Huntingdonshire One Leisure
Moving to the Gladstone Cloud
In this case study we explore the reasons why Huntingdonshire One Leisure have chosen to move their infrastructure from an on-premise environment to the Gladstone Cloud in order to realise their long term strategy to create enhanced digital experiences for their customers.
We caught up with Paul France, Business & Operations Manager, and Kate Bryant, Business Systems Manager to find out why this first step in moving to cloud infrastructure plays such a crucial role in their long term vision. It begins with transforming operational efficiencies and improving business continuity, with the end goal to use cloud to pave the way to redefine self-service and digital experiences for their members.
Our goal at Huntingdonshire is to be more reactive to changes in technology. Moving our systems and processes to the Cloud will help to improve security and enable our IT teams to focus on other important projects for our facility.
Paul France
Business & Operations Manager
Leisure IT enhancements are sometimes unique which can lead to re-prioritisation or 'one size fits all', to meet the councils wider responsibility to all its citizens. We sought cloud infrastructure to strike the balance between bespoke leisure service delivery and enabling central IT to focus on core services which gain efficiencies across the council.
Kate Bryant
Business Systems Manager
Challenge
One Leisure operates in conjunction with the local council where the shared model has both its benefits and challenges. One Leisure's operational team were seeking to remove internal barriers, and leverage their supplier partnership whilst building a more efficient working practice with central IT.
The internal barriers included:
- Multiple stakeholder approval process between Leisure and council IT Services
- Competing for IT resources due to conflicting council priorities
- Reactivity to pace and change in leisure management technology
Solution
The Gladstone Cloud is a managed private cloud infrastructure predominantly on Azure; it provides operators with a secure and responsive environment which is able host the familiar Signature products as well as the GladstoneGo cloud native solutions.
One Leisure decided that the best course of action would be a phased approach to the Gladstone Cloud. This involved migrating a multi-database Signature environment to a dedicated area in the cloud, effectively mirroring their current on-premise environment whilst taking advantage of all the benefits of a managed infrastructure in the cloud.
Customers now expect a fully joined-up product. With Go Learn they can go into the system, pay their direct debit, see how their child is progressing and much more...it is perfect for our customers because it offers everything in one central place.
Paul France
Business & Operations Manager
At the end of the day, we have to provide a more customer-centric approach in leisure. We are committed to the Gladstone Cloud and continue to partner with Gladstone to evolve our environment and meet the needs of our customers through improved digital experiences as more and more of our customers start their leisure journeys online.
Paul France
Business and Operations Manager
Why Choose Cloud Infrastructure?
One of the key reasons One Leisure chose a managed cloud infrastructure is it allows them to rapidly adopt new releases and feature enhancements without the need to involve central IT services.
Benefits include:-
- Reactive upgrades to the latest releases
- SQL database version and security patch management
- Direct access for Gladstone Support services
- Lower maintenance costs
Why is One Leisure considering Go Learn?
It's simple, Go Learn is a cloud application therefore it facilitates the same benefits as moving server infrastructure into a cloud datacentre. With the ever-increasing demands of the consumer as well as new advances in software development and automated deployment cloud applications such as Go Learn enable operators to keep pace with new feature enhancements instantly.
Go Learn has no local infrastructure, it's always the latest version and with a continual development cycle - updates are instant with no downtime. When new features are released One Leisure as well as every other operator using Go Learn will receive the new releases with no requirement for IT intervention. Go Learn is built for today's consumer where enrolling onto courses starts digitally vs visiting in-centre. The ability to join a course online from any device is only available in Go Learn because Go Learn is a cloud application it requires cloud infrastructure and this is why One Leisure is taking a phased approach with their infrastructure to meet the demands of new cloud applications coming to leisure.
Outlook for the Future
The One Leisure team are committed to their journey to the cloud and its ability to remove operational challenges and drive innovation to deliver better experiences for its customers.
Currently, the team is focused on implementing and measuring the impact of this first phase of their cloud transformation. Up next focus for One Leisure will be the choice of cloud application in the knowledge that their infrastructure is future-proof.
Looking ahead One Leisure is working with Gladstone to scope the next phase of their infrastructure transformation which will be built on DevOps and use infrastructure as code. Their plans are to embrace the next generation innovative digital led consumer experiences designed to keep their members coming back. By using this phased approach One Leisure have been able to start their journey to cloud at their own pace, in the knowledge they are one step closer to GladstoneGo.
Results & Improvements
We know that cloud and digital adoption across the leisure sector is wide and varied, the Gladstone cloud offers choice and flexibility for operators to move at their pace, whilst realising immediate benefits at every step of their journey.
- Cost, time, and efficiency savings via a managed infrastructure and reduced internal red tape
- Accelerated adoption of new technology and application evolution, achieving cloud readiness
- Reduced reliance on internal IT services for day to day leisure operations
- Working in partnership with council IT services on projects where innovation is at the forefront not keeping the lights on!
One Leisure Huntingdon has in excess of 6,500 members across its five centres in Huntingdon, Ramsey, St Ives, and St Neots which Huntingdonshire District Council manages.
One Leisure has invested over £10 million in improving its facilities over the last 10 years. From state-of-the-art gyms and pools to cricket nets and bowling alleys, their motto is "our customers can have it all".
6,500 Members
£10million Invested in facilities for the communiy
We have an ongoing relationship with Gladstone. We have been searching for a solution that can move us forward in our digital journey. We chose to speak to Gladstone about this because they understand us and the way that we work. Plus, we can benefit from their industry knowledge and experience.
Kate Bryant
One Leisure Business Systems Manager
Our goal at Huntingdonshire is to be more reactive to changes in technology. Moving our systems and processes to the Cloud will help to improve security and enable our IT teams to focus on other important projects for our facility.
Paul France
Business & Operations Manager
At the end of the day, we have to provide a more customer-centric solution. The transfer to hosting and ultimately GladstoneGo will help make our services more efficient in the long run and enable us to provide an improved digital experience.
Paul France
Business & Operations Manager
Customers now expect a fully joined-up product. With Go Learn they can go into the system, pay their direct debit, see how their child is progressing and much more...it is perfect for our customers because it offers everything in one central place.
Paul France
Business & Operations Manager