Managing facility bookings should make it easier for residents to access community spaces—not create more work behind the scenes.
For the City of Cambridge, launching online facility bookings presented an opportunity to take a closer look at the processes and system configurations supporting its recreation operations. Years of complexity had resulted in thousands of charge matrix records, inconsistent facility naming, and customer classifications that made ongoing administration more difficult than it needed to be.
Through an ACTIVENet Business Process Assessment (BPA), Cambridge worked with ACTIVE to simplify its setup, streamline facility management, and build a clearer path forward. The result: a more manageable system, a successful move to online facility bookings, and a roadmap for continued optimization.
Building the foundation for online bookings
The City of Cambridge in Ontario, Canada, serves a growing community of more than 138,000 residents through a wide range of parks, recreation programs, community spaces, cultural activities, camps, and facility rentals. As demand for convenient self-service options continued to grow, Cambridge set out to make it easier for residents to reserve community spaces by launching online facility bookings.
Before moving forward, however, the team recognized an opportunity to simplify years of accumulated complexity within ACTIVENet.
Through a Business Process Assessment (BPA), Cambridge identified opportunities to streamline facility management, improve data consistency, and prepare its ACTIVENet environment for online bookings. The result was a successful online launch and a significantly more manageable ACTIVENet environment.
"Our goal was to go live with simple facility bookings for rentals, and we wanted to make sure we were in a good state to be able to do that,” said Ahmed Kassad, business systems analyst at the City of Cambridge.
The challenge
As Cambridge prepared to bring facility bookings online, staff saw an opportunity to take a closer look at how ACTIVENet had evolved over the years. The goal was to create a simple, intuitive booking experience for residents while making the system easier for staff to manage behind the scenes.
That meant addressing several areas of complexity, from facility names that weren’t always intuitive for residents and customer types that needed cleanup to a highly complex facility charge matrix and inconsistencies across system configurations.
The team knew improvements were needed, but determining where to begin—and how to approach the cleanup without disrupting existing operations—was less clear.
“We knew some cleanup had to be done before, but we just didn’t know where to start,” Kassad said.
The solution
After discussing its goals with its ACTIVENet account manager, Cambridge engaged the ACTIVE’s professional services team for a Business Process Assessment.
The assessment provided a structured review of Cambridge's ACTIVENet environment and delivered clear recommendations on how to simplify configurations, align with best practices, and prepare for online bookings.
According to Kassad, the consultant's expertise and preparation immediately stood out.
"The organization and knowledge of the consultant really inspired confidence. He knew exactly what our intentions were and came in with a plan, letting us know what we'd be working through."
The results
With a cleaner, more organized ACTIVENet environment, Cambridge successfully launched online facility bookings while making the system easier for staff to manage.
“Our facilities now have online simple bookings, so our goal was achieved,” Kassad said.
One of the most significant outcomes of the BPA was simplifying Cambridge’s facility charge matrix. Before the assessment, the matrix contained approximately 30,000 records. After the cleanup, that number dropped to approximately 7,000—a 77% reduction.
For staff, that meant far fewer records to maintain when managing pricing structures and completing annual fee updates.
“Now you’re only updating 7,000 records instead of tens of thousands,” Kassad said. “It was quite a noticeable difference.”
Beyond the immediate time savings, the streamlined structure gave Cambridge a more manageable foundation for ongoing maintenance and future ACTIVENet optimization.
Beyond the technology
In addition to operational improvements, the BPA provided valuable validation and direction for the team.
Like many organizations, Cambridge had developed its ACTIVENet knowledge over time through experience. The assessment helped confirm what was working well, identify opportunities for improvement, and provide a roadmap for future initiatives.
"They show you what you're doing right and what you're not doing so right, and how to do it right," Kassad said.
Rather than relying on trial and error, the team walked away with a clearer understanding of best practices and a roadmap for future optimization.
Advice for other ACTIVENet users
Cambridge's experience demonstrates the value of bringing in an expert perspective to evaluate existing processes and configurations.
"It's worth the cost to have them look at your system and make sure you're using it properly, provide best practices, and show you what you're doing right and what you're not doing so right, and how to do it right," Kassad said.
For organizations that have built and maintained their ACTIVENet environments over time, a BPA can help uncover opportunities for improvement, reduce complexity, and create a roadmap for future success.
A stronger foundation for what’s next
What began as an initiative to launch online facility bookings became an opportunity to simplify operations, reduce administrative effort, and better align the City of Cambridge’s ACTIVENet environment with best practices.
By reducing charge matrix complexity by 77%, successfully launching online bookings, and creating a more manageable system for staff, Cambridge is better equipped to serve residents today and continue optimizing ACTIVENet for the future.
