Rob Woodward

John Locher

Rob Woodward is the CEO and president, and John Locher, RRP, is vice president, strategy & solutions at Long Beach, California-based Katana Software. Their company produces Asgard, a cloud-based, enterprise facilities management and operations software provider aimed at timeshare and homeowners association management companies. We talked with them about the founding and evolution of their company, changes in timeshare over the years, how they’ve responded, and how joining ARDA has been mutually beneficial to them, their fellow members, and the association.

You’ve each been involved in timeshare for about a quarter of a century: what has changed most notably over that period of time?

Woodward: John and I have been innovators and brand stewards, in a sense. We’ve seen a lot of change. But now it’s really about the pace. Everything’s coming at operators all at the same time: aging facilities along with a large segment of the owner base, staffs getting smaller while suffering higher turnover, harder-to-fill positions, new retention priorities, and increased cost of every element of service. Static models of information service are moving to highly dynamic, data-driven, and self-service paradigms. To provide stability in the face of these dynamic changes, we focus on core systems and wielding data from areas such as asset management, reserve management, and tying department operations together on the back end. In addition to industry changes, we’ve all seen external events forcing change, such as the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers in Florida and all the compliance legislation that’s followed. It’s dictating that things never previously included in financial planning—like the building envelope itself and structural integrity components —now have to be mandated for full funding. Of course, there’s not expected to be a giant upswell of cash from owners to match these mandates. So dynamic cash-flow scenario modeling is a whole new urgent priority. This is a dramatic example of why data and systems must be integrated and pulled from many places to meet owner and compliance needs.

Locher: My entry into timeshare was attending an ARDA conference in 2000. The changes I see most in the sector are about technology and data. The hospitality and travel segments have seen significant advancements, from the internet, systems communications, and analytics, specifically to sales and marketing operations. The ability to carry out brand standards is increasingly crucial for major brands’ growth through so many acquisitions. And financial management, guest owner experience, and personalization have seen advancements in systems driven by technology and all-important data. But there’s undoubtedly more to do in our industry.

Rob, what led to the founding of the company; and John, what led to your initial involvement in it? And how has your approach changed to keep up with these changes in the field?

Woodward: My partners and I founded the company 23 years ago. We were coming out of other high-tech industries as software integrators and developers. We entered this space pulled in by timeshare brands looking to move away from legacy systems dictated to them by their parent hotel corporations. That fueled the need to operate more in their own identity as unique and complex facilities primarily serving owners, not just guests. So we started as a technology hand-holding partner, focused on the need for more integration, focused on brand, geared for how timeshare is built to serve owners, and not just to deploy some software. That led to early partnerships with the biggest brands and a unique service agreement. We would just bundle everything they needed as a technology partner into one annual service agreement priced by unit, interval, or key. It was a great place to try out this new business model reflecting true strategic partnership. We decided our niche would be to go all-in with the customer to build, deploy, and service core operations and facilities software they needed to fit their unique timeshare brands. This approach to partnering has led to remarkably stable long-term renewable agreements spanning, on average, a dozen years or more.

Locher: My entrance into the industry came from seeing the need for improvements and opportunities to serve owners and developers with a rental and resale marketplace as a founder of Redweek.com. I met Rob Woodward at an ARDA regional event probably 15 years ago. Our missions matched, and we worked together [initially with Locher as a consultant]. And then, most recently, I came on board full-time to help Asgard software continue the joint mission of helping brands and resorts with their identity, operations, and financial management to deliver quality vacations and owner experiences.

What recent trends within the timeshare space have you noticed in areas like business intelligence and facilities management, and how do you stay in front of them?

Woodward: That’s a very important question. With so much change, there’s no way to traditionally build a software product in time to meet emergent and ever-changing needs. So really, it all comes down not so much to software but, as John said, to data. Staying out in front of that much change, you need a primary focus on having the technology in place that captures data and can pull data from many places, not just your own system. While we have the most significant operating software footprint in timeshare, along with the largest data set, it’s all about what you can do to capture and facilitate blending in even more data, moving data up to the enterprise level, and putting it in front of decision-makers for action. The buzzwords that have always been there are analytics and business intelligence. But the fundamental thing under the buzzwords is the capability to master and control data smoothly across small to large properties and many-layered organizations.

Locher: You may find a theme of connection and plurality of approach here. Together, we and our clients both need guidance from one another. We use business intelligence and data from brand delivery, from product experience to operations, and blending assets and reserves with goals. A good service and fulfillment partner is needed. And that’s what we do, and it happens to be the same reason we’re in the industry, to help as a service partner to deliver products and support a great experience.

Woodward: There used to be a tremendous dependence on the management-by-flying-around model. A large enterprise group only has a small corporate staff, yet they may have 100 or more resorts. So they must depend on a local operator to deliver a quality experience based on standards. And yet, they’re based all over the world. The key to that is having an efficient ability to monitor what’s going on anywhere in the world and smoothly operate it from a central point of view while still empowering and cooperating dynamically with your local operators.

What prompted you to join ARDA originally, and how long ago was it? What have you gotten out of membership, and what have you been able to offer to the rest of the membership?

Woodward: ARDA is the greatest place to build enduring and trusted service relationships. You learn from your customers, you learn from all the different operators and brands in the industry, and you learn what the important issues are. ARDA has been fantastic at the educational level. One of the early ways I worked with John, for example, was when he coordinated many of the speakers, the sessions, and the committees throughout ARDA, which members find so valuable. And we were fortunate enough to be speakers, sharing with thought leaders what was happening in the industry year after year. So that was our primary reason for getting into and loving being in ARDA. And John has been one of the great ambassadors of ARDA. Many people know John across the industry, probably more from his roles within ARDA.

Locher: Thank you, Rob. What prompted me to join ARDA was that I needed to learn, connect and contribute to the industry to serve the industry as an innovator. And so, I entered ARDA as a student with a plan. And I have become a teacher and am still a student. I enjoy connecting and contributing to serving customers, the industry, and ARDA staff through volunteering and committees. For example, I was on the meetings committee for six or seven years, most of which was as the Technology group lead. I was a part of the Resale Act Task Force. I was on the editorial board of Developments for many years, a Signature Sponsor, and have been a VIP member. I love being an ambassador to new members, less-represented companies, innovation leaders from large enterprises, and industry vendors. Because that allows me to do what I like to do, which is teach, and learn, and sort of escort and say, “Hey, here’s what worked for me, here’s what I found. Here’s the way things are moving today and who is doing it. Check this out.” And so I believe the Diversity and Inclusion Council is fantastic. And the ARDA 100 Group is excellent for including many more memberships, new companies, or new layers of staff from member companies.

Woodward: Being VIP members over the years has been an honor. As a Trustee member, it’s essential for us to be able to say to all of our industry leaders across ARDA: “This is where we can talk; this is how we can engage at a strategic level as trustee members.” Seeing the senior executives of all the different brands through ARDA is unique, and it allows us to commit to that relationship and support its activities. I highly recommend it to those who might consider upgrading their memberships. It makes us feel like we’ve put in the years, we put in the support, and we get a tremendous amount of that back.

What’s your favorite place to travel and why?

Woodward: What’s unique about timeshare is it gives you so many great, different geographical locations to visit. If you want sunshine, if you want sand, if you want water, if you want lush [greenery], if you want skiing, urban center, or just new event experiences —everything is there. Obviously, Florida is the center of our industry, so we go there a lot, but we have so many options to move around within our customer base, all the way from Europe, to Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, and everything in between. It’s like an extensive menu of tremendous timeshare places to visit and stay.

Locher: My favorite place to travel is wherever the Summer Olympic Games are held. Paris 2024 will be my 10th Olympic Games as a spectator. My first was as a spectator and manager because I worked for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Sydney 2000 was spectacular; Rio, incredible; Beijing, epic. Athens, historical. And I missed Tokyo because the pandemic did not allow foreign travelers, so I was disappointed.

Woodward: We tried to sneak him in.