Three decades of innovation
Internet Explorer, eBay, and Bluetooth technology are just a few major developments celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. 1995 was a transformative year for innovation across many industries, shaping how we work, socialise, and shop. It was also the year that CRB Cunninghams introduced the first cashless catering system!
From the first cashless system to Self-Serve Kiosks, the past 30 years have been a time of significant developments and innovation for CRB Cunninghams and the education industry, and we’re proud to celebrate this significant milestone.
Introducing the first cashless catering system
We introduced the first version of our cashless catering system, IMPACT, to St Margaret’s Academy in West Lothian in 1995. The school was newly built and introduced cashless catering to speed up the lunch service and provide free school meal anonymity by ensuring all pupils paid for school lunches using the same method.
Cashless catering was a completely new concept at the time, with school transactions traditionally being cash-based.
After introducing IMPACT, students used physical cards to top up their cashless accounts before mealtimes, with free school meal entitlements automatically pre-loaded onto the cards, removing FSM stigma and reducing the need to find the correct change at the point of sale, significantly minimising lunch queues.
“The system was viewed as futuristic and a completely new way of operating in high schools. Children got used to having cards and putting their money in the cash revaluation units. It removed the cash transaction for catering and school staff at the point of sale.
It gave the catering service and council the confidence to adopt this cashless model across all schools in West Lothian.” Jamie Fisher, Facilities and Support Service Manager at West Lothian Council.
After introducing the first cashless system to St Margaret’s, other schools in West Lothian began to adopt the system. Initial feedback was positive, and from seeing students move through lunch queues faster and a positive impact on meal uptake, all schools in West Lothian Council, including 65 primary and 11 secondary schools, implemented CRB Cunninghams’ cashless catering system.
Evolving West Lothian’s cashless system
Inevitably, pupil and staff needs evolve. With new out-of-school technology shaping our consumer habits, including meal pre-ordering and digital payments, it was essential that West Lothian Council’s cashless offering stayed updated and adapted to suit the pupils’ needs.
As the cashless system evolved, the council needed centralised functionality to make managing operations across its 76 schools more efficient.
In 2021, the council upgraded from IMPACT to Fusion Cashless to manage all the council's cashless catering solutions, including cashless and online payments, under one system.
“The Fusion launch provided so many benefits, including being able to manage sites centrally, menu and pricing consistency, roaming for users to move between schools, and many more." Jamie Fisher
Implementing Fusion centralised how the council managed cashless systems across all schools. Staff have customised access depending on their job role and can generate reports from free school meal uptake to till transactions across all schools in one place, saving staff time running manual reports and giving real-time actionable insights.
In addition to Fusion, West Lothian Council’s cashless system advanced to include new developments, from its initial introduction as a cash-free way to pay for school lunches in 1995 to an award-winning, fully integrated cloud-hosted cashless solution 30 years later. Significant developments to the council’s cashless system include:
- iPayimpact online payments, built into their Fusion Cashless system to enable the council to manage cashless and online payments under one roof
- The Fusion Online pre-order meal app for contactless meal ordering methods after COVID. “We worked with CRBC to launch the pre-order app to enable ordering from phones to remove touch points, reduce queues and respect social distancing rules.” Jamie Fisher
- The award-winning Data Factory tool, developed with CRB Cunninghams, for centralised data management across its 76 schools
- Facial Recognition introduced to speed up school meal transactions at the point of sale, with no PIN or cards needed from students
- Fusion Digital Wallet implemented as a modern way for students to go cashless by securing a digital pass in their phone’s wallet app to scan at the point of sale for faster transactions
“We would face huge challenges to deliver service without the cashless system. Service would be slower; we would need further staff resources to manage payments, and we would need to consider how we could best support children who receive free school meals.”
Since launching Fusion, there have been many benefits, from centrally managing cashless operations across 65 primary and 11 secondary schools to menu and pricing consistency." Jamie Fisher
In 2023, West Lothian Council was awarded for Innovation at the 2023 Scottish National FM Awards for modernising its cashless catering system by upgrading to Fusion and developing the Data Factory tool.
Data Factory is a Fusion Cashless module that provides valuable insights into school catering operations. It includes easily customisable Power BI dashboards that give staff a clear overview of insights, such as meal sales per school and staff resource hours.
We worked closely with WLC to develop Data Factory to improve reporting capabilities and how the council managed its cashless catering data. The Innovation Award was a testament to the hard work in creating a solution that offered practical, real-life benefits for the council.
Three decades of cashless innovations
Since 1995, we have developed our cashless offering to address changing pupil, staff and parent needs. The past three decades have seen many technological advancements outside of schools, a global pandemic, changes to school food standards and the recent advancements of AI, to name a few, so keeping updated and making sure our cashless solutions address user needs is essential.
Just a few of these developments include, but are not limited to:
- Fusion Cashless - developed from the original IMPACT system, CRBC designed Fusion as an all-in-one cashless catering, online payment, and ID management system
- iPayimpact - online payment solution. Most recently, we launched the iPay parent app and form builder modules
- In 2019, we introduced the Fusion Online pre-order meal app to remove contact at the point of sale
- Nutmeg nutritional analysis and menu planning system acquired in 2021
- Self-Serve Kiosks launched in 2024 to modernise the school meal service and enable pupils to order school meals via an interactive self-serve screen
Starting as one school in West Lothian in 1995, thirty years later, we’re proud to provide cashless catering to over 3,300 UK schools.
“This milestone is a testament to how far we’ve come and our commitment to delivering our goal of ‘innovation that serves’.
We are incredibly proud of our longstanding partnership with West Lothian Council and our cashless catering solutions' positive impact on school communities. We look forward to the next 30 years and to how we can continue delivering innovative solutions to improve the school experience." - Thomasina Ward, Managing Director at CRB Cunninghams.
We’re proud to have strengthened our relationships with UK schools over the past 30 years, with longstanding partnerships with councils, local authorities, MATs and schools like those in West Lothian:
"I have only had good experiences with CRB Cunninghams; all staff are approachable and professional, and the company continues to innovate the system to meet user needs. Recent user group sessions have allowed us to share ideas on developments adopted into their annual roadmap." Jamie Fisher.
We can’t wait to see what the next 30 years holds!
If you’re looking to deliver ‘Innovation that serves’ to your school or want to chat with a member of the CRBC team, get in touch - we’d love to hear from you!
