Welcome to the first entry of the Orbit Professional development blog. Gladstone enjoyed such unprecedented interest in the Orbit solution at the successful LIW preview that we felt it necessary to start this online diary!

I am Bronya Oldfield, the product manager for Orbit and I have the privilege of working with an experienced and talented team of 20 solutions designers, architects, developers and quality experts. Together we are focused on delivering the first release of Orbit for the independent single site club market.

The purpose of this blog is to keep you regularly informed about developments in the Orbit solution - to provide you with exclusive insights into the product itself, the team and the company behind it. But I see communication very much as a two way street - the key to Orbit's success will be to deliver a product that meets and exceeds our customers expectations. Therefore this blog will also act as a platform for you to feed back and comment on the product and our activities.

At Gladstone we view Orbit as nothing less than a sea change in membership management solutions. From the very beginning the Orbit solution has been designed to be quick to learn and easy to use. We're on a journey to deliver a functionally rich, intuitive and powerful to meet and exceed the expectations of the health and leisure sector. Our aims are ambitious and we are confident of success.

If you managed to see Orbit Professional for the first time at LIW, I would like to thank you for your time and for your feedback. If you haven't seen the solution yet, take a look at these screen shots to see what you missed.

Home page
Adding a contact
Entry monitor
Entry monitor debt
Paying off debt
POS purchase

I am pleased to say that all those who saw the preview of Orbit Professional were very positive. Comments ranged from "refreshing", "appealing", "clean", "designed for the user", "clearly user friendly" to "Wow!", "that looks great".

If there was one compelling "take-away" feature from LIW that people remember about Orbit, it's the sticky notes. Everyone who saw it remembers the sticky notes feature, and not only that, they want it for their club!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Orbit solution, allow me to explain. The sticky notes feature enables the club to make notes against an individual member to remind a staff member to call them. It can also be used to give the member some information to provide that extra special service showing that you know and care about the service you are providing to them.

Equally usable and compelling is the ability to make notes for a member of staff. Hands up how many of you use Outlook simply for staff reminders? I knew it! It's so much easier to do this from Orbit because the functionality is embedded within the application. Notes are simple and easy to find, sticky notes display automatically in the launch pad and from the entry monitor. Best of all, no one needs to remember to start Outlook. Simple and intelligent - that's what Orbit is all about

Since Orbit's unveiling at LIW and the unprecedented interest it generated we are close to finalising the beta sites who will be trying out the solution prior to launch. In the next few weeks we will confirm the roll out plan for beta sites for the trial. If you are part of the beta programme I would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your time and input, and I look forward to working with you.

We will keep you fully updated as the trial progresses over the next few months.

We can't wait to show you more but for now I have to get back to developing the product! Stay tuned for the next update in a few weeks time...