Author: Vikki Knight

Virgin Active is a globally recognised health and fitness brand with over 236 clubs in 8 countries and more than 850 thousand members. It was launched in 1999 in Preston, Lancashire and today, there are 35 clubs across the UK. 

Virgin Active UK started working with Prime Systems in 2014 when they started using the Accident & Incident Reporting application through their insurers as part of the overall provision of claims management. The insurers wanted to provide their client with value added services, and being able to easily report accidents into an online system gave the insurers immediate visibility of injuries and easy access to information in the event that any claims were received. The insurance provision changed in 2017 but Virgin Active were so happy with the system that they wanted to continue and work with Prime directly. In 2019 they extended their use of Prime by adding the Compliance Monitoring application so that clubs could record their regular health and safety checks online and give safety managers access to issues and actions required.

The Compliance Monitoring system was initially launched for the purpose of the regular health and safety checks that clubs carried out but Virgin Active’s Head of Health and Safety, Gemma Arnold, has been behind a recent project to move as many paper based checks and documents into Prime as they can. This started with operational Opening and Closing daily checks and regular cleaning checks. It was extended again last year with the transfer of a set of Service Audits from another system into Prime. These are checks and assessments done in the club to assess the effectiveness of the customer experience, making sure that operational standards are being followed. This has given other managers outside of the Safety team a way to ensure their own controls and processes are being followed, and this is achieved by using an existing system already familiar to club staff, with no additional system costs.

This year Gemma has opened up a set of Registers to allow clubs to store their equipment details in Prime rather than on paper or spreadsheets. These include details about hazardous substances, first aid boxes, fire equipment and PPE. The clubs are prompted on a regular check to confirm that their registers are up to date, and Gemma’s team have easy access to the data, which comes in useful when preparing to carry out club audits. To help transfer all of the information data from spreadsheets we developed some one-off processes that imported the data directly into the Prime registers to save what would have been a very time consuming data input exercise.

Gemma said, “We are really impressed with the support Prime has provided to us since we started working with them in 2014. The Compliance Monitoring application and subsequent additions has been invaluable as we modernise and move away from paper checks. Paul and his team are super responsive and always find a way to ensure the system operates fully to our requirements.”

Paul Ramsell, Managing Director of Prime said, “We’re so pleased with how smooth the adoption of our applications has been for Virgin Active. The ability to be adaptive and flexible with our products to fit the changing needs of our customers is vital in allowing us to build solid relationships, we look forward to working with Virgin Active for many more years to come.”

If you would like to have a no obligation chat with Paul about how Prime could help your business then feel free to give him a call on 01494 778877 or drop him an email.

Away Resorts is a UK holiday park operator founded in 2008, with 27 parks across the country including Lincolnshire, Isle of Wight, North Wales, Hampshire, Cornwall, Hayling Island and Essex.

Prime Systems have worked with Away Resorts since 2015 when they had just 4 parks providing Accident and Incident Reporting, Compliance Monitoring and Document Library applications. In the following few years their estate increased to 9 parks and Prime added in additional systems for them including Guest and Owner Feedback. More recently Pool Diaries and Hot Tub Management were rolled out, bringing the total number of Prime applications in use to 10.

In 2021 Away Resorts acquired Aria Resorts adding 14 parks to their estate followed by another 4 parks when they acquired Coppergreen Leisure Resorts at the end of the year – a 200% increase in the size of their estate. As a result, this year Prime Systems have been very busy working with Away Resorts to integrate the new parks; the new Monitoring application has been rolled out to the new parks with plans to move the original Away Resorts parks on to it later in 2022. The Prime Risk Assessment and Action Tracking applications have also been launched across the estate, at the same time as rolling out the new Food Diary application, moving all catering operations from paper to electronic recording using offline mobile devices.

Prime have provided online training workshops to the new parks and through fortnightly meetings with the Away Resorts safety team, led by Head of Risk Management Denise Din, have maintained progress at good speed to achieve the target of full integration by the start of May.

Denise said, “Following the 200% increase in the size of the Away Resorts estate a lot of work was required to integrate the new parks as well as launching new applications across the original parks. Prime Systems have worked hard to ensure we met deadlines and were always on hand with training and support. We are delighted to have accomplished so much in such a short space of time, which is a testament to Paul and his team!”

Paul Ramsell, Managing Director of Prime said, “The ability to be responsive and flexible with our products to fit the needs and changes of our customer’s business is vital in allowing us to build the relationships we have with companies such as Away Resorts. We’re so pleased with how smoothly the integration of our applications into their growing estate has gone and look forward to working with them for many more years to come.”

If you would like to have a no obligation chat with Paul about how Prime could help your business then feel free to give him a call on 01494 778877 or drop him an email.

Parkwood Leisure specialise in the development and operation of more than 80 leisure facilities, visitor attraction centres, golf courses, heritage sites and theatres throughout England and Wales on behalf of 31 local authorities. Since their formation in 1995 they have grown considerably, managing a diverse range of sites throughout the country.

Parkwood Leisure have been using Prime Systems since 2016 when they started using the Accident and Incident Reporting application across their leisure centres and sites. In 2021 they asked Prime if the Contractor Management application could be used to help them manage their contractors and suppliers. Parkwood Leisure have around 700 contractors who they need to keep track of to ensure that each contractor’s insurance and accreditations are in date, and that new contractors provide enough information for them to review and be satisfied that they have the right qualifications and competencies.

Prime worked with Parkwood Leisure to enhance the system so that more information about each contractor could be recorded, particularly with regard to individual accreditations that a contractor might have, where the contractor records the expiry date of the accreditation and uploads a copy of the certificate or relevant documents. The system then sends alerts to the contractor and the Parkwood system administrators when these expiry dates come around.

Parkwood wanted to roll the system out to all contractors at the same time, so Prime helped with that by designing an import function that uploaded all the company details and sent emails to all contractors, inviting them to register their details in the system. The contractor can log in to Prime using a unique registration code, complete all the required information and upload relevant supporting documents. As soon as they do this, the system administrators are notified and can review that information. They can either pass it on to the approver if all the information is complete or pass it back to the contractor to correct any issues or add more information. Once complete, a final approval is made and the contractor then becomes an authorised supplier. The system then monitors any relevant expiry dates and requires the contractor to upload their new information and dates. If they fail to do this the system will automatically “unapprove” the contractor.

The initial loading of 700 contractors generated a lot of administration and monitoring work for Parkwood to do, but once that was completed, the system settled down and is now proving to be invaluable at helping to control the contractors information, and is saving a lot of time for the team. As Louise Ash, Commercial Administrator at Parkwood Leisure can testify, “being responsible for the operation and maintenance of over 80 public building means that we have a strong moral and legal obligation to ensure that any contractors carrying out works at our facilities are properly accredited and insured. However with so many contractors working with us, the job of monitoring & maintaining their documents became an unmanageably labour-intensive task. Prime allowed us to automate these systems & now provides all our sites with a searchable database of contractors they can be confident have been properly vetted and maintained. Invaluable!”

Paul Ramsell, Managing Director of Prime said, “We’re so pleased with how well the Contractor Management application has worked for Parkwood Leisure, it’s great to hear how they have embraced our system and how much easier it is for them now to manage the contractors across their sites.”

If you would like to have a no obligation chat with Paul about how Prime could help your business then feel free to give him a call on 01494 778877 or drop him an email.