Supporting organisations to make OpenActive a contractual requirement.

Not the most exciting title, but these changes are likely to have a significant impact on the future success of your commercial proposals.

Last week, we saw a step change in how organisations interact with the OpenActive initiative, with the publishing of a new document: Delivering OpenActive as part of your contract

The document came about because several organisations asked for clearer, more defined OpenActive requirements to include in their supplier contracting processes.

The use cases so far have been:

• Local authority contracts for the management of their leisure facilities
• Part of partnership arrangements in order to access distribution networks (i.e. “implement OpenActive in your system, and we’ll recommend you to our network of partners”)
• Leisure operators searching for new or alternative leisure management systems / booking systems

This is noteworthy, because it signals a move from “nice to have” to much stricter requirements for suppliers to meet.

“At London Sport, we are frequently asked for help by local authorities who want to use their contracting processes as an opportunity to engage suppliers in OpenActive, and to make sure suppliers are willing and able to meet all the requirements of the OpenActive initiative” Alex Zurita, Specialist Advisor — Technology for Participation, London Sport

It’s important to note that this is not being mandated by OpenActive (we don’t have that power); instead, educated and informed local authorities and operators are asking for support from OpenActive to ensure their suppliers deliver what they require, often for their own internal needs as well as the benefits they see from third parties using open opportunity data and booking APIs.

“We’ve been helping several organisations over the last month to better understand the different elements of OpenActive and which parts to mandate in contracts. In almost every case, open data and bookability supports their own internal use case, as well as moving OpenActive forward.” Richard Norris, OpenActive Programme Manager, Open Data Institute.

The document is currently in use with a number of local authorities and leisure operators, so if you’re currently bidding for a contract that specifies something along the lines of “agreeing to open your opportunity data as per OpenActive requirements”, this document is likely to be the set of requirements you need to be meeting in order to score well.

The document includes key requirements that specify that:

• Open opportunity data must be from a live source (and not any other source such as static timetables);
• Open opportunity data must include key data fields such as pricing and availability;
• An API must be provided that enables third-party booking;
• The above requirements must be met and evidenced by a specified date.

If you’re a leisure operator or leisure management system that regularly bids for contracts within the leisure sector, this is an important document to become familiar with. If you have any feedback or suggestions on the document, please do so here.

The OpenActive community is here to help you meet these requirements, so please get in touch via OpenActive.io if there’s any way we can help.