The world's largest Health & Fitness club Fitness First required a CRM application to be delivered to its 550 clubs across the globe and engaged Citrix Gold Partner, Blue Chip, to devise a solution and complete the systems integration.
>> The Client
Fitness First Gym & Health Club began as a single health and fitness club in Bournemouth in 1993. Since then the company has grown to be the largest gym, health and fitness club group in the world with more than 1.5 million Fitness First members, in more than 550 Fitness First Gym & Health Clubs. Fitness First operates a one-health club mentality focusing on every single member.
Fitness First wanted to deliver a new CRM application to all its clubs to support its membership management activity. However, due to the location of the clubs, standard client-server networking was not a viable option. The internet VPN connectivity between the clubs and the location of the core IT support team in the UK meant that a centralised application delivery solution was required.
>> Solution
The Blue Chip solution focused upon delivering applications over the existing VPN infrastructure to all the clubs. After a successful proof of concept, a Citrix XenApp™ solution was selected.
The XenApp server farm is virtualised to deliver the required level of business continuity and XenApp is the single point of delivery for applications across the group. XenApp ensures the delivery of applications across low bandwidth, high latency internet VPN connections.
>> Success and Company Benefit
The solution has been so successful Fitness First has purchased further XenApp licenses to cover their entire user base and deliver applications across the XenApp infrastructure.
As a UK headquartered business, managing IT environments across the globe could be costly and difficult. With the XenApp solution Fitness First can provide UK based support for overseas users, therefore, reducing the need for more expensive onsite support teams. This has ensured that the group has kept control of its IT budget.
Tim Nicholas, IT Manager of Fitness First comments, "Blue Chip provided a solution and service that exceeded expectations; we are now able to support our clubs across the globe efficiently and cost-effectively.
Advanced Resource Managers (ARM) approached leading ICT reseller Blue Chip to help them address their business continuity issues and leverage new technologies to maintain their position as one of the fastest growing and successful recruitment companies in the UK.”
News
