Image courtesy Goodlife
Enriching the fitness experience through technology The Fitness & Lifestyle Group has long been a technology innovator. Kate Cracknell reports on the Group’s latest initiatives their membership and enhancing their overall experience of our brands both in the gym and at home.” Waldron adds “this is all backed by analytics, which is where my and Eddie’s roles overlap. “Then behind the scenes, it’s about standardising technology and processes across our regions and our multiple brands so we aren’t reinventing the wheel. We want to take innovations that are already working and embed that competitive advantage across the Group, streamlining our operating environment and driving synergies so our teams have more time to focus on our customers.”
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or Fitness & Lifestyle Group (FLG), technology has long been a driver of competitive advantage. So much so, in fact, that the business has not one but two executive-level heads: Rob Waldron as Chief Technology (above left) and Security Officer and Eddie Swinnen as Chief Digital and Product Officer (above right). While Waldron focuses predominantly on the tech infrastructure of the business - everything from data governance and quality to software architecture and cyber security Swinnen is more member-facing, leading the charge on digital products and digitally enhanced member experiences across FLG’s portfolio of brands. Yet the two men share a clear vision on the role of technology in the business: not as something that replaces people, but rather something that makes the business even more peoplecentric. Swinnen notes “in my role, it’s about creating best-in-class products that put the customer first, giving them control over 26 Australasian Leisure Management Issue 149
Laying the foundations The first step has been to standardise systems and integrations within the Group, resulting in a platform that allows digital development to be scaled across FLG’s portfolio of brands. Swinnen explains “this has included simplifying our systems, re-architecting and standardising our web CMS and building a member portal to enable self-service. “We also upgraded our app development platform into React Native, writing a single code base so we could simultaneously implement branded apps for multiple brands on both iOS and Android.” Waldron goes on to say “we’ve essentially built a foundation whereby all brands use the same operating platform - meaning they all benefit when we add new features such as online joining, for example - but where each brand can have its own elements for a unique experience.” Having migrated its infrastructure away from on-premise data centres and into the cloud in 2016, FLG has also become one of the first operators to use a cloud-based data lake. Waldron advises “in our case, that data lake is Snowflake, and it underpins the roll-out of our business intelligence work. “It’s where the data analytics magic happens, because it
