ORA: Expanding the Boundaries of Fitness and Sports Management

An introduction that opened new doors

Some partnerships help you improve your product. Others challenge you to rethink what your product can become.

Our journey with ORA began with an introduction from Nabeel, whom we had previously worked with at Legends Fitness. He reached out to discuss a new project called ORA, an ambitious facility bringing together a gym and padel courts under one roof.

We were invited to understand their requirements and explore how Workzish could support their operations.

At first glance, our existing gym management capabilities covered many of their basic needs. However, ORA was not a conventional gym. Managing memberships was only one part of the equation. They also needed a comprehensive way to manage padel court bookings, facility availability, and the operational complexity that came with running multiple types of facilities.

Meeting those requirements would take more than configuring existing features. It would require us to build something new.

Beyond gym management

The biggest challenge was designing a complete space booking infrastructure tailored to ORA's operations.

We wanted to give ORA a unified platform where memberships, padel court reservations, and facility operations could work together seamlessly, rather than forcing the business to rely on separate systems for different functions.

This became a turning point for Workzish.

As our collaboration progressed, we developed and refined capabilities around ORA's evolving needs, including:

• Padel court management: structured court availability and booking workflows designed around sports facility operations.
• Public booking application: a convenient booking experience that lets members and customers reserve facilities digitally.
• Membership management: centralised member records and membership operations across the facility.
• Multi-door access control: access management across multiple entry points.
• Multi-facility management: a more comprehensive setup for managing different facilities within one ecosystem.
• Trainer commission management: configurable processes to manage trainer commissions.
• Payroll processing: additional capabilities to support staff and compensation workflows.
• Advanced permissions: more granular control over system access and staff responsibilities.

These capabilities did not emerge from a theoretical product roadmap alone. They were shaped by practical requirements, operational challenges, and the experience of working closely with a facility that needed more than traditional gym software.

A partnership that pushed us forward

As the partnership developed, we worked with different members of the ORA team to understand their operations, refine existing functionality, and introduce new capabilities.

Each stage of the journey brought new requirements and opportunities to improve the platform. What began as a project to support a gym and padel facility gradually helped expand our vision of what a unified fitness and sports management solution could offer.

ORA challenged us to think beyond memberships and attendance. It pushed us to consider bookings, access control, facility operations, staff management, and customer-facing digital experiences as connected parts of one system.

The result was not just a solution for ORA. It was a broader set of capabilities that helped shape the future of Workzish.

From a customer requirement to a product capability

One of the most valuable lessons from ORA was the importance of building alongside customers.

Every facility operates differently. A traditional gym, a padel club, and a multi-sport complex may share some operational needs, but each has its own workflows and challenges.

Working with ORA helped us understand these differences firsthand. It encouraged us to build more flexible infrastructure and develop features that could serve a wider range of fitness and sports businesses.

The experience also reinforced a principle we continue to follow: listen closely to customers, understand the underlying problem, and build solutions that can create value beyond a single implementation wherever possible.

Still building, still growing

ORA remains part of the Workzish journey, and our partnership continues to be an important chapter in our evolution.

We are grateful to the ORA team for trusting us with their operational requirements and challenging us to go further than our original capabilities.

Body Shape gave Workzish its beginning. ORA helped us discover a new horizon.

Today, the experience gained through this partnership continues to inform how we approach modern gym management, sports facility bookings, access control, and multi-facility operations.

This is what customer-driven innovation means to us: building alongside the people who use our product and allowing real-world challenges to shape what comes next.

ORA did more than help us serve a new kind of facility. It helped us become a more capable platform.