Prior to 1996, Royal Holloway had a number of separate point of sale systems throughout the campus that did not interface with each other and were not robust enough to keep up with business demands.
Stephen Bland, Director of Facilities Management had a vision to integrate cashless cards with a comprehensive catering control system, that included recipe costing software and stock control. Mr Bland also saw possible future benefits in the dual use of cards for access control. The new solution therefore needed to be sophisticated and flexible to meet existing and future demands.
The new system needed to be an account based solution, with value held on the system, rather than on the card and to provide valuable data for reporting purposes.
After an extensive search in the market, Uniware were selected to provide a fully networked EPoS solution using a magstripe card as the student and staff identifier, through product development and innovation, the college is continuing to reap the benefits.
The restaurant and retail facilities on campus is continuing to keep pace with the growing number of students. A high percentage of pupils now carry a cashless card (resident students receive a discount on all purchases) that is also used for access control and the college’s conference and banqueting business.
In 2002 a fully automated vending solution was introduced. The area know as ‘Around the Clock Snack Shop’ provides students and visitors with 24 hour access to fourteen different hot and cold snack facilities. The result has been a dramatic increase in throughput and increased expenditure.
Benefits that Royal Holloway were able to take advantage of were:
Increased sales
Reduced queues
Detailed sales information
Integrated stock control
Flexible food pricing structure
Ability to offer promotions and meal deals
Residential student discounts
Royal Holloway also utilises the different tariff settings configurable in the IUMIS software to offer cashless users discounts on their purchases as well as collecting loyalty points.
Not only does this increase revenue from the university facilities, it also encourages loyalty and dissuades students from going off campus to make their purchases.
In 2009 Royal Holloway continued to invest in their cashless solution and added Upay Web Loading to their system which allows a card holder to have complete control of their cashless account over the internet. Like online banking, they can manage their account from anywhere, at any time with internet connection.
UTILISING UPAY
And in addition, Royal Holloway utilises Upay for their cashless printing services.
Benefits of Upay:
Live balance
Mini or detailed statements
Revalue cashless accounts online
Automatic card transaction top-up
Email notifications
Text service to top-up
Top-up directly from payroll
Tailored to individual needs
Compatible with all smartphones
Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
To further enhance the student experience, 6 EFT Wall Mounted Loaders and 1 EFT Floor standing Loader were installed in 2012 across the campus, thus giving the students further options for topping up.
Through on-going account management meetings Uniware have been able to sustain a good working relationship with Royal Holloway which has continued in the University’s investment program in to their catering and retail outlets with Uniware.
