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Post by peterlafluer on Nov 24, 2018 0:20:01 GMT
Good thing I decided to have and promote a Black Friday home club pre-pay, guess it will have to be a cyber Monday special. Oh wait! Corporate has advised me not to promote online enrollment. I give up.
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Post by swtexan on Nov 24, 2018 3:19:47 GMT
I'm starting to get this nagging feeling way back in my head that maybe..... being a franchisee of Snap wasn't the best decision that I could have made. Too late now....
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Post by cheryl on Nov 24, 2018 14:35:22 GMT
This round all started after last Saturday's maintenance. Why does trouble always seem to appear after maintenance downtime? It's most likely due to the fact that they don't thoroughly test the changes they've made to the software. This is something we've seen over and over again in dealing with small companies. They scoff at the idea of buying a dependable, proven software system and make the decision to hire software people (gee, there are so many of them) and roll their own. The problem is that while there are many people who can write a piece of code, they don't understand what it's like to roll out a reliable, bullet proof system. This is what we appear to have. A software company, i-go figure, wrote the original code and they made modifications to it/ Well, hey, that sounds easy enough. Kinda like maintaining your car, right? Wrong! (Oh, so wrong) Maintaining and modifying someone else's code is a major pain in the backside. Everything needs to be well documented, and most developers hate documenting. Heck it's a chore to even document within the code. Usually only done to help the (original) developer figure out what's going on when they run into a problem. These days most aren't even writing the actual code. They're basically just dragging and dropping certain functions within the code. Now you introduce other software you haven't written which could be doing other things. What it boils down to is you're not going to get the most talented people developing your system. Those individuals demand too much money for an internal, one app project. The challenge isn't there and neither is the money. This is why you buy applications from companies that do it for a living. Unfortunately we have a corporate group which doesn't understand this. They've hired a new CIO , Rob (forget the last name) who probably understands this and is most likely making the argument to corporate. It's unlikely though that snap corporate gets it, and they're too stupid and egotistical to realize they don't get it. The hubris at the top level of snap is probably the biggest problem the company has. I wish Rob well, but telling corporate they f&*^'d up and should roll out something like MindBody will fall on deaf ears. The result? You're fired and now we'll hire someone new who tells me my ill conceived idea of writing our own code and charging a premium is a great idea and strokes my ego.
There's also the possibility that somewhere along the way snap corporate treated a developer badly and they buried a little nasty somewhere set to go off in the middle of black friday. Given snap's arrogance and the way they treat people I could easily see that happening.
So what should snap be doing? They should have multiple instances of the system and be running multiple scenarios to identify the problem. Unfortunately I doubt snap has any idea of how to set this up initially or how to carry it out.
All this said I find it quite common for fitness companies to underestimate what's needed for a quality, bullet proof application and many of them roll out crap covered with a nice facade.
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Post by thatkidfromjersey on Nov 24, 2018 15:44:30 GMT
John Voskamp, why don't you chime in here and offer some explanation. Why isn't corporate running the play of providing franchisees with the reliable, dependable, quality software product we are paying for? I bet you'll have no problems when it comes to charging us the exorbitant Fitware fee next month...
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Post by determined1 on Nov 24, 2018 16:43:48 GMT
Cheryl, one thing you're forgetting is the fitness CRM companies focus on making improvements which benefit their customers. That's not a primary goal for snap corporate. Their primary goal is to add things which benefit corporate. If it helps the customer (franchisee) well that's a nice side benefit. Look at the things we've been asking about for several years now (eg auto credit card updating) and they're put on a back burner while corporate rolls out something to benefit corporate (eg iPads and locking out members). Corporate first. Everybody else get in line.
Too bad we're not in Vegas right now because I'd bet a bunch of money that corporate lays the blame for this at the feet of Jonas, MyZon, Microsoft or anyone else who has any sort of hooks into fitware. Blaming someone else (disengaged franchisees, other billing systems, etc). It's the snap way. "IT'S THEIR FAULT", "IT'S YOUR FAULT", "NO ONE ELSE IS HAVING THAT PROBLEM". These are the most common phrases heard around snap corporate. Well, that's besides all the ego stroking comments they lay upon one another. I've been to many corporate events, conventions, etc and never witnessed as many egos as I did at snap's convention. I guess that's what you get from individuals with such low self esteem.
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Post by neglected on Nov 25, 2018 16:26:37 GMT
Check out Gym Insight for club management software. (FYI, I am not affiliated in anyway) www.gyminsight.com/
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Post by snaplongtimer on Nov 25, 2018 19:55:31 GMT
Does anyone have a telephone inquiry script for when you're incapable of signing up new memberships?
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Post by snaplongtimer on Nov 26, 2018 15:14:42 GMT
I hope my new members like coming in during staffed hours. I'm getting tired of apologizing for something out of my control. Is this a perfect time to close the gym? Looks like a failure to provide the essential tools to run the business.
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Post by fishstyxx on Nov 26, 2018 15:41:04 GMT
From the content-free updates the indication is that it's a network problem. I have a feeling it's an infrastructure problem stemming from wanting to run an enterprise level system and trying to do it on home PC systems. It's painfully obvious there's no disaster recovery (DR) system at all. I'm not sure how a network problem takes you down for 4 days.Even with a crappy enterprise system you should be able to contact a hosting company, dictate the server configurations you need and sneakernet your most critical data systems to them. That would take the network issue completely out of the loop. I have a feeling that's not a possibility, or an enormous effort given their configuration. Unfortunately without details it's all just speculation as to what's so FUBAR with their systems. If they're really bringing in experts they're probably hearing over and over all of the different things they're doing poorly or not at all.
I know the subject line deals with fitware, but from the updates it doesn'y look like a fitware issue, it looks like an entire IT configuration nightmare. There's still no reason for them to be playing software developer with fitware, but they should also bring in experts to bring their IT systems out of the 80s. I'm just thankful the door system is still working. That does beg the question though, that if the door system is network dependent and it's a network issue how is it still working? I can only speculate it shares a database or uses a replicated database separate from the corporate data center (i really don't like calling it a data center. I have a feeling it shares to semblance to one).
I feel sorry for those that inherited this system and have to deal with this cludge and those at the top who most likely thought it was fine. Maybe this'll be a wakeup call that you outsource fitware, extend the discounts you get from the vendor to franchisees and put together a real IT infrastructure.
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Tired of a crap system
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Post by Tired of a crap system on Nov 26, 2018 17:34:39 GMT
The door is different -- it's not that it's getting updates from corporate's so-called 'network'. The door device has its own memory thus the reason its working with anything already entered into it prior to their system crash.
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Post by fishstyxx on Nov 26, 2018 17:49:16 GMT
The door system still needs to get out to the network to function. If it's a true network issue it would fail to work which would indicate it's outside of the infrastructure system.
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Tired of a crap system
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Post by Tired of a crap system on Nov 26, 2018 17:56:26 GMT
No, it doesn't need to get out to the network to work. Pull your LAN cable on the back of your computer and watch your door continue to work.
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Tired of a crap system
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Post by Tired of a crap system on Nov 26, 2018 17:57:31 GMT
In fact, turn off your internet modem -- your door will work just fine.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Nov 26, 2018 20:02:23 GMT
The door system doesn't need the network to function..just to update. Ever notice the fact that if your member tries to swipe at another snap club for the first time there's a delay? Almost always. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc times it is like it's a home club and responds immediately. I think once it validates that card via the network, it stores it locally. If I'm full of shit please tell me and I'll put my head down and walk away. lol
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Tired of a crap system
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Post by Tired of a crap system on Nov 26, 2018 20:04:01 GMT
Bingo.
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