iOS Application Development for a US Sports Club Management

Summary

A US sports club operator that runs a SaaS ERP across clubs in 40 states wanted to extend its operations to mobile, both for members and for staff. INNERLUXES designed and built two iOS applications integrated with the ERP — one that lets members book games and equipment, order food and beverages during play, and pay securely, and one that gives employees role-based access to club operations from an iPad. After launch, in-game food and beverage orders rose and staff engagement and productivity increased.

About the Client

The Client owns a SaaS ERP system deployed in numerous sport clubs, including clubs it operates itself. The clubs serve hundreds of thousands of players across 40 US states.

Manual, On-Site Processes Limited Both Members and Staff

The Client wanted to support both internal and external business processes in the sport clubs through mobile technology. Employees needed to carry out part of their job tasks on the go, while members needed the convenience of remote services such as game booking and food delivery without leaving the play site.

The Client set a clear platform split for the build: employee functionality was to run on iPads, while member-facing features had to work on both iPads and iPhones.

Two iOS Apps Integrated With the SaaS ERP

Working in Scrum, INNERLUXES developed two iOS mobile applications. The team performed business analysis and QA and completed the integration of both apps with the end SaaS solution; the UI was supplied by the Client. Splitting the work into two purpose-built apps kept each experience focused on its audience while sharing a single ERP backbone:

• Application for club members — members can remotely book a game and all the equipment they need for it from their mobile device, and during play they can order food and beverages delivered to the play site, with secure mobile payment enabled for every service. Players can also log their game data, with scores stored in the ERP web solution under the Daily Logs menu.
• Application for club employees — staff sign in with the same credentials they use in the ERP and are granted remote access only to the data of the club property they belong to. The app's menu exposes the available functional modules: Areas (playing fields with descriptions, booked/free statuses, and schedules), Accounting (an accounting management menu), Partners (a list of partner companies), and Daily Logs (the history of player game scores uploaded from the members app).

Higher In-Game Spend and a More Engaged Workforce

• After the members app reached its intended users, the Client saw a significant rise in food and beverage orders placed during games, as players ordered more often without having to return to the facility — increasing the Client's revenue.
• Employees adopted their mobile solution as well; being able to reach the ERP from a mobile device raised their engagement in work processes and increased productivity.
• Both apps share the same ERP data, so member activity and staff operations stay in sync in real time.

Technologies and Tools

Objective-C, Swift 4.2, SwiftLint, Alamofire, ReactiveCocoa, XCGLogger, RestKit/Network, Moya/ReactiveSwift, KeychainAccess, Realm, Firebase Analytics, JTCalendar, CLTokenInputView, Crashlytics, Kiwi, Quick, Nimble, Cuckoo.