Johannesburg, 21 Dec 2011
Planning a last-minute round of golf with buddies two days before a long weekend may be a great idea, but it is very frustrating to organise...if not impossible. Five or six phone calls later, all you've got for your frantic efforts is a 'maybe' or 'forget it', call again next week.
Now, the MoreGolf Group, with the assistance of GlobeTOM, a Pretoria-based SOA developer, has a solution to this frustrating exercise.
The recently launched 'LastMinuteGolf' Web site (www.lastminutegolf.co.za) has been designed to take the pain and frustration out of last-minute bookings.
According to The MoreGolf Group, the Web site (developed in conjunction with the digital division of MoreGolf) has hit a sweet spot in the market and is already showing steady growth. Golfers caught in the last-minute frenzy of pulling a foursome together can now browse the Web site for available tee times at more than 100 of South Africa's most popular golf courses. Once logged in, they can reserve a round at a handsomely discounted rate via a seamless online booking system that responds within seconds rather than hours.
Golfers can, in real-time:
* View tee times (at clubs participating in the LastMinuteGolf network)
* View the applicable discounted rate for the relevant date and time
* List their playing partners
* Settle the fee by credit card
The system automatically updates tee times, rates, dates and names, and the user-friendly interface is accessible to golfers throughout South Africa - including non-club members, corporate and tour operator event organisers.
This unique, 24-hour, seven-day-a-week service (designed to aggregate unused golf rounds for affiliated clubs throughout South Africa) replaces paper tee sheets at clubs with a comprehensive online booking administration system developed to display available tee-off slots up to four days in advance.
The key to LastMinuteGolf's success is its ability to generate on-demand discounted tee time pricing, linked seamlessly to a near-instant last-minute booking system developed by GlobeTOM.
“Because LastMinuteGolf aggregates available rounds day-by-day, course-by-course up to four days in advance, at variable tee prices, MoreGolf needs to manage these variables to the benefit of golfers,” says Philip Stander, managing director of GlobeTOM.
“Our system aggregates data in real-time, so the Web site can offer golfers tee slots based on the actual current availability of rounds at various clubs. They log onto the site, browse for a slot, and confirm a booking. It is as simple as that,” says Stander.
The GlobeTOM 'Telco-grade' 'dynamic rating engine' and 'rate plan configurator', called GP3, aggregates club rate plans and tee variables - dates, times, rates and cost - onto a friendly Web site interface accessible to golfers throughout South Africa.
The solution runs under licence to the MoreGolf Group and currently logs more than two million customer interactions per annum. The system offers secure messaging between affiliates and can generate management information reports for club administrators based on actual tee time activity.
“If a club goes offline overnight, for example, the system will copy the club's tee sheet and commit the tee-off request the moment it comes back online. Without moment-by-moment real-time aggregation, we couldn't achieve this degree of reliability,” adds Stander.
The key booking engine features include:
* A club booking administration system
* A booking acceptance policy configurator
* A virtual private network for collaborative messaging
* Corporate and tour operator event management facility
* Club management information reports
* Comprehensive club 'look-and-feel' portals
* Comprehensive technical support by a professional information technology company
* A centralised club release upgrade (centralised deployment to all affiliated clubs)
* A comprehensive tee sheet configurator - includes shotgun starts, variable tee time intervals and other features
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