Cloud cashless catering

[supportman]

One of the last services we want to get rid of is our onsite cashless catering, currently with Iris BioStore.

 

I've just been on a webinar about Biostores new cloud offering and wasn't too impressed, it looked like a 1990's windows app and used QR codes.

 

I see Civica also have a cloud cashless system now, not seen it yet though.

 

Has anyone else looked into this?

Edited October 16, 2024 by supportman

[synaesthesia]

Yes, just moved away from Biostore to Cunninghams - vastly better and cloud based!

[supportman]

Yes, just moved away from Biostore to Cunninghams - vastly better and cloud based!

 

Is that Fusion online?

[davidstallwood]

Hi, We moved away from Civica to VeriCool's cloud based cashless catering. Super easy migration their support is brilliant. I never have to go the canteen anymore!!

[chrisjako]

Just came to say don't touch CIVICA cloud, we are with them they dont sync arbor data for 48 hours which causes chaos with parents, currently looking ot end for a breach fo SLA they take hours to answer the phone and tickets still not repsonded since february 

Edited March 25, 2025 by chrisjako

[davidstallwood]

We migrated to Vericool who have been fantastic. Fully cloud based system.

[supportman]

35 minutes ago, davidstallwood said:

We migrated to Vericool who have been fantastic. Fully cloud based system.

 

Out of interest, What payment system are you using and how do students authenticate at the tills?

Edited March 25, 2025 by supportman

[mitchell1981]

People who have migrated, from for example, Civica to Vericool. Are you able to keep using the tills you have, or do you have to switch? We have five reasonably new tills. Were you able to still use biometrics using the same hardware?

 

Thank you.

[davidstallwood]

You need new tills & fingerprint readers from Vericool

[mitchell1981]

Thank you. That makes moving quite a bit more expensive!

[jonnykewell1]

Has anyone moved to the Biostore cloud offering but in a secondary setting? We're being quoted £2,500 per till to replace our older kit which is a joke but a few of our primaries are now using the cloud version with some tablets and it's working great. This works well for primary students but for our secondaries, I think we'd need each student to have a QR code that can be scanned using the camera and then staff choose their meal choices. I'm not sure how well that would work? 

 

One colleague has said the reporting isn't great for secondaries but other than end of day and general user balance reports, I'm not entirely sure what else they really need. 

[jonnykewell1]

On 24/04/2025 at 11:48, davidstallwood said:

You need new tills & fingerprint readers from Vericool

How does the system work, is it just a shortcut on a windows desktop till to a website? If so, what's stopping us using our own tills?

 

We need to replace our tills and plan on buying our own rather than paying the stupid costs these companies try charging. 

 

Have looked at Cunninghams and it looked great, just need to arrange some more demos elsewhere and Vericool sounds pretty good. 

[jezi55]

We have had an absolute nightmare transferring our Civica Version 8 to the cloud over the summer. We just about have a working solution 4 weeks into term. Very stressful experience to start the term and support who barely acknowledged our requests. Looking at Cunninghams when our contract is up for renewal.

[jonnykewell1]

27 minutes ago, jezi55 said:

We have had an absolute nightmare transferring our Civica Version 8 to the cloud over the summer. We just about have a working solution 4 weeks into term. Very stressful experience to start the term and support who barely acknowledged our requests. Looking at Cunninghams when our contract is up for renewal.

Yeah I don't think we're going to bother looking at Civica. 

[Olliedawg]

Can vouch for vericool. We have used them for nearly a decade here. Moved from the on-prem install to their cloud hosted "SwiftQ" platform. No issues.

[RobFuller]

They all love slipping in costs, just had a proposal from Cunninghams to switch on SSO, that will be £659 please .....

[mthomas08]

On 16/10/2024 at 08:42, supportman said:

One of the last services we want to get rid of is our onsite cashless catering, currently with Iris BioStore.

 

I've just been on a webinar about Biostores new cloud offering and wasn't too impressed, it looked like a 1990's windows app and used QR codes.

 

I see Civica also have a cloud cashless system now, not seen it yet though.

 

Has anyone else looked into this?

 

I wouldn't touch Civica.

 

We have them. One problem after another. It is our worst system by far.

 

I pushed for Cunninghams but the money and time ran out. We regretted that decision..... badly... 

Biometrics issues.

Till issues.

Vending problems.

 

Generally I'm disappointed how the migration went and their support seem to be inconsistent. One guy knows his stuff and the others haven't got a clue.

 

I've gone through periods of no response to calls or emails for weeks.

[mthomas08]

21 hours ago, jezi55 said:

We have had an absolute nightmare transferring our Civica Version 8 to the cloud over the summer. We just about have a working solution 4 weeks into term. Very stressful experience to start the term and support who barely acknowledged our requests. Looking at Cunninghams when our contract is up for renewal.

 

Same here!!

 

21 hours ago, jonnykewell1 said:

Yeah I don't think we're going to bother looking at Civica. 

 

Ah I see you replied here. Yeah.. I wouldn't bother..   

 

I've had bad service.. then there is Civica...    

[paulkerton]

Is anyone using Schoolgrid? I used to work in a school that used it when it was under it's old brand name of Live Kitchen - there were a few issues with some of their systems at the time, but generally they were quite impressive, I found.

[supportman]

On 25/03/2025 at 13:27, davidstallwood said:

We migrated to Vericool who have been fantastic. Fully cloud based system.

 

Just wanted to say thanks for this recommendation! We had Vericool installed last week and its been fantastic.

We moved away from Biostore Fastrack due to their poor support and aging tills that were expensive to replace.

 

Vericool (swiftQ) has been brilliant so far, much more responsive. Fully web based (we got rid of our local cashless server), support is amazingly responsive and install was a joy. We can even use contactless debit cards at the till now as well as thumb prints and its integrates with Bromcom payments. Overall its a great system and I recommend it to everyone.

Edited April 27 by supportman

[ITGuyNW]

What is the pricing like for Vericool?