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LAUNCH What’s New Brunswick Collaborates with Operators on New Bowling Center Management System OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, bowling by Keith Miller centers have experienced an acute decline in the number of customers participating in competitive leagues and an accompanying shift toward guests playing simply for recreation. Brunswick, an international bowling equipment supplier and operator based in the United States, saw this sea change as an opportunity to develop a new bowling center management system: Sync. “More and more casual bowlers are filling the lanes that leagues used to dominate,” says Brandon Meigs, director of product management for Brunswick, a worldwide supplier of bowling center products and equipment based in Illinois. “Proprietors told us they’ve been challenged to properly target these casual bowlers and compete against other forms of recreation “Sync was developed and entertainment. Sync with one goal in mind: was developed with one to help centers increase goal in mind: to help centers sales and profits by increase sales and profits by addressing their most addressing their most pressing pressing challenges.” challenges—driving traffic, —Brandon Meigs, Brunswick increasing average sales, and encouraging repeat visits.” Brunswick says Sync’s innovations include seamless integration of functions, added data security, an improved at-a-glance lane-status dashboard, and a secure point of sale that’s easier and faster to operate. To accomplish its goals for the new system, Brunswick knew it couldn’t just develop the product in a vacuum—it needed to intimately involve proprietors as well as their customers. In addition to studying competitive bowling and other pointof-sale systems and consulting with top software developers, the company interviewed and closely observed proprietors, managers, mechanics, and bowlers around the world. It set up an advisory council of proprietors to provide insight and input into the development of Sync. At first, there was some reticence on BRUNSWICK the part of operators like Jim Doty, general manager of Royal Pin Leisure Centers, which operates 270 lanes in Indianapolis, Indiana. He says he didn’t see how new graphics in a scoring system would really impact his bottom line. But once he saw Sync’s marketing features and management tools, he says he realized it could increase his sales and profitability. Eventually, more than 120 centers were involved in the development of Sync. Brunswick says though it partnered with proprietors and customers both in person and remotely, it emphasized on-site collaboration. “This approach allowed for in-depth discussions and generation of insights in areas of the 24 Funworld | FEBRUARY 2016 | www.IAAPA.org/Funworld
system that aren’t conducive to web meetings,” Meigs explains. “This agile software development strategy allowed Brunswick to make quick and decisive refinements of the Sync software based on user feedback.” Sync was installed in 20 centers more than a year before it was widely available, so Brunswick could refine the system prior to its formal launch. Meigs says studying it in real-world situations helped to refine it. In the end, Brunswick invested more than $2 million in market research, including gathering data from 100 retail centers and investing more than 500 hours observing customer behavior in bowling centers around the world. Royal Pin’s four Indianapolis entertainment centers will soon all have Sync up and running, and Doty says he’s pleased the system was designed for proprietors by proprietors. “We credit much of the success we’ve seen to proprietor collaboration and the agile development strategy that helped us prioritize proprietor needs and incorporate their feedback into Sync’s final design,” Meigs says. www.brunswickbowling.com BRUNSWICK BOWLIN Display of Sync’s food and beverage ordering tablet BRUNSWICK BRUNSWICK Sync’s Bowler Experience Scoring Tablet www.IAAPA.org/Funworld | FEBRUARY 2016 | Funworld 25
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