Platforms and Partnerships in Fitness Technology
There’s already solid proof that many club operators already appreciate the utility of networked, interactive equipment.
For example, Technogym’s mywellness cloud has some 14,000 connected fitness and wellness facilities around the world, with more than 10 million users.
Precor, through its Preva consoles, uploads data from some 500,000 workouts a day from 80,000 networked machines in 92 countries to its proprietary Preva cloud.
Life Fitness, which only recently introduced its Halo Fitness Cloud, has some 2 million users on its equipment at any given time.
What’s the appeal?
Over time, both Precor’s Preva and Technogym’s mywellness platforms have become increasingly powerful, and Halo is coming out of the gate with impressive clout.
The secret, in each case, is an “open platform,” which allows the seamless integration with third-party application and platform providers. Such partnerships can extend a manufacturer’s capabilities exponentially, offering access to a wide range of complementary functions.
Since introducing the Preva platform in 2010, Precor has been creating partnerships, and took it a step further by making its platform open in 2013. Then in 2017, the company created a formal developers’ program to provide its partners with documentation, sample program coding, and a dedicated support team in North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
Now, the company has more than 25 partners in various stages of integration, covering a range of functions from front-desk operations and cardio training systems, to game and rewards system development.
“Our goal is to work with best-in-class developers to create and deliver a broad selection of functions that each club can use to customize their cardio consoles to deliver the right services, at the right time, for their members and staffers,” says Jeff Bartee, principle product manager, software and services, at Precor.
Technogym’s mywellness cloud, which debuted in 2012, also features a plethora of partner apps and platforms spanning fitness and club management.
Third-party integrations include 50 club management platforms, such as ABC Financial, Exerp, and Gladstone, as well as more than 30 health-tracking apps.
On the member side, these partnerships are, in large part, designed to enable members to set goals and gather data on their workouts whether they’re inside the club on Technogym equipment, or completing a workout anywhere else.
“Our partnerships work to make members’ personal health and workout data—stored in real time—available on Technogym equipment as well as across multiple other platforms,” says Enrico Manaresi, Technogym’s PR and media relations director. “For example, our proprietary MyRunning Logbook app allows members to track any of their outdoor runs using their mobile training devices and favorite apps, such as RunKeeper, MapMyFitness, Strava, Polar, and Garmin. What’s more, they can replicate those runs on any Technogym treadmill that has the Unity console.”