One of our biggest vertical industries is hospitality, specifically country clubs. Up here in the mountains, they typically shut down for the winter months since it’s just too cold to play golf or tennis outside. The off season starts around Halloween, and they start back up in mid-April or May. Some buildings are completely winterized, hibernating until the thaw comes. Point of sale terminals, printers, tablets are all stashed away safely. At most clubs, this is also a time for improvements, like remodels or additions. As the literal dust settles, we come back in and hook everything back up and get it ready for the busy summer season. It’s a great time for us to do all the maintenance we need to do to keep things running smoothly.

First up is going around the club to put back out any equipment that was taken down and put into storage for the winter. This means re-hanging touchscreen monitors on arms, mounting NUCs back on the wall behind them, and putting the printers out in the kitchens, bars, and point of sale areas. When it goes well, everything has a label and goes right back where it came from, but inevitably, something is missing or misplaced and we have to go back and hunt for it. This is where our documentation is crucial. If we are missing a label on a printer, we can look at its MAC address to see where it should go. Or sometimes we need to check the serial number on a NUC to see if it goes in the bar or the wait station.

Which is why our second task is to always update our documentation for any replacements, additions, or changes to the club’s IT inventory. While we have a client asset database, and that’s great for most things, we’ve found that a spreadsheet in this case makes everything easier to find when something is missing or isn’t working. We document things like the IP address, MAC address, and location of each printer, serial number and computer name of each terminal, and corresponding identities in the club management software. We also put in usernames, passwords, or anything else we might need to support that system during the season.

One thing about food and beverage that I’ve learned is that no matter what, in the middle of a busy shift, the staff will do whatever it takes to get on track and get the food out of the kitchen. If the printer at the hot station dies, they may grab the cold one and move it over. Or if there’s an event and they need to get a temporary thing up and running, they’ll just grab something from the kitchen and move it out there. This usually ends up poorly, with an emergency call on a Saturday asking why prep tickets are coming out of the wrong printer. Having this sheet makes it possible for us to find the printer we’re looking for and get it set back up correctly. It saves us hours of time throughout the summer, and we couldn’t do our job effectively without it.

The takeaway here is that getting systems documented, checked out, and cleaned up is critical to any business’ efficiency. I like to use this new energy I get from emerging from my winter hibernation to get that done. Clubs make it easy with their schedules, but it is something to do for all our clients. Just as I’ll be spring cleaning my house this weekend, putting away the coats and cleaning the windowsills, it’s a great time to use this new emergent energy to renew and refresh all our systems.

-Nate