To revolutionise the student dining experience across 133 schools, North Lanarkshire Council implemented CRB Cunninghams' Fusion cashless catering system to streamline operational efficiencies and enable students to pre-order school meals for faster service speed.
Project objectives
The council sought a streamlined cashless system for all its schools, combining catering services with online payments. Fusion modernises operational efficiencies for North Lanarkshire council and schools and enhances students' dining experience by removing the need for carrying cash and reducing waiting times.
Complete cashless solution for secondary schools
The complete cashless package for secondary schools includes:
- Fusion Cashless
- Point of sale tills and revaluation units
- iPayimpact online payment platform
- Award-winning Fusion Online pre-order meal app
Implementing this integrated cashless solution has made it easier for North Lanarkshire schools to manage transactions and streamline their dining services. Pupils now experience an enhanced speed of service and can pre-order their favourite school meals ahead of time from their mobile phones.
"This new modern service is attracting our tech-savvy secondary pupils who can browse school catering menus and pre-order lunches straight from their mobile devices. North Lanarkshire council's combination of Fusion Online and iPayimpact means our schools can remove physical transactions from our dining hall and make the experience quicker for pupils."
- John Darcey, Projects and Resource Manager at North Lanarkshire Council
Faster service for primary schools
North Lanarkshire primary schools are also reaping the benefits of faster speed of service with the following systems:
- Tills installed for breakfast and morning break service
- iPayimpact online payments for parental meal pre-ordering
- Smartboard meal order, allowing pupils, with teacher assistance, to pre-order their meal choices via an interactive smartboard within the classroom
"The project team are providing in-house training onsite for catering and teaching staff and demonstrating the new practice to pupils in their classrooms. Primary pupils are excited to partake in the new interactive way of ordering their school lunch, as you can see from the picture of pupils at St Helen's Primary School in Condorrat."
- John Darcey, Projects and Resource Manager at North Lanarkshire Council
Pupils in St Helen's Primary School using iPayimpact Smartboard pre-ordering
Implementation and results
Through installing the Fusion cashless system, North Lanarkshire Council is paving the way for a new era of efficient and exciting school meals. Fusion Cashless combines cashless catering and online payments, removing the need for cash transactions and making the dining experience quicker for all users.
The rollout was a straightforward process. CRB Cunninghams team members, including project management, technical implementation, and engineers, worked closely on the successful implementation with the Facilities Management team at North Lanarkshire Council.
Lisa Behen, Project Manager at CRB Cunninghams comments:
"I am delighted to work on this project with North Lanarkshire Council. The Facilities team at NLC and teams here at CRBC have been working closely together to ensure a successful implementation and adoption of their new cashless systems. This project is a large-scale rollout with many moving parts, but thanks to the support and experience from both teams, we are progressing well and have received some great feedback from council members, individual schools, staff and pupils, which is great to see.”
CRB Cunninghams also provided in-house training for catering and teaching staff to ensure the successful adoption of the new system. The system has been well received by staff and students, with positive feedback.
"We were keen to implement the Fusion system as it combines cashless catering and an online payment system into one solution, removing the need for cash in schools. I am delighted to say that feedback from staff and pupils has been outstanding.”
- John Darcey, Projects and Resource Manager at North Lanarkshire Council
