Clandon Regis Golf Club

The friendliest Golf Club in Surrey

Located just outside Guildford, Clandon Regis Golf Club is a members owned Golf Club set in 170 acres of prime Surrey parkland. The club boast stunning views of the Surrey Downs and is proud of its reputation as “Surrey’s Friendliest Club”.

Since its founding in 1994, the club has gone from strength to strength, with the green-keeping staff working tirelessly to maintain its full USGA specification tees and greens, and to ensure that the course remains playable all year round.

The Challenge

Golf clubs are not typically associated with having a high IT dependency, and for many years Clandon Regis were very successful with the help of a member at the club. Basic IT requirements were met and the club continued to grow and progress along its expected trajectory.

However, in 2014 something changed. “We felt as though we were no longer getting the reliability that we required from our IT infrastructure” comments Paul Napier, General Manager of Clandon Regis Golf Club. “At the same time, technology was changing and it became clear our systems were not keeping up.”

As the cloud revolution began to change the way businesses worked, Clandon began to fall behind. The result was IT infrastructure that was not being supported adequately, leaving IT issues to mount up and efficiency to drop. It was clear that Clandon had outgrown the support that their kind member could provide, and needed to look for additional resource.

The Solution

Clandon Regis were looking for an experienced IT provider based locally to support them going forward.

“Our big trouble at that time was in the speed of responses” says Paul Napier, “With that in mind, we were really looking for someone local who we could depend on to respond to our IT issues in a timely manner, and coming out to site when required.”

The golf club met with a few potential options, but in the end settled on entrust IT Group. The entrust IT Group’s extensive experience with golf clubs confirmed their credibility, but it was the approach of the team at entrust that really impressed.

“The entrust IT Group understood us. They knew what our pain points were and had a plan to solve them.” continues Napier.

The entrust IT Group implemented a comprehensive package of IT services, including proactive IT support, backup, security & AV, and Office 365. The team at entrust also work with our supply chain partners to provide hardware at preferential pricing.

The goal was to provide a forward-thinking IT support package, that continuously monitors for threats, both internal and external, as well as ensuring the golf club is always utilising the best mix of technology for their advancement.

The entrust IT Group’s solution resolved the problems Clandon Regis had with response times. The entrust IT Group offered clearly defined SLAs with consequences should they be breached. It was also now possible for an engineer to be on-site within 30 minutes in an emergency. Clandon were able to hold the team at entrust to account should they miss their targets.

Commenting on the agreement with entrust IT Group, Paul Napier said “I was really pleased with how smoothly the transition was handled. The entrust IT Group were thorough throughout. We now had a support company that was experienced in dealing with the unique challenges of a golf club, and were able to provide us with clear SLAs, an account manager we could trust, and friendly support engineers that our staff actually enjoy speaking with.”

In 2020, as the country entered into lockdown and golf clubs were closed, Clandon Regis were grateful that the investment they made on IT in the preceding years made the transition to working from home smooth and simple. The entrust IT Group continued to support their staff even after their working arrangements had fundamentally changed. This support proved invaluable.

The relationship continues to be productive, with new projects on the horizon. The entrust IT Group performed a Microsoft 365 transition, and hardware upgrade (including a new server) in 2021. Looking to the future, the club plans on updating the technology systems that power the scoring and membership services at the club, as well as maintaining up-to-date infrastructure for its members.

The Benefits

“For us the benefits have been clear.” continues Napier “entrust have taken us from an informal IT support structure to one that can truly address our needs. We now have access to an entire team of engineers, all of them friendly and helpful, that can guide our staff through whatever IT problems they face. The entrust IT Group have been a valued partner for over eight years and we are confident we are in good hands for many more to come.”

With the help of the team at the entrust IT Group, Clandon Regis Golf Club now have a stable, reliable, and cost-effective IT support package that addresses their needs, with clearly defined SLAs and a reporting structure that ensures full accountability.