Background

Located in northern San Diego County, the City of Vista manages a high volume of recreation registrations and facility reservations for its 95,000+ residents. In 2004, the Department began using Active Network’s Safari software to electronically manage facility bookings and recreation sign-ups.

Challenge

After a few years using Safari software, the City’s IT and Recreation and Community Services Departments recognized that Safari would no longer be a fit for the City’s operations for four primary reasons. First, the software was utilizing far too much server space for the city to continue supporting it in-house. Second, the IT department was the first point of contact if Recreation and Community Services staff had any problems or questions related to the software. This troubleshooting took time away from the IT Department managing its many other responsibilities. Third, only five staff members could use Safari at one time. For a staff with over 30 people, five access points were not enough. And finally, Safari did not allow the public to register for programs and activities online. For a savvy, customer-centric city, online registration was increasingly necessary to support residents’ lifestyles.

Solution

In May 2008, the City of Vista’s Recreation and Community Services made the transition from Safari to ActiveNet software. ActiveNet is a hosted, Web-based recreation software solution that supports all areas of recreation, including registrations, facility reservations, memberships, point-of-sale, online transactions, and child care management. The Department selected the Activity Registration, Facility Reservation and Public Access modules.

Kim Crawford, Online Registration Manager for the City of Vista, notes, “We chose to move to ActiveNet because the transition was so easy from Safari. ActiveNet works with Safari and that meant it wouldn’t require a ton of extra work for us.”

Implementation

The transition to ActiveNet, which included data clean-up, merging and training, took a week-and-a-half to complete. Active Network assisted with the entire process, including data clean-up and entry, to ensure only relevant, updated data made the transition. Safari was shut down for only one day to transfer data to ActiveNet.

As Department staff members participated in training and saw first-hand how easy ActiveNet was to use, they became increasingly open to using the new recreation software system. “We communicated to the team beforehand so everyone understood the changes taking place, the reasons and the benefits. With so many variations of computer skills amongst our staff, the training was key in growing adoption of the new software system.”

The Recreation and Community Services Department also talked to the City of Poway’s Community Services Department, a nearby recreation department in San Diego County, which had also made a successful transition from Safari to ActiveNet. “It was helpful to talk to Poway to help set our expectations for the transition.

Crawford notes that Active’s training was enormously helpful for staff. “Our Active Network trainer took the time to understand our needs and explained how the software would cater to our programs. We would ask questions and if she didn’t know right away, she’d have an answer for us within the hour. We definitely felt prepared to use ActiveNet once the training period ended.”

While there’s still a learning curve for some staff members, Recreation and Community Services staff has access to use the ActiveNet Trainer tool and call Active’s customer support team directly, instead of having to go through the City’s IT department first. “Active Network’s customer support has been incredible. When I have a question, my customer support specialist will spend the time to help me figure it out.”

Results

Crawford notes that one of the biggest benefits the Recreation and Community Services Department has experienced since implementing the web-based recreation software is the marketing value. “In addition to the online registration tool, we can now post information, photos, and class availability on our Web site to offer residents all of the information on our programs and activities. The online access for residents has made a huge difference in our ability to effectively market our activities.”

In the first four months of offering online registration, nearly a quarter of all recreation registrations were processed online and more than half of the preschool program registrations were processed online. “The online registration tool has definitely impacted the number of program registrations overall. We’ve experienced a noticeable increase in the number of registrations due to the accessibility of program information and the convenience to sign up online.” Vista residents no longer have to drive to the Recreation and Community Services Department and wait in line to sign up for activities. Instead, they are able to securely register and pay online using a credit card.

In addition to enabling public access for Vista residents, ActiveNet successfully alleviated each of the other three challenges the IT and Recreation and Community Services Department used to face. Because ActiveNet is a hosted, Web-based recreation solution, Active Network securely stores all of the Department’s data on its servers remotely, translating to plenty of free server space for the City’s IT department. Recreation and Community Services staff also has direct access to ActiveNet’s Trainer tool and Active’s customer support team for any software questions. And as for the number of software users, every staff member at the Recreation and Community Services Department is able to access the recreation software at the same time, whenever and wherever needed.

“With ActiveNet, the City of Vista is much more efficient and accessible. Staff are able to provide greater value and convenience to the community.”

Kim Crawford
Online Registration Manager, City of Vista

“We’ve experienced a noticeable increase in the number of registrations due to the accessibility of program information and the convenience to sign up online.”

– Kim Crawford
Online Registration Manager, City of Vista