CRB Cunninghams awarded the contract for Solihull Council's cashless catering
The system's roll-out across three secondary and 65 primary schools is already underway, with all Solihull schools set to operate Fusion by February 2020.
The new system will enable Solihull Council to centralise its data, providing one central platform across its network of schools. This centralisation facilitates the central control of functionalities such as products and reporting whilst also providing local access to ensure the smooth day-to-day running of each school.
As noted by the BBC, food allergies now affect around 7% of children in the UK, and for Solihull Council, allergy alerts was a crucial requirement for their new cashless system. Fusion gives schools greater control over recording student data, and for the council, this functionality is essential to safeguard their 22,000 pupils.
The software not only provides the school with vital allergy and dietary requirement alerts for each student, but the pre-ordering feature allows both parents and students to have complete control of the school meals they are consuming.
Combining cashless payments and pre-ordering into one integrated system, schools in Solihull will also benefit from reduced food wastage, which currently costs UK schools £250M each year. Staff and pupils in Solihull will benefit from a more efficient lunch service and improved stock ordering by utilising CRB Cunninghams' smartboard pre-order system in primary schools and pre-order kiosks in secondary schools.
Solihull Council were impressed by the high level of knowledge and guidance CRB Cunninghams can provide as market leaders, which was imperative to our success. David Swanston, Managing Director at CRB Cunninghams, said:
"I am delighted to start this new relationship with Solihull Council. They were clear from the beginning of the tender process what they wanted from their new system, and I am happy to say that we deliver the needs of the council both as a product and as a company."
"We are working closely with the council to ensure a smooth implementation process that will inevitably assist the schools in delivering a more efficient lunch service for their pupils. I look forward to working closely with the council now during this initial implementation phase and throughout our continued partnership."
Amanda Kacoulli, Business Operations Manager at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council:
"Being able to access data from within Fusion was a major selling point, and the reporting function was very attractive. The information you can gain from the system is excellent."
"We have found the CRB Cunninghams team to be very knowledgeable, supportive and accessible. The project management and implementation team have been amazing, attentive, and quick to respond. There has been great communication all around."
Yesrib Azam, Commercial Manager of Catering at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, said:
"The pace of change we required was so fast that we needed an established till provider within the education sector. CRB Cunninghams are a partner that can help us modernise our system to understand allergens, meal up-take and help us generate real commercial insight from the system."
About CRB Cunninghams
With over 50 years of experience, CRB Cunninghams currently support over 3000 schools across the UK. Specialising in cashless, online payment and identity management systems, CRB Cunninghams are the premier supplier of software, hardware and services to education establishments. Our mission is to help schools throughout the UK become cashless and benefit from; reduced debt, food waste reduction, free school meal anonymity, to name just a few.
CRB Cunninghams offer the complete package to education establishments. We develop and support all of our products and services in-house, offering first-class training, support and guidance - all under one roof. This recent tender win has cemented our position in the marketplace as the preferred education solutions provider to caterers, councils, MATs, LAs and Schools across the UK.
To find out more about the tender process, our solutions, or to chat - give us a call on 0333 014 3065 or info@crbcunninghams.co.uk.
