Cashless Catering

[Bankesy]

Good morning,

 

Just trying to get an overview of what people are doing for cashless catering these days? We are having a lot of trouble with our current provider and thinking of getting out.

 

Thanks

[Rob_D]

We use Fastrak now owned by Iris. Works well for us. Apart form one till we can't update because no-one knows the admin password and the very occasional sync issues, we've not had any problems.

[MCPearson]

We use Tali and TillApp from Pebble here. It's pretty clunky working with Arbor but it has good integration with SIMS. Also no biometrics so every child has to have a PIN or QR code, or the catering staff have to search them up by name, which is a bit of a pain.

[Chris_Cook]

We've used Live Register here for a number of years now. Works great, rarely have to call the tech support, but its there and good if we need it. Wouldn't want to change.

[synaesthesia]

Have had more problems with Iris Fastrak here in 1 month than I've had with Cunninghams in several years - and I didn't used to particularly like them! Support vastly improved recently so of all the providers they would be the go-to for me.

[mrbios]

We use Civica. Hate them, hate the product, hate the prices, hate the service and support (on-site engineers not included in that, they're the only ones that know what they're doing). I've even had an argument with a salesman, and I'm not normally the arguing type.

 

Useless company basically. Was fine...ish when it was Nationwide, but like capita or EA, Civica have a habit of ruining everything they touch.

[Aprice]

Fastrak, for our main site. Think I'd give it an award for having the worst support for any product anywhere.

I've had experience with a really old version of Cunningham's, which wasn't great but in all fairness the school hadn't kept it up to date. My guess is that it was at least 10 years old.

Civica, which they moved to I wasn't very impressed with, gather it was quite expensive as well.

 

We're looking into developing our own at the moment, I don't think there is a solution on the market I'd recommend.

 

Pretty sure Fastrak will be going this year from our main site as everyone has had enough of it.

[chazzy2501]

We are currently with Vericool Legacy offering.. They want over £18,000 for 5 years licence, support, hosting and 2 tills for the new cloud version. would include, £1k a year to run a single azure VM.

 

The crazy greed of these companies. £18,000 to run 2 tills for 5 years.

[PotNoodleTech]

After 23 years of doing this - I don't think I've ever met a good cashless catering company.

 

They all appear to be trying to extract the maximum amount of money out of the shoddiest software and hardware around.

[Bankesy]

Thanks everyone, we are with BlueRunner. Into our second year but already had enough, very similar experiences to what you all describe above.

[robyholmes]

Come on @ass17, how about CashlessCateringPad?

 

It needs a new player with a full web based platform with Bromcom and Arbor API. Amazing really Bromcom or Arbor haven't released a module themselves.

[ass17]

Come on @ass17, how about CashlessCateringPad?

 

It needs a new player with a full web based platform with Bromcom and Arbor API. Amazing really Bromcom or Arbor haven't released a module themselves.

 

We don’t use these systems lol otherwise I would be all over this! We still use SIMS.

 

:-)

[Bankesy]

One of our major problems is that we use HID iClass cards across our systems such as access control, printing and catering. Can't fault that BlueRunner did the development work on that but back end for catering and finance teams is a constant source of queries.

 

There was another provider (AMI) willing to do the development work on the cards but I thought BlueRunner would be good as it's cloud based. School doesn't really want to go down the PIN or biometric route.

 

We also get lots of pending orders building up on the tills (tablets) and they do seem to get overwhelmed at times and just close down the POS app without warning.

[Rob_D]

Amazing really Bromcom or Arbor haven't released a module themselves.

Bromcom have a "school dinners" module, but it only works with a fixed menu (a-la primary school dinners). We were told that a more featured, canteen style system was on the roadmap somewhere behind AI implementation and improving the cover module.

[chazzy2501]

Come on @ass17, how about CashlessCateringPad?

 

It needs a new player with a full web based platform with Bromcom and Arbor API. Amazing really Bromcom or Arbor haven't released a module themselves.

 

Something with Wonde integration then it wouldn't matter the MIS system.

[howartp]

Come on @ass17, how about CashlessCateringPad?

I'm ashamed/annoyed this went straight over my head the first time I read it. Great call!

 

We don’t use these systems lol otherwise I would be all over this! We still use SIMS.

So what? Get one written for SIMS...

 

Something with Wonde integration then it wouldn't matter the MIS system.

...or Wonde!

[mthomas08]

We use Civica. Hate them, hate the product, hate the prices, hate the service and support (on-site engineers not included in that, they're the only ones that know what they're doing). I've even had an argument with a salesman, and I'm not normally the arguing type.

 

Useless company basically. Was fine...ish when it was Nationwide, but like capita or EA, Civica have a habit of ruining everything they touch.

 

Exactly this. In fact, I would double the praise for the main engineer guy, he has been brilliant.

 

Can't say the same for anything else.

 

Ordering: Took an age to get any kind of a response and when I do "we will get back". No response. This lasted for months.

Support: We've had issues since the Summer and this is still ongoing. We phone them and after a long wait - we either get cut off or voicemail and if we DO get an actual person.. we get cut off or fobbed off.

We have called them.. I'd say about 3 times a week? No.. more.. I'd say 4 times a week since the end of summer.

 

We are tendering them. We've had enough. The whole year the service has been poor and it is very obvious something is happening. I've sent soooo many emails to different people and very lucky if I get a response.. on top of all the calls.

[mthomas08]

Bromcom have a "school dinners" module, but it only works with a fixed menu (a-la primary school dinners). We were told that a more featured, canteen style system was on the roadmap somewhere behind AI implementation and improving the cover module.

 

Is this really the case? We don't have a set menu on a daily basis and we are considering moving to Bromcom (our MIS).

 

The restaurant updates the system at their end and change prices/items often.

[Bankesy]

@mthomas08

 

When you say you're tendering them? Because you're coming to end of contract or you're looking to get out of contract early?

 

We made what we now know to be the mistake of signing up to BlueRunner for 5 years and they want paying for us to get out of the last 3.

[mthomas08]

@mthomas08

 

When you say you're tendering them? Because you're coming to end of contract or you're looking to get out of contract early?

 

We made what we now know to be the mistake of signing up to BlueRunner for 5 years and they want paying for us to get out of the last 3.

 

Tendering. Our contract isn't anywhere near the 5 years and we will simply not renew and go somewhere else.

 

I don't like waiting until the final few months to tender.

[Bankesy]

@mthomas08

 

Sorry to ask for further clarification but you mean you won't renew at the end of the 5 years or you just won't renew for this\next year?

[Rob_D]

Is this really the case? We don't have a set menu on a daily basis and we are considering moving to Bromcom (our MIS).

The restaurant updates the system at their end and change prices/items often.

 

I've not looked at it, much myself. But from what I've seen and heard, it's been designed to mostly accommodate the primary school style of fixed menus with very few options that are prebooked by the parents, and not a more caffe style system where a student can buy what they want, from a drink and snack up to the full hot meal. And AFAIK there isn't any POS software as it's predicted on the parents prebooking meals on MCAS.

 

Within those parameters it seems pretty flexible, you can have a different menu for different days with optional sides and deserts and have stack up future menus. You might be able to make it work for you, but I know our SBM and catering manager looked at it and decided it wasn't suitable for us because of the menu limitations.

[mthomas08]

@mthomas08

 

Sorry to ask for further clarification but you mean you won't renew at the end of the 5 years or you just won't renew for this\next year?

 

If you have a 5 year contract that is down to you. We don't.

 

You can within reason consider walking away from that contract but you would need to discuss it with a lawyer. You need to prove contract obligations weren't filled etc (if I remember rightly).

[PotNoodleTech]

Chances of getting out of an existing lease are low to none. If you want to change system's 3 years in to a 5 year lease, you'll have to pay the two more years anyway - whether that's pay the old company up front to settle, or integrate that debt into the new lease with the new company.

 

(Unless you've got a crack team of lawyers that can prove they've breeched their contract......most schools don't have access to that)

[Bromcom_Darren]

Hi, We don't have our own till's, but do integrate with most companies via API's. We have also asked our product team about plans for future development.