRS Tee Time Manager. I'm very impressed with the new features and well done to all concerned. I can safely say that in the 4 years that I have been in club management, the most beneficial system that we use is BRS - by a country mile!."
Hesketh Golf Club, Martyn Senior, Secretary Manager
Martyn helped to develop one of the best offline bookings systems, DJB. As such, Martyn knew all about this kind of application from a club’s perspective. Invited to The Open at Hoylake by The Merseyside Partnership, a regional body promoting the North West for golf tourism, Martyn first heard about the BRS Golf internet-enabled booking system via Steve Mainwaring of St. Anne’s Old Links GC. The Merseyside Partnership’s evaluation of several online tee time booking systems showed BRS was head and shoulders better than anything else available. Martyn then saw it demonstrated at a technology roadshow at Ringway GC, and realised immediately that, as Martyn put it, ‘it ticked all the boxes you could wish for.’
Hesketh Golf Festival Week: Martyn’s also responsible for the marketing and management of the club’s Festival week, when different competitions are run all week long for all classes of golfers. Played every year for the last 14 years, the 2007 Festival has only been on the club’s website for a couple of weeks. Entrants are requested to book online via the Festival booking page on the club’s website, and it’s working a treat: “When I came in this morning I could see we’ve had six more bookings and another £600 of payments received. We’ve 30 entries so far! The great thing is that it’s so easy for those making the entries – they just go to our website, click on the Festival section, register their details, book the times they want, and pay via their credit card. It’s totally safe and we get an encrypted e-mail confirming their details and their booking, which of course we can see on the booking sheet. No postage, no bits of paper, it couldn’t be easier for them or for us.”
“We had GolfSwitch before, and we got 3 bookings in 4 years! The BRS system combines the versatility of a well developed system like DJB with the advantages of being online. For a club like Hesketh that gets a lot of golfers making up party bookings from all around the world and from all sorts of time zones, online booking is ideal. Instead of making a ‘phone booking with us, then ringing another local club and finding they need to change the days around, and ‘phone again to re-arrange things - now they can do it online at their convenience and our’s, and in their own time.”
The virtues of an online system that works: “This is our third electronic booking system. Barron went bust, DJB was very good as an offline system, but the BRS system is absolutely brilliant. It tracks every booking transaction in every detail. It records any changes, which are inevitable, so that you can see the history of a booking at the click of a mouse. BRS have been very good at listening to experienced users and building in all their experiences and requests. We’ve got all three modules (the management system for the office, plus the visitors and members modules), and are using it for members to enter competitions, for visitors to book tee times and facilities like meeting rooms. We’ve just had it installed, and we’ll get the members up to speed at a pace that suits them, as we don’t have casual tee time booking for members yet. But it will deal with those who like to block book themselves and their mates on the previous system; the BRS system allows one person to book themselves and up to three others only!”
“The reports are excellent, and you can choose to itemise them eg. for tee times or room bookings, or combine them so that you can see the bigger picture more easily as to the way the club is being used. That makes it a very powerful tool for a manager. It’s easy to set things up in the BRS system, and while there is a learning curve, it’s not difficult to get familiar with the way it does things. Their training videos are just fantastic, and so is their telephone training. We’re very pleased with BRS; they’re very flexible, they listen to what you want, and they’re such nice guys to work with. I’m very happy to demonstrate our online booking system to any golf club in the area.”
Wilma Erskine, Secretary Manager, Royal Portrush Golf Club
‘We used to have a manual system comprising a tee time sheet for every day, for both courses. It worked well, but was inevitably labour intensive. All that information was loaded on to the new online system. It’s speeded things up significantly for the office and the golfers, and people can now book caddies and meals as well, which is a great advantage.’
‘The great thing about the new BRS system is the reports I can get from it. I can check the revenues for the month ahead, and the deposits we’ve taken. All this sort of thing is an enormous help to the Committee members as well, of course. As we build up the usage and the records, we will start to compare year-on-year, and month-on-month. As the system captures the visitors’ e-mail addresses, so we’re also building a valuable database for future marketing.’
‘We resisted computerised tee time booking for a long time, but BRS has done a great job, tailoring their system to give us all the things we want. And now when I get asked, ‘What are the bookings looking like?’, I can give the answer quite easily with the click of a mouse. We’re also getting a much clearer picture of the courses’ usage. Best of all, the Committee members love it!’
West Lancs Golf Club: Stewart King, Secretary Manager
“Being online means everything’s in real time and precise. We’ve only been using it a short while, but it’s perfectly obvious to us that it is an infinitely better management tool. It’s dramatically enhanced the service and experience we can offer visitors, which is a critical aspect of our club’s operation, being one of the top golfing destinations in the North West.
Making Open competition bookings easier for entrants: “We’re running 4 Opens – mixed, seniors, four ball, singles - throughout 2007, and we’re doing it via the BRS system because it’s so much easier for people who want to enter. There are no forms, no phone calls, or any of the usual hassle of making bookings, either for them or for the club. For example, I can see this morning that for our Seniors Open on the 19th July, there are sixteen bookings between 7.30am and 2.30pm for the 18 hole competition. We’ve been e-mailed by the system to confirm the bookings and that payment has been received in full. Job done!”
For Stewart, the experience to date with the BRS Golf system suggests that in the near future everyone will automatically book their times online, and that entry forms will be a thing of the past.
Casual visitor bookings online from Jan 1st 2007: “From Jan 1st, all visitors will be able to book the tee times we allocate for them. That will make life far easier for those coming from the USA or Australia, along with payment via their cards, instead of paying when they get here. That also means we get their money way upfront and in our account. And everyone’s got an e-mail to confirm the arrangements. They can also see the catering choices as well, and book whatever they want to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner! The system gives us just what we want, and all our requests for tweaks or features have been very well handled by the BRS team of developers. Like Open Solutions, they’re another technology company that really listens to their customers, which makes a nice change compared to some!”
Getting the Starter and the Members online by Spring 2007: “We’ll put the members onto the system in Spring 2007. We currently run tee time bookings via DJB and the Starter, but the information is not current, so we’ll soon be installing a PC for the Starter so that he will have the online version running in his office.”
“All the 2007 bookings can already be seen by our members, but with the added convenience of seeing it from their PC at home or in the office. I’m very impressed with BRS; the level of service is brilliant, and I strongly recommend that any golf club considers this system for themselves.”
Belvoir Park Golf Club: Ann Vaughan, Secretary Manager,
'Using the BRS Tee Time Management System has been a big step forward for Belvoir Park Golf Club. The time saving from administration staff alone covers the cost of the system and the statistical reports allow us to analyse the playing trends of members and visitors. We are now in the process of using this information to help the club increase its yearly revenue by allowing more visitors on the course at off peak times and the possible introduction of five day membership.
On top of this the support we have received from BRS has been first class.'
Ardglass Golf Club: Debbie Polly, Secretary Manager
'The BRS Tee Time Manager has reduced significantly the 20-30 e-mails we used to get everyday asking if this day or that time was available – which of course we then had to respond to, check, and so on. Now, people just select the times we decide to make available at the green fees we set, and they pay online there and then. Our overseas visitors can now book online while most of us are asleep and be guaranteed their tee-time.
The system’s very user-friendly, both for us on the administrative side, and more importantly, for the golfers, whether regulars or new visitors to Ardglass.’
Jim Melody, Secretary Manager, Greystones Golf Club
'The online system worked extremely well for the Open Week. It used to mean hundreds of ‘phonecalls which we could barely cope with, but now it almost takes care of itself. And what we did for the Open Week, we can do for any competition. So we’re now gently introducing the members to the idea of booking times and paying for their entries online.'
‘Our tee times are also marketed via www.TeeTimes.ie, a green fee portal, and the integration with our Tee Time Manager means that if someone books a time, it’s taken out from the other site. That’s really seamless integration, first class responsiveness and excellent development.’
Tom Sheridan, Secretary Manager, Old Conna Golf Club
'It's a fantastic tool for tee management. I can see immediately my peak times and my slack times, and adjust our green fee rates to encourage visitors to play in the slack periods.'
'The best thing for me as the manager is I now have a clear picture of what's happening on the course, day to day, month to month. It's reduced the time spent dealing with bookings, phone-calls, and so on. Unlike the old system, every booking's accountable.'
'The BRS online booking system was installed in May this year (2005), and initially was used only for members to book competition times. Because a member now logs in with their membership number and can only book one time, double-booking is impossible and the club's administrators can see exactly who is booking a time; the system is fully accountable.'
'While the members were used to phoning in or coming up to the club and booking tee times, it was highly problematic: names could often be virtually illegible, and although slots were meant to be booked on the basis of one per member, there was no way the club could actually ensure this was the case and keep the timesheet from becoming congested.'
PGA Professionals
Peter Martin and Michael McGivern, P.G.A. Professionals, Belvoir Park Golf Club
'The BRS Tee Time Manager is very easy to use. The speed at which we can take single bookings, group bookings and multiple week booking is saving us at least two man days per month. With less staff hours required taking bookings, we can run our shop more efficiently and offer our customers better service.'
Philip Farrell, PGA Professional, Ardglass Golf Club
'The BRS Tee Time Manager is a massive improvement over our old diary system. It's really easy to use and saves me alot of time over the old diary system. In addition I can see all the information for a particular day at a glance. Another feature I like is the accountability toward mistakes, the system holds the complete change history for any booking.'