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Stay updated with the latest news, insights, and trends from our team. Our blog is a space where we share valuable tips, industry updates, and expert advice to help you stay informed and inspired. Whether you're looking to learn something new or keep up with what's happening, you'll find fresh and engaging content right here.

Revolutionizing Country Club Software Solutions through strategic acquisition

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Revolutionizing country club software solutions through strategic acquisition

Technology advances at a rapid pace. That can be advantageous for country clubs, giving them the potential to access new functionality that further increases their operational efficiency, member engagement, and more. At the same time, it can be a bit of a curse, taking time and resources to evaluate new offerings.

Club management software companies understand the importance of a dedicated effort to continuously evolve the software. However, leading providers understand the strategic value of reaching beyond their own development. For example, although industry-leading Northstar has a dedicated team of developers working every day on the system, the company also engages in strategic acquisition of other software providers.

Recent acquisitions by Northstar include Miclub, Happometer, My Sailing Club, and TopYacht. The story of these acquisitions helps illustrate how this software-evolution strategy can be particularly advantageous for country club software solutions customers.

Speed to market

One of the most significant advantages of acquiring other companies is the speed at which new features and functionalities can be integrated into the existing offering. By acquiring companies that already excel in specific areas, like TopYacht in sailing event management or My Sailing Club and its innovative Sailor smartphone app, Northstar can quickly extend these offerings to their customers.

Gaining new capabilities

With the acquisitions of specialized providers, a company can rapidly integrate new features and functionalities into its software. A good example is Happometer. Northstar’s acquisition of the company gave them access to Happometer’s innovative capabilities for gathering feedback from club members, staff, and more – including Happometer’s proprietary artificial intelligence that helps determine sentiment from your respondents’ answers. With these capabilities, Northstar is able to further enrich an already robust country club software solution.

Access to expertise

Each acquired company brings with it a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and industry-specific insights. This expertise is often embedded within the company’s workforce and leadership. Instead of trying to build a team from scratch or train existing employees, Northstar taps into the acquired company’s talent pool. For example, when Northstar acquired MiClub they gained access to specialists who have invaluable knowledge of the Australian golf club market. Additionally, the TopYacht acquisition gave them access to a team of experts who understand the unique needs and challenges of sailing clubs. This knowledge is invaluable in tailoring the software to meet the specific requirements of these clubs.

Enhanced innovation

When companies merge, it can create an environment of innovation within the organization. Knowledge sharing between Northstar and the acquired companies’ teams can result in insights and advancements that lead to the creation of groundbreaking features and solutions.

Better serving customers

Acquiring another software company creates the opportunity to bring new functionality and innovations to that company’s customer base. With each acquisition, Northstar can bring a broader range of capabilities, systems, services, analytics, and more to the acquired company’s customers. This immediately gives the acquired company’s customers access to expanded services consolidated in one software suite and backed by a proven leader in the club management software world.

Additionally, acquired companies often bring with them experienced staff who are knowledgeable about the industry and its nuances. This can lead to improved customer support and service, as clients can expect to work with professionals who understand their specific challenges and can provide tailored assistance.

What often goes unspoken is the stability and reliability that an acquisition strategy signals to customers and prospects. The fact that a company is actively acquiring other firms in the same industry shows a commitment to that market. That can help customers feel confident about investing in a future with a firm like Northstar.

Clubs know they must keep a finger on the pulse of technological advancements to provide superior service and remain competitive. When a club management software solutions company pursues an acquisition strategy, it signals that the company understands the need. And can deliver with increased speed to market new capabilities, improved access to specialized expertise, and an enhanced ability to bring new innovations to clubs.

By strategically acquiring companies that excel in specific areas, a provider like Northstar ensures that its country club software solutions remains best-in-class and continues to meet the evolving needs of its customers.

For more information on Northstar’s acquisition of Miclub, Happometer, My Sailing Club, and TopYacht, visit the Northstar newsroom. To learn more about the advantages of a complete club management software solution, request a demo.

Business Intelligence: Putting Your Club’s Data to Work

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Business intelligence putting your club’s data to work

A club or resort generates a lot of data. And at first glance, this data may not seem significant. Tee times. Dinner orders. A couple of drinks at the bar. By themselves, these little items don’t really help a club understand its membership or its operations. But if you know how to connect the dots, then you can begin to develop a whole new understanding of your club and its members.

That’s where business intelligence software comes in. It can help you begin to understand your membership and what their needs are. You can find areas of dissatisfaction and address them. Also, you can identify opportunities to increase sales and boost retention. You can even begin to predict what members will do and tailor your club and offerings specifically for them.

Here are a few components of a business intelligence dashboard package and what they can do for you and your club.

The BI dashboard: getting an invaluable view of your operation

A business intelligence dashboard is a tool that helps you get a snapshot of key performance indicators (KPIs) across your operation. This allows you to spot trends ? whether they present challenges to address or opportunities to take advantage of.

A trend or pattern may be developing, but be hidden behind all the noise of all the data that is being generated. However, by being able to visualize the data over time, you can see the trends emerge.

Better yet, a good dashboard will allow you to select the set of data visualizations so you can create a customized dashboard that lets you keep track of the information and trends that are the most important for your specific club.

Analytics: digging into the data to find powerful insights

An analytics function is a natural component of your Business Intelligence dashboard. It gives you the ability to examine different data sets together to uncover insights. For example, maybe you want to isolate a list of members who have resigned and then look at how many rounds of golf they played over the past year. Or how many of them had trouble meeting their F&B minimum over that time period. An examination like this could help you build an early detection report that you can use to address members in danger of resigning.

Smart analytics on the Business Intelligence Dashboard will allow you to drill down to an individual member to see his or her patterns. Or you can look at a group of members ? for example, by membership level ? and examine their behaviors. What services do they use the most? When do they use the facilities? And more.

You can also look at things from the operations side. Maybe you want to know what the most popular banquet entree is. Maybe you want to know which of your restaurants generates the most revenue. And what day of the week is the most popular. And what gender of your members that comes from.

Insights like this can help you make the right choices, optimize your revenue, and develop offerings that surprise and delight members.

Reports: ongoing information to keep you connected and informed

Customized reports within the Business Intelligence Dashboard can give you the ability to monitor specific sets of performance data on an ongoing basis. With a smart system, you can choose from a library of stock reports or build your own.

That customization is important. A GM needs to be able to generate a report that covers the entire business. But for heads of department and other personnel, that is not always necessary, or even desirable. Allowing key players to watch developing trends over time with an automated report tailored for them gives them the information they need.

The reporting capabilities should include:

  • Access to a library of stock reports
  • The ability to analyze and create visualizations
  • Drill-down functionality to dig deeper into a KPI
  • Seamless interface to Excel to work with formulas
  • Ability to share custom reports

Business Intelligence: It’s how you make your club smarter

Business intelligence is the eye in the sky that allows identification of emerging trends, optimization and tailoring of offerings, and the ability to allow key players to have confidence in their decisions.

With an intuitive dashboard, powerful analytics capabilities, and insightful reports, business intelligence tools can help your club unlock its unrealized potential. And help you realize the vision of what your club can become.

With the Northstar complete club management software solution, you have access to powerful business intelligence tools. And since the platform is built on one database, you can feed all your data from across the operation into those tools, helping you uncover the insights and identify the opportunities for you to make your club everything it can be. To learn more – request a demo, of the Northstar Technologies solution, today.

Why your Club Management should Embrace this Season’s Attitude of Gratitude

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Why your club management should embrace this season’s attitude of gratitudeThis time of the year we all think a bit more about gratitude. Maybe it is stopping to reflect on what we have. Maybe it is recognizing an opportunity that has arisen. Or, simply appreciating a thank you offered.

It is undeniable that there is something about the holidays.

This is important for clubs to recognize. And to amplify. According to Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis and one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject, gratitude is “a relationship-strengthening emotion.” Building and celebrating relationships are big reasons why members join. Taking time to tap into the power of gratitude can help make members feel appreciated and strengthen their sense of belongingness at your club.

Most interestingly, gratitude sparks a fascinating phenomenon. When someone expresses gratitude toward us, it does so much more than just make us feel good. It actually increases the likelihood that we will want to express our thanks. This creates a cycle of gratitude. It’s why this time of year people talk about the spirit of the season. Or characterized it as a season of sharing. Here are a few ideas for bringing this attitude of gratitude into your club.

Create a gratitude campaign

You have some great tools at your disposal. Let’s use them to help promote a spirit of gratitude during this season. Start by creating a theme for your effort. Then bring it to life with your email. You can send out a weekly gratitude-themed message. It could be as simple as featuring a quote about gratitude. “At the age of 18, I made up my mind to never have another bad day in my life. I dove into an endless sea of gratitude from which I’ve never emerged.”

– Patch Adams

Don’t forget your messaging capabilities in the club app as well. Send those messages out to all members each week. And feature them in the app’s feed. Everyone likes a little bit of inspiration and feeling like they are appreciated. Use your website, too. Create banners with your gratitude campaign theme. Feature some of the quotes you use in the emails. If you want to take it to the next level, consider highlighting club members. Ask what gratitude means to her or him. Then, feature the quote and even a picture.

Take it to your social channels

Your social channels are the perfect place for your gratitude message. Here are a few ideas:

  • Use the gratitude theme you developed and as the quotes you are emailing and featuring on website banners.
  • If you’re featuring members in your campaign, use their gratitude quotes here as well.
  • Post regularly – consider Thursdays and add the hashtag #ThankfulThursday.
  • Create a virtual gratitude tree, asking your followers to post what they are most grateful for.
  • Create little virtual gifts delivered through your social posts – like a recipe from the executive chef or a golf tip (complete with video) from the club pro.

App-reciation

This is a great idea for creating gratitude-themed surprise and delight, and promoting the use of your club app. When someone makes a reservation through the app, send them a thank you with an offer. Half off a spa visit or a free dessert can be a great way to express the club’s gratitude during the season. For the member, it feels great to be appreciated and rewarded.

Using your club management software for data-driven recognition and appreciation

If you have the advantage of an integrated club software system, make an extra push with the staff to use the insight the system delivers about each member. His or her preferences. Either stated or demonstrated. It can be as simple as the staff thanking the member for coming in today and asking if she or he would like the usual (something your staff would know from the system). This simple gesture can have a profound effect. Because it can make the member feel understood and appreciated.

Showing gratitude to your staff

No group deserves recognition and appreciation more than your staff. Including them in your efforts this season can help bolster the spirit of gratitude at your club. Use your system’s analytics insights to identify top performers at the club. Feature these staff members in special social media posts, banners on the website, emails, and more. Another idea is to ask your staff to contribute tips and advice about using different features of the club that members may not be aware of. You can then feature these tips in your efforts and thank the staff member who provided it.

Becoming thank-full

Gratitude is an often underappreciated factor for creating a special atmosphere at your club. This holiday season offers an opportunity for you to experience its bountiful rewards by bringing an attitude of gratitude to your club, members, and staff. Now is the time to make your club thank-full. To learn more about the tools for implementing a gratitude-oriented approach at your club, request a demo of the Northstar Technologies system.

What every Club needs to know about Digital Transformation

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What every club needs to know about digital transformation

Digital transformation continues to be a trending topic. Organizations of all types are coming to the realization that embracing technology for their operations is no longer optional. It is becoming mission-critical.

Clubs are no exception.

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is the process of adopting technologies to evolve the efficiency and effectiveness of your operation.

But it’s not just about adding technology. It is about looking at your operation and identifying how technology can streamline what you do, expand your capabilities, improve your offering, and elevate your member experience.

Example: Club management software transforms dining

Clubs have transformed the F&B offering for both the members and the operation by deploying premier technology in both the kitchen and dining room. In the kitchen, a smart Kitchen Display System (KDS) helps organize the flow, coordinates stations, monitors orders, and more. At the same time, the system connects with the servers’ tableside POS mini-tablets, allowing the immediate input of orders as well as communication of updates from the kitchen and delivery of order changes from the server – all in real-time.

All of this results in improved order accuracy, reduced food waste, timely delivery of orders, and more. Moreover, it reduces the servers’ need to run back and forth between the dining room and the kitchen, giving servers more time to spend serving and further enhancing the member experience.

Why we can’t ignore digital transformation

Business and market requirements drive the need for digital transformation.

From a business standpoint, there is constant pressure to deliver a modern and competitive offering while keeping costs in check. Technology becomes a key factor in fulfilling these needs.

From a market perspective, there are additional pressures. Whether you like it or not, your members and prospects are experiencing the technological advancements that other businesses deploy. And they begin to question why they can’t have the same functionality, convenience, and experience from you and every other organization they engage with.

In other words, digital transformation is quickly becoming the price to play for successful organizations.

The key elements and characteristics of a digital transformation

There are three components to any digital transformation.

  1. Technology – it is important to identify the technology that can help you work toward your strategic goals. This includes understanding how it will integrate with existing systems, and identifying the ongoing maintenance requirements.
  2. Data – the output of all this technology is data. Prioritizing data from the start is key. That means identifying how you will collect it and use it to help inform your decisions and drive continuous improvement.
  3. Process – technology can help you evolve the processes you use to run the operation. This includes optimizing your existing processes as well as developing new processes that improve club operations.

As you consider solutions, you can use the three components to organize your evaluation. Additionally, you can assess your options using these key characteristics of high-value solutions:

  • Flexibility – your technology should be able to handle many different configurations, adapting to the unique combination of demands at your club – today and tomorrow.
  • Data Centrality – the solution should operate on one database, eliminating siloed operations in your club and helping you have better visibility across all areas.
  • Intelligence – the technology should allow you to easily turn all the data into insights you can use to improve processes throughout the club.
  • Unity – the platform should help you deliver a consistent member experience across all areas of your club.

The 7 steps

As you consider a digital transformation initiative at your club, expect the process to include these 7 steps.

  1. Align with your stakeholders – successful initiatives first seek buy-in throughout the club – with both your staff and your members. Help them understand why digital transformation is crucial and how it will improve life for them.
  2. Identify needs – identify the needs of your club and rank them as primary, secondary, and tertiary. This will allow you to determine the order in which you will implement solutions.
  3. Map technology solutions – using the needs you have identified, determine the technology offerings that best suit those needs. Use the key elements and characteristics discussed previously to evaluate your options.
  4. Identify expert partners – there is a lot to consider when undergoing this evolution. It is not unusual to feel like you need additional resources to augment the expertise you have on staff. Having a proven technology partner can help accelerate the success of the effort.
  5. Create your plan – with your needs, solutions, and expertise identified, prioritize the implementation, and lay out the plan and timeline for executing.
  6. Execute – begin the process of implementing the technology throughout your organization.
  7. Gather feedback and refine – gather input from both your staff and members as you go. Use this feedback to fine-tune the technology you’ve implemented in your operation.

The speed of technological innovation continues to accelerate. With it comes new opportunities to employ advanced solutions to help improve operations and enhance the member experience. If you’d like to explore the opportunities at your club, contact Northstar.

With the Northstar complete club management software solution, you’ll discover how you can integrate systems across your operation, eliminate technology silos, and deliver the invaluable data and insights that can only be gleaned from a solution united by one database. To take the next step in your journey, request a demo of the Northstar Technologies solution, today.

Could your Relationship with your CRM use a Little Work?

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Could your relationship with your CRM use a little work

We all know Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is important. It’s common knowledge. In fact, the acronym has become so ubiquitous that it’s now one of those buzzwords that you expect to see used in a Dilbert cartoon, like TBD, Or WYSIWYG (LOL!).

The question is not whether CRM is important, but rather how do you get the most out of it? When fully utilized, the best club CRM Software is not just a repository of information but a means for helping to amplify relationships:

  • Relationships between the club and prospective members
  • Relationships between the club and the existing members
  • Relationships amongst members

When you consider everything that CRM can affect, you can see why it’s vital that you have a great relationship with this relationship manager.

When it Comes to Wooing Prospects, CRM Software should be your Bestest Buddy

Your CRM should be an invaluable tool for identifying leads and prospects. It should help you understand what is important to them. And it should help you determine where they are in the process of becoming a member.

With this insight, you can easily identify your next steps. For example, you may decide it’s time to:

  • Put them on your newsletter list (for prospects in the early stage of nurturing) or utilize your campaign manager to reach out with a personalized and targeted email or text (for those further along in the decision-making process)
  • Set up a lunch with a current member who matches up with your prospect’s likes so the prospect can ask questions and get a first-hand perspective of the club experience
  • Offer a free round of golf or dinner (depending on the prospects’ profile) so they can sample the club experience
  • Find an upcoming event and segment prospects whose profiles suggest they would appreciate an invitation

When you have this kind of relationship with your CRM, you’ll engage with your prospects with the right message at the right time. That can result in an improvement in prospect conversion. Who wouldn’t like a buddy who could help make that happen?

Your Club CRM Software will Become your BFF

Understanding your customers is key to the success of any business. For clubs, that understanding is crucial in order to optimize the experience for the members.

The good news is that you have a trusted confidant at your side who is up to the task. Your BFF. Your CRM.

When someone joins, it’s a natural time to gather information. It’s ideal to gather as much as possible, creating a detailed profile right away. This allows you to start making appropriate recommendations immediately, personalizing the club experience for the member.

As members use the club, you can gather more information into the CRM. For example, you could learn:

  • What days do they golf and what are their usual tee times
  • Whether or not they take advantage of the 19th hole
  • Whether they buy clothing or equipment in the online store or at the pro shop
  • What events do they attend
  • What other amenities do they typically use

Additionally, members can be prompted from time to time to add their preferences through the website or mobile app.

This data gathering gives you a rich picture of each person and allows you to start anticipating needs. All of which can make the experience magical for your member.

CRM Should Stand for ‘Customer Relationship Maximizer’

Your club’s ability to foster relationships may just be one of the most powerful reasons someone joins and maintains a membership.

A well-developed CRM can give you access to your members’ buddy lists. It can help you segment members into groups with similar interests, too. This allows you to suggest and invite members to events that they can enjoy with their friends or that give them the opportunity to develop a new friendship.

When your club is seen as this type of connection point, it earns a special place in the hearts of members.

Your Club’s CRM can be so much more than just a member database. It can be that awesome confidant that delivers rich insights about your members. It can be that trusty companion that helps you understand members’ needs and wants today, and anticipate them tomorrow. Doesn’t that sound like the kind of relationship you’d like to have with your CRM?

Evolve how you build and deepen relationships at your club by taking advantage of a CRM that is integrated with a complete club management platform. A premier platform built on one database to give your entire operation a single source of truth for better decisions for the club. And a better experience for members. Get the full profile – request a demo of the Northstar Technologies solution, today.

How technology and Club Management Software can help you navigate The Great Resignation

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How technology and club management software can help you navigate The Great Resignation

During the early part of the pandemic, many companies downsized, unwilling to keep employees on their payrolls during lockdown. The move caused an unprecedented number of workers to file for unemployment. And it left economists thinking that workers were going to be scrambling to find work.

Oh, how the tables have turned. According to a report by the US Department of Labor in October of 2021, almost 7% of workers in the hospitality and food industry quit their jobs in August, more than twice the average rate of the rest of the economy. There have been a variety of reasons cited:

  • Compassion fatigue – In some sectors, like hospitality, workers are worn out dealing with customers’ heightened anxieties caused by the pandemic.
  • Job burnout –The pandemic changed workers’ jobs. That caused stress that was now coupled with the anxiety mentioned above. All of that fueled an increase in worker exhaustion.
  • Employer Inflexibility – Many companies did not adjust well to the new reality, further alienating the worker.
  • Lack of employee appreciation – Employee recognition is a perennial issue for many companies in good times. In the scramble to adjust to the pandemic, many organizations let employee appreciation slip even more.

Whatever the reasons, it’s a new reality and organizations have to adjust how they do business to accommodate it. There is a real cost to this. According to a Cornell study, employee turnover costs an organization an average of $5,864 per employee. And when you look at the Q3 report from Joblist and see that a staggering 58% of all hospitality workers say they are considering quitting, this can be a substantial hit to a club.

So, let’s take a look at some steps we can use to mitigate this trend.

Club management solutions that help them work the way they want to

Your Millennial and Gen Z workers are digital natives. Giving them the technology in their jobs helps your organization feel like a natural fit in their lives.

Giving them access to information

These are generations that grew up with information at their fingertips. It can seem archaic for them to work in an environment where information is siloed and not readily accessible.

A club can improve the retention of high-performing team members by giving them access to the information that helps them do their job better. For example, giving staff a view into a member’s profile and preferences, whether that’s knowing that a member’s wife can’t eat gluten or knowing that a member always orders coffee the same way.

This allows your staff to create a personal connection with the member. That can lead to new levels of delight among members and heightened job satisfaction with your team.

Empowering your staff to act as ambassadors

There’s an opportunity to have your staff act as ambassadors and teachers. If a member asks for a service, have the staff fulfill the request for them on their app and then offer to demonstrate how they may like to use the app for future requests.

This does a few things. It lets your staff know that they have an important role as evangelists of the club app. It gives the staff a heightened sense of value by empowering him or her to share knowledge. And it allows the staff to once again build deeper connections with the members. All of these things help the staff feel like they are part of an organization that values their role.

Building better communication within your team

Top performers have a natural desire to do their job well. They know that communication within the organization is vital. And, they know that technology is the key.

For example, deploying tableside POS allows your wait staff to instantaneously communicate with the kitchen staff without running back and forth between the dining room and the kitchen. This makes your wait staff’s work more rewarding as they are now able to spend more time serving members. And it reduces errors, rush orders, and other annoyances that can affect the job satisfaction of your kitchen staff.

Another example is reservations. Getting a desired tee time always causes stress, not only for the member trying to reserve it but also the employee who has to break the news that somebody else beat him to it. Through the club app or website, you can give the member the ability to view tee times, make a reservation, and even invite other club members. Members appreciate the convenience. Just as important, your staff members will appreciate how the functionality can reduce the instances of them having to deal with irate members.

Addressing challenges before they lead to a staff exodus

Data analytics can be a powerful tool in retaining employees. Smart club management software gives you the ability to identify top performers. It could be the server with top sales in the dining room. The spa staff member with the most up sells. Or the banquet coordinator who continues to beat historic sales numbers. The data analytics can help you identify these stars and ensure you’re doing everything to retain them.

Additionally, the analytics could help you identify areas where performance is lagging and then look at the root cause – before this becomes a big problem. It could be as simple as coaching a manager that may not be handling his reports optimally. Or it could be a systematic issue that shows that current processes are not scaling.

This kind of proactive approach can help you identify those often hidden factors that, if left unaddressed, can become major contributors to employee turnover.

Staying ahead of The Great Resignation

There is a lot involved with ensuring that your staff members feel like the work that they are doing is valuable and that they are appreciated. Deploying smart technology can go a long way to helping you accomplish this. Especially with the digitally-native Millennial and Gen Z generations.

Nobody knows how long The Great Resignation will last or what the repercussions will be in the months ahead. But taking steps now to improve your technology can up your game, helping you continue to retain and build a quality team.

Northstar Technologies can help you address the challenges of The Great Resignation. Built on one database, the complete club management platform delivers improved access to information, communication, and all the tools that help staff members feel their work is worthwhile and appreciated. Get a feel for it yourself – request a demo, today.

Zombie Technology: Is your Club Management Software Creating a Horror Show?

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Zombie Technology Is your Club Management Software creating a horror show

They are there. Hiding in the shadows. Bedeviling everything from the way you communicate across your club to your ability to get things done. They are the demons lurking in your disparate systems

Left to their own devices, they can slowly suck the life out of a club. It’s time to expose them. Bring them into the light of day. So we can drive them out. Never to return.

Here is a field guide to identifying the evil fiends.

The Time Vampire

This creature skulks among all your disparate systems. It thrives by sucking up all your staff’s time by cursing them with manually entering information from one system to another. Or causing them to cross-check information in multiple databases to make sure the billing is right or a member isn’t left off of an event they registered for.

This fiend especially delights in watching you and your staff scramble when it’s report time and you have to pull data from those multiple systems and databases. And then try to turn it into coherent insights.

The Frankenstein Monster

With those cobbled-together systems, you have created a monster. There are telltale signs. Lurching and staggering operations. Faltering abilities to communicate.

Every time you try to update a system or bolt-on functionality, the creature becomes more grotesque and unwieldy. You end up spending more time and more money trying to wrangle the beast. Training and retraining your staff. Patching security vulnerabilities again and again. And just trying to keep this brute stitched together.

The Befuddlement Goblins

These mischievous imps infest your siloed systems. They delight in the chaos that they create by keeping systems from speaking to each other. They can drive staff insane by forcing them to run from one department to another, trying to get the most recent data.

Worse yet, they can wreak havoc on the member experience. They are responsible for orders getting lost in the restaurant, tee times being jumbled, court reservations disappearing, and more.

The Befuddlement Goblins can seem like an irritating but tolerable nuisance. That is until you see how they make it hard to retain staff and leave members feeling spooked about renewing.

The Financial Fog

This evil spirit is insidious. It’s hardly noticeable as you go about the daily financial business of the club. Sure, it’s a pain to try and get a consolidated view with all those disparate systems. But you do your best to root around for all the information you need for accounts receivable and payables. You slog through. Invoices get sent out. Bills get paid. And mistakes are made.

Being in the middle of it, it’s hard for you and your people to see the fog that creeps in and engulfs the backend operations. The impenetrable haze chokes any ability you and your people have to do anything other than to just keep up. Time for process improvement is lost. Lost in the fog.

The Brain Eater

This creature may be the most sinister. It lives to devour any ability you have to be able to strategize about the future of your club with Club Management Software.

The Brain Eater is naturally drawn to clubs with Time Vampires, the Frankenstein Monster, Befuddlement Goblins, and the Financial Fog. It knows these other fiends create an environment where it’s difficult to do anything more than just keep up with the day-to-day. In this bog of disparate, siloed systems and faltering communication and coordination, the Brain Eaters add to the chaos. They ravage the last shred of possibility of gathering any intelligence from your systems that could help you optimize, reinvent, and innovate in your club.

Exorcising your demons

If you have been seeing the signs of zombie technology at your club, all is not lost. There is still time to drive out the evil lurking in your operation. It begins by creating an environment that repulses the demons. An environment where disparate systems disappear. Where your country club management software operates on one database that connects everything and everyone, shining a light on even the darkest corners of the operation. Hence, in this environment, the ghouls cannot survive. The spirits flee. And the once horror show becomes the idyllic club you always knew it could be.

With the Northstar complete club management software solution, you have access to a premier platform. A platform that can protect your club from those demons of inefficiency, confusion, and chaos that can creep in. The Northstar platform is built on one database, giving your entire operation a single source of truth for better decisions for the club. And a better experience for members. Thinking about implementing anything less is just spooky. Get the full profile ? Request a demo of the Northstar Technologies solution, today. 

Northstar acquires MiClub Golf Course Management Software to meet members’ growing technology expectations

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Northstar acquires MiClub golf course management software to meet members’ growing technology expectations

Once you play at a club with great technology, it sets the standard for what you expect from every club. You expect to schedule a tee time online. You expect digital scorecards. On-course GPS and many of the other great advancements.

This is what’s happening to more and more members these days. Maybe they’re visiting a friend’s club. Or playing a round while on vacation. Once they experience the technology, they expect every club to deliver it.

The technology is especially important to the younger prospects

The younger generations are the future of your club. For this large group of digital natives, the technology is not just a “nice-to-have”. It’s a “must-have”.

They expect to connect from their phones, anytime and from virtually anywhere. And more and more, they expect a club app that brings it all together for them.

The technology leaders evolve their club management software offering

These accelerating expectations have not escaped the technology leaders in this industry. In fact, premier club management software provider Northstar Technologies, Inc. has announced the acquisition of MiClub. MiClub, a leading provider of golf and club management software solutions in Australia and Southeast Asia.

“Northstar and MiClub have worked closely together, through strategic channel partnership, serving and supporting the golf industry in Australia and Southeast Asia for almost a decade,” said Prasad Suryadevara, Northstar’s Founder and CEO. “This transaction really reflects a natural next step for our partnership and enables us to further leverage our respective capabilities, offer our clients enhanced functionality and features, increase penetration and share in our existing markets as well as expand our geographic reach across the global membership, association and hospitality management space.”

The acquisition highlights how forward-thinking providers are advancing their ability to serve the evolving needs of clubs all over.

“MiClub has prided itself in setting the agenda for golf solutions and ensuring our clients are at the forefront of delivering best practices and a superior service experience,” commented Peter Maddison, MiClub’s Co-founder and Managing Director. “Prasad and the Northstar team share that same vision and purpose, deeply understand our business and have been a tremendously supportive partner over the years. Extending this partnership and becoming part of the Northstar family enables MiClub to continue our mission and strengthen our position as a market leader.”

One company. One database. One extraordinary experience.

The Northstar acquisition of MiClub illustrates how providers are working to bring everything under one roof, making it easy for clubs to access a best-in-class club management software solution.

But what does that mean for the member?

In the Northstar case, that solution is built on one database which allows clubs to get a comprehensive view of how members use the club as well as their likes and preferences. With this insight, the club now has the ability to personalize the experience for the members. And deliver it with the technology that those members are increasingly expecting.

For more information about the MiClub innovative software solutions, visit miclub.com.au. To learn how to give a club a single source of truth for better decisions and create an extraordinary experience, check out the Northstar complete club management solution at globalnorthstar.com.

Club Management Software Experiences a Surge in Innovation in 2021: Northstar Leading the Way

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Club management software experiences a surge in innovation in 2021 Northstar leading the way

If you think you have an idea of everything club management software can do, it’s time to take another look. Over the past year, advancements have brought new functionality as well as innovations to existing abilities.

Some of the developments were quick responses to clubs’ needs that were precipitated by the COVID-19 virus. “Grab ‘N Go has been a hit among our members. Within 48 hours of coming up with the need for takeout during COVID, Northstar had the system in place and ready to go,” said Scott Kolb, General Manager of Victoria Golf Club.

But that’s just part of the story. Other advancements arose as well. “In addition to the new offerings, our team deployed a number of high-value upgrades to existing functionality to help improve the member experience while helping clubs streamline operations,” said Prasad Suryadevara, Northstar’s Founder and CEO.

Here’s a look at the progress our club management software has made over the last year.

Cooking up tantalizing offerings in dining

Adoption of Grab ‘N Go grew for clubs as the realities of the pandemic set in. For Northstar, a continuous improvement approach ensured functionality was tuned to the demands of the time. It started with optimizing navigation to streamline the user experience. It also included adding new abilities such as allowing credit card payments through the app as well as the capability to allow ordering by the public.

Additionally, the offering saw improvements with how it worked with the Kitchen Display System (KDS). Load management was introduced into Grab ‘N Go, allowing the kitchen to restrict ordering based on load factors. And helping to reduce the incidence of swamping the kitchen and dealing with members irate about delayed orders. An option was also added to allow members to pre-order for future dates.

The KDS incorporated these innovations, allowing the kitchen staff to see the full queue of orders – from the dining room and Grab ‘N Go. This helped to further improve the workflow, but also to enhance the member experience. For example, when Grab ‘N Go orders are ready for pickup, a message can automatically go out to the members’ app to notify them.

“Shadow Wood recently upgraded to Northstar 6.0 and brought in both the tableside tablets for the dining room. And the KDS screens for the kitchen Both systems have proven to be wonderful additions and have greatly sped up service, as well as accuracy during the order taking process,” said John St. John, Director of Food & Beverage at Shadow Wood Country Club

The value of these optimizations is magnified when you consider how the system can reduce the demands put on your team. In other words, the advancements can help clubs more efficiently manage through a time when hiring and retaining staff is particularly challenging.

Scoring new enhancements for golf

Golf everywhere saw a surge over the past year. For Northstar, upgrades to club management software helped mitigate the challenges of the extraordinary demand, all while improving the experience for both the members and the golf staff.

An upgraded booking engine helped drive the improvements which included new tools to help the golf staff control daily play. Of course, this connected with the members’ app which allowed them to see and book available times, and build their foursomes from a buddy list in the app. “The tee time app has been very well received by our members. It is easy to use and has made some significant enhancements to get the members on the course at the times they want and the people they want to play with,” remarked Ben Hay, General Manager at Crane Creek Country Club.

On top of it all, Golf Events functionality was built to help the golf staff manage tournaments.

Giving check-in the VIP treatment

Check-in was another area that rose to prime importance in the pandemic environment. Northstar responded by developing a front desk self-check-in solution. It allowed guests to scan the QR code on their app or use physical cards and fobs to check in themselves, dependents, and guests. The new technology tied to Northstar’s Access Control Box which triggered the opening of the door upon successful member validation.

But it didn’t stop there. The new development also gave clubs the ability to immediately post guest fees to the member’s bill upon automatic check-in.

Northstar also added upgraded functionality for those clubs needing room check-in. Upon booking, members receive a link for the room booking. The solution allows them to add guests, view bills, enter credit card information, and checkout. All from the app.

Sending a strong message with texting

Texting continues to be one of the most ubiquitous methods of communicating. Unfortunately, most members have to go outside a club app to use this preferred method of communication.

Northstar recognized that requiring the member to leave the club app to text was not optimal – for both the member and the club. As a result, texting was added as a new feature.

The addition reduces steps, making the experience less burdensome for members. For the clubs, it provides numerous benefits. For starters, it allows the club to send a message to a custom list of members based on demographics, interests, and literally hundreds of parameters stored in the member database. This enables precise targeting to deliver a highly relevant message. And since the texting functionality is connected to the database, creating highly personalized messages is simple.

The advancement also allows the club to send automated reminders for a dining or event reservation the member made. This reduces the need for a staff member to manually send notifications. And it helps reduce lost business due to no-shows.

Issuing the first-class functionality of vaccine passports

This year, the pandemic had many places considering the requirement of having visitors show proof of vaccination status.

Northstar saw this as an opportunity to bring value-added functionality to the club management software solution. Now members can take a picture of their vaccination cards from their phones and upload them to the app. Club staff receives notification that the card has been uploaded and they can review and approve. Once approved, the members receive a green (safe) shield on their profile. This green shield shows up in the system whenever the members check in, letting the staff know that they are vaccinated. The functionality even allows the staff to override the system if the member does not have the green shield but presents a vaccination card in person.

For members, the advancement delivers invaluable peace of mind, knowing that there are measures in place to enhance their safety. As Chief Technology Officer of Jonathan Club Chas Boyer added, “Northstar has really risen to the occasion for Jonathan Club by providing a streamlined way for our members to confirm their COVID-19 vaccination status. Members can simply leverage the Club Now app to snap a picture or upload a scanned file directly to their membership account.”

Continuing the never-ending pursuit of an exceptional member experience

Northstar continues to innovate to improve both the member experience and the club operations. The pandemic has created a unique challenge. But with it has come an equally unique opportunity to make the club experience more engaging, convenient and rewarding than ever before.

To get a more in-depth look at all the innovations of a complete club management software solution built on a single database, request a demo, of the Northstar system.