Catering systems

[TheCrust]

Hi everyone.

 

Our kitchen team are looking to go out to tender to replace our current cashless catering system and given the online, networked and integrated nature of a lot of catering systems, they have involved us in IT. Given it's a bit of a new thing for us - buying catering systems is not your average everyday occurrance for a school's IT team - we are looking for a bit of crowd-sourced opinion to help guide our initial investigation of suppliers.

 

We have a small list of people that should be worth a look - such as Cunninghams or Nationwide - but would be interested in hearing some wider views on what is in use in case we've missed any other obvious players.

 

Would techs in schools with more than 1300 students (so at least a similar size to us) mind sharing which catering systems they use and perhaps give a bit of general feedback as to how their school's catering teams have got on with that particular system?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

 

Jim

[howartp]

1700 students.

 

Been trying to leave Cunninghams for as long as we've had it in.

 

Nationwide is by far my preferred choice.

 

Peter

[HappyAdmin]

We are smaller than you, only 600 or so on roll, but looked last summer at Cunninghams, NRS and LCR. We went with NRS, and haven't regretted it, except at one point during the install when they got mixed up and told us they couldn't do something previously promised - some "talking to managers" got it back! To us, Cunninghams seemed very clunky, and LCR seemed good, but lacking a couple of features we needed - still in the development pipeline, apparently.

Just my 2p worth...

Good luck - and I'm glad they have involved you. Much better than being told what is happening at the end. I was involved from day 1, and I think my perspective was a useful contribution.

Ben

[Sephiroth]

I'd say that it depends on what your current system is. If you've got a Biostore database already, then Biostore cashless catering would be a sensible option, and one that we are seriously considering as it would mean that we wouldn't have to recapture fingerprints for 2500 people (Staff and Students).

 

Another consideration is; what other services do/will you use? we have biometric registration terminals at our 6th form campus with LiveRegister, who also do cashless catering as well as their own biometrics database engine. Our view here is that whatever we get should be able to do everything, from cashless catering to password reset terminals to access control.

 

We've looked at Nationwide, Biostore, LiveRegister, Cunninghams (our current provider) and VeriCool. There's very little that sets them appart, though I would say that Nationwide seems a touch pricey. We're looking primarily at Biostore and Liveregister, as we use LiveRegister for attendance and already use a Biostore database.

[FragglePete]

We went through a tender process last year for a new system; replaced Vericool. We looked at NRS, Cunninghams and Live Register. All very good systems, but went with Cunninghams in the end. It does seem clunky in the way it's put together, but so far it has just worked for us with no major issues - the biometrics are lightning fast compared to Vericool. NRS looked very good, but was a tad more expensive and Live Register seemed good also, but just a bit of an unknown. The catering company in the end pushed us towards Cunninghams as they use it in other schools and they were paying for it after all.

 

Best of luck.

 

Pete

[rad]

NRS with 2200 registered users.

I cant praise them enough, see other threads on the subject. If you are close to NW London, you are welcome to see it live.

[TheCrust]

Thanks folks.

 

We're currently EMOS/Infineer. While it works, we are finding the system is getting long in the tooth and the catering team feel it is starting to become unreliable so it is time to look at replacing it as a whole. We may stay EMOS, we may not - at the moment it comes down to potential systems meeting functional requirements, and cost.

 

In addition to the physical bits, at the same time we are looking to tie in to online payments (so ParentPay, Wisepay or the like) so we can largely do away with the physical revaluers we have around the place.

 

Currently we have a mixed bag for authentication: fingerprint verification for year 7 and upwards, contactless card for year 6 and below. This means whatever we do, we will probably be looking at a near complete re-registration of students and staff on-site if we move to an alternative system because I believe our EMOS system doesn't use Biostore. Yes. That will be entertaining.

 

Fun times ahead!

 

Thanks again

[Ruth4]

Hi, we're looking at putting in a new cashless system as well. Can you tell me why nationwide is your perfereed choice? And will you go with biometrics. Our school is 1600 students

[markwilfan]

Hi, we're looking at putting in a new cashless system as well. Can you tell me why nationwide is your perfereed choice? And will you go with biometrics. Our school is 1600 students

I have to admit my experience with nrs was less than ideal. The people that came to site had a very narrow knowledge of IT as a whole which made it very painful

[pow]

I have to agree with Mark I'm afraid, their technical knowledge was low and the software was pretty ugly - text size too big so couldn't view prices for meals is one thing that popped to mind - had to fill the fields in blind. Coupled to the fact it all ran from a single HDD non-branded i3/4GB computer which was installed to be a workstation as well put me off them for good. Totally different setting I know but at a huge primary I'm running ParentPay Classroom Ordering and then some funky excel and php code to get the data the kitchen want (numbers per yeargroup and colour and details of students who have allergies who have ordered). Cost me the grand sum of £500 for PP, £400 for two TVs and a bit of my time.

[ITBadger]

We've had Cunninghams for the last seven years and are looking for a replacement. Their support isn't brilliant and is quite expensive. My favourite of the ones we've had demonstrated is Biostore's FasTrac system. It seems to run on the most modern architecture of all those we've looked at. Just awaiting a response from a reference site before making a final decision though. I don't think there is a clear leader in the market, but Biostore has shown the most potential, and it obviously integrates perfectly with their biometric database, which we use for library, password change and printing already.

[ass17]

We have cunninghams and its only issue we have is the fingerprint reader sometimes doesn't recognise fingers so we have shown the catering staff where to unplug and plug in the USB connection for the reader.

[Edu-IT]

I have to agree with Mark I'm afraid, their technical knowledge was low and the software was pretty ugly - text size too big so couldn't view prices for meals is one thing that popped to mind - had to fill the fields in blind. Coupled to the fact it all ran from a single HDD non-branded i3/4GB computer which was installed to be a workstation as well put me off them for good. Totally different setting I know but at a huge primary I'm running ParentPay Classroom Ordering and then some funky excel and php code to get the data the kitchen want (numbers per yeargroup and colour and details of students who have allergies who have ordered). Cost me the grand sum of £500 for PP, £400 for two TVs and a bit of my time.

Hardware wise, you can run it on whatever machine you like, if you provide it.

 

The GUI in v6 seems OK - perhaps the issues you mention have been changed in this release?

[Shadow_Walker]

Cunninghams just annoy me at times how bad it can be and how bad support can also be. Would not recommend them.

[Ruth4]

Cunninghams have said they waiting for a impact software update which might be December. NRS sound better as they are independent and are quicker to make improvements whereas CRBS Cunninghams are owned by Jonus and so buy in the software from CRBS although old sites are still using Biostore, which might be why things take so long?

Also I read that their support service closes at 4pm? NRS close at 5.30pm- just this small difference is important I think.

[TheCrust]

Thanks again for the comments and feedback - it is much appreciated.

 

My next question is who has NRS in the East Midlands that wouldn't mind accomodating a visit for us to see it in action? We would happily travel further if needed - thanks to @rad for the invite - but for the moment if anyone is local to the East Midlands, that would save me losing a day to commute out with the Catering Manager, take a look, and get back again.

[rad]

@TheCrust - If you ring NRS they will be able to tell you schools near you that have their system who will show you how it works.

 

NRS also do onsite demos with a till, back office and a reval.

[gillp]

I couldn't recommend Cunninghams either. I was impressed with BioStore at BETT. I've heard good feedback on other forums.

[howartp]

BioStore is very cheap, which appeals to some schools, but my concern was they are new to the Cashless market - they've a settled product BASE, in other areas, but school cashless is a new part of their portfolio.

 

Peter

[Norphy]

We use Easytrace.

 

Lets just say, looking at cashless and access control systems is on my agenda at BETT tomorrow...

[fiza]

Neither Biostore or Cunninghams seem to have an integrated visitor management system. They both tag on other products for this part. Biostore looked good from the demo I had.

[ITBadger]

BioStore have been in place at our place since July 2016. I've gone from having loads of issues under Cunningham's to none whatsoever under FasTrak (Biostore's cashless system). I cannot fault it at all.

[howartp]

Neither Biostore or Cunninghams seem to have an integrated visitor management system. They both tag on other products for this part. Biostore looked good from the demo I had.

 

Nor does NRS.

 

If you think Inventry is integrated, think again.