How Can Security, Data Privacy and Club Management Software Help You Avoid Sleepless Nights?

You can’t turn on the news these days and not hear about another security breach from a major large retailer or service provider. As a club owner, you are not only concerned with your business/internal data, but your member’s personal data as well. Well stop loosing sleep and learn how if you implement the right club management software (CMS) it can save the day!

Follow along as we go on a journey that outlines the security measures you should be taking and be passing on to your most valuable assets – your members. Keep in mind, this is also where the PCI compliance of your CMS solution needs to be verified and examined.

Even the simplest steps you take with your new members, such as electronic agreements, should carry the highest level of security. You may be thinking, “my electronic agreements keep me environmentally friendly” or “not having paper keeps me more organized”, when actually having all this information in “soft” form takes another possible security threat out of your hands! Let your CMS vendor safely store all the confidential information contained in electronic agreements, eliminating your responsibility of having that paper agreement end up in the wrong hands.Another simple security step that may be close to your member’s heart is how their credit card information is captured and stored. This is something that when making credit card purchases, has become top of mind based on all of the recent retail security issues.
Once your new member is ready to make their initial payment they do a quick card swipe and the security is off and running! Keep in mind if your CMS vendor is PCI compliant, this simple step should kick-off a chain reaction of special security measures. This swipe causes the CMS to kick off an encryption process so the club employee never sees the member’s financial data. This ensures that the actual credit card number is never stored anywhere at the club level, giving you and the member peace of mind.

A good example of this level of security would be a CMS vendor that uses an ASP or SaaS model for their solution. This model provides a Thin Client on the club’s workstation that connects via a secure web service to the PCI compliant data center where the application and client’s database is hosted. The benefit of this model is that is allows the club to outsource the hosting of the software application and all their data, giving them comfort that all their member data is safe and secure.

So by now you can see how to avoid sleepless nights, eliminate any possible security threats and most importantly remember to partner with a CMS vendor that can and will take on all the liability and risk of ensuring your data always stays secure. Leaving you more time to focus on the more important aspects of your day-to-day business – your members and your bottom-line!