Reducing administration time and increasing uptake with cashless catering
Founded in 1894, Campbell College is an independent school based in Belfast. Located on an impressive 100-acre estate, the school educates approximately 1200 boys aged 3 to 18 and attracts pupils from across the world with their international reputation.
As a school with pupils of all ages and backgrounds, Campbell College required a suitable cashless catering and online payment system that suited and represented the different types of pupils at the school.
From cash to cashless
Before Campbell College moved to CRB Cunninghams' software, their process relied heavily upon collecting cash, using an older catering system operated via money and cards. Staff would regularly bank and record cash while issuing and re-issuing lunch cards, taking up a great deal of time and resources, and why moving to a fully integrated solution was essential.
"Before CRB Cunninghams, we were using an old system heavily based on cash, and it was very important for us to find an integrated solution." - Maura Canavan, Finance Manager at Campbell College.
The main challenge was replacing their existing system with a solution that provided the speed of service for catering staff whilst managing other purchases such as items from the school shop through the cashless system and an interface to online payments.
CRB Cunningham's solution
After discovering the extensive range and functionality CRB Cunningham's solutions offered, Campbell College connected iDStore, the innovative data management platform, to their Fusion cashless catering system for a truly integrated cashless solution.
Increasing and maximising profits
Through the ease of use of Fusion's cashless catering system, Campbell College has maximised its profits by increasing the number of pupils served during lunchtimes.
With the ability for pupils to pre-order their meals, quicker and more efficient tills and less time spent handling money, the school has increased their profits and ensured that pupils access their favourite food during their lunch break.
“We have been able to maximise our profits each day, and we have seen a rise in numbers we get through lunchtimes.” - Andrew McNab, Business Manager at Sodexo, Campbell College’s catering provider.
Reduced food wastage
Having visibility over sale trends has also made a considerable difference to the school's profits and uptake. Fusion provides a central database with various reporting options, showing transaction histories and trends.
This visibility allows the staff at Campbell College to analyse which products have proved to be popular or unpopular and focus on providing the pupils with their favourite food and reducing food wastage. This type of reporting is available at the school or centrally from a council or head office.
“I find the financial reports really useful. I can check sales daily and identify any issues (or if there are not) very quickly. It lets me analyse if we’ve had a drop in sales in one area and then I can see why, and we can react quickly.” - Wayne Harper, Facilities Manager at Campbell College.
Seamless connection
Despite the vast 100 acre grounds of Campbell College, our tills are widely spread out but seamlessly connect, providing a robust and reliable service to the staff and pupils. Not bound to the dining hall, our software is used across all aspects of the school, including on-the-go via the Fusion Online pre-order app, pre-order kiosks and more.
By reducing the amount of cash coming into the dining hall and the school shop, uptake has dramatically increased in the canteen area, due to lunch service being faster and more efficient. By automating all administration and financial tasks, Campbell College's catering team can feed pupils nutritious and delicious school meals.
"The uptake in online payments has been amazing. The parents have really taken it on board. They can go on and top up their son's lunch account, they can see what their son has been eating, and they get alerts when their balance is low." -Maura Canavan.
Straightforward lunchtimes
Some of the critical functions of Fusion that have been useful to Campbell College are the menus and product setups, allowing catering staff to adapt the menus day-by-day digitally, set restrictions for when meals aren't available, update allergen information and more. Combining this with biometric recognition, lunchtime at Campbell College is now straightforward, flexible and efficient.
One central database
As well as moving to a cashless catering system, the school decided to switch on iDStore to reduce administrative burdens and maintain the data on one central database. iDStore synchronises multiple databases into one single location and communicates with all applications, removing the need for numerous updates and ensuring that all system data is up-to-date and correct.
With a diverse school such as Campbell College, this has dramatically reduced administration costs and time for various staff members.
With the implementation of a straightforward cashless catering system and a single data management system, lunchtime at Campbell College is now straightforward, with the benefits extending to catering and business staff, as well as to the parents and pupils.
‘I would definitely recommend CRB Cunninghams to other schools and other organisations’ - Maura Canavan.
