Cloud-based Cashless Catering

[Foresthippy]

Hi,

 

We are heading for serverless set up and need to look at replacing cashless catering. We currently use locally hosted Vericool, which seems to work well for us. I believe their cloud-based equivalent is SwiftQ. Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with SwiftQ? Is there anything else anyone would recommend?

 

Cheers,

John

[DrBeaker]

500 - 1500x angry, hungry kids (+ staff) at lunchtime, because the cloud cashless system has gone down and can't process payments etc.

 

 

[Olliedawg]

We use SwiftQ, have done for the past 1.5 years.

 

No issues at all, 

[supportman]

We are looking at it now, looked very good.

 

They have an offline mode as well in case your internet goes down I believe.

[tgrindo]

We use CRB Cunninghams Fusion system which is hosted by them in the cloud with no on site cashless server. The system works well for us and we have very little issues with the software itself. We replaced the tills in the Summer and since the replacement it has been flawless from a hardware side also and just works. The only downside to the cloud based system is if the internet goes down but we do our backup line. 

[AGSPC]

We moved from Civica on-prem to Vericool Swift-Q over the summer.  With the old system I used to get phone calls every single day from Catering, I think I've heard from them two or three times this term.  Amazing.

 

We used our existing tills, they installed their bits remotely.  Support is excellent and you can actually talk to them on the phone.  Can't recommend them enough.

[karenf]

Sorry to hijack the thread. We have locally hosted Vericool. Our tills are coming up for 7 years old and are so slow. However, Vericool continue to offer support only renewal each year and so school will not look into upgrading the till hardware or moving to cloud. Do you have a replacement term agreed when it comes to the tills etc? I can't imagine how long we have left before they just stop working. Is anyone running till hardware older than us?

[MYK-IT]

@karenf I have no experience of Vericool, but I would hazard a guess that your tills are running an operating system that, if not already out of date/support, soon will be - especially as they are already 7 years old (e.g. W10 LTSB, LTSC etc). So in the first instance I would get that confirmed, and look at a full hardware refresh (or use this an opportunity to tender for cashless catering renewal options etc).

 

I would also use the DfE Meeting Digital and Technology Standards (for example, Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges - Laptops, desktops and tablets - Guidance - GOV.UK) to support you. (e.g. unsupported devices connect to your network, Cyber Essentials requirement etc.)

Edited January 22 by MYK-IT

[bkelly]

@tgrindoMay I ask what model of till you purchased and was it through Cunninghams?  We are looking to replace our fleet of tills, upgrading to Win 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC, moving away from the Oct. 2026 EOL LTSB.

[tgrindo]

9 hours ago, bkelly said:

@tgrindoMay I ask what model of till you purchased and was it through Cunninghams?  We are looking to replace our fleet of tills, upgrading to Win 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC, moving away from the Oct. 2026 EOL LTSB.

Hi @bkelly - Tills purchased through Cunninghams and were SAM4S Sapphire. No issues with this model at all and would recommend if it is still an option. Hope this helps