Taylor’s council discussed the online booking system partner contract for District Ice Centre

TAYLOR, B.C. — The District of Taylor is looking to upgrade the system for booking at the District Ice Centre. 

At the District of Taylor committee of the whole meeting on June 15th, staff presented a report recommending that council approve a contract with Univerus Software as the district’s online booking system partner for a five-year term. 

District staff have been using an Excel spreadsheet, which staff said works well as long as users provide appropriate information and cancellations. 

As this report was brought forward to a committee of the whole, no decision was made, and it may be brought up at a future regular council meeting. 

Staff stated this contract will improve ice booking opportunities for all District Ice Centre users and optimize ice availability during the operational season. 

The negative impact of the current process stems from the limited staff available to manage cancellations and rebookings. 

The current management of cancellations and bookings operates at about 80 per cent efficiency. 

According to Mike Farquharson, director of community services, the start-up fee for the online booking system is $3,996, while the annual fee is $2,415 and the total cost for the first year is $6,411. 

“Staff reviewed five booking software companies, two being Canadian-based, which have their data stored in Canada,” Farquharson noted. “Those were the two we focused on and we recommend entering a five-year agreement with the Univerus [Software] company.” 

The district staff reviewed the vendor presentations and, during their analysis, focused on each vendor’s experience working with local government, training and support for the district’s team, multiple facility usage, and other factors. 

Councillor Betty Ponto asked whether staff would use the booking system at the beginning of the season for ice allocation, and whether people would be able to see ice assets. 

Farquharson confirmed this and said: “It will also be used for hall bookings and ball diamonds.” 

In addition, staff will be able to book off times when the district wants to do ice maintenance and floods.