About Colchester Institute
Colchester Institute is a leading college specialising in a wealth of higher education courses. With continuous improvement at the forefront of their minds, the college gained numerous awards for their quality of learning and have been commended for their learning areas and IT standards. The college educates over 14,000 students across its campuses separated into five curriculum facilities.
The Uniware Solution at Colchester Institute
Uniware Systems took part in a tender exercise in 2014 to provide the college with EPoS and cashless payments across their Colchester, Braintree and Clacton campuses. The solution was required for both staff and students at this establishment from the beginning of the academic year in September 2014.
Not only did the solution need to be sleek and sophisticated to fit in with the new buildings' modern design, but it also had to be functional for student use and accept both cash & cashless forms of payment.
Uniware Provision Overview
Required were 11 new PoS terminals equipped with barcode scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers and MiFare card readers. Further required was a cashless payment system in which Uniware supplied Upay payments and loyalty.
In July 2017, Aramark took over the catering contract at Colchester Institute and worked alongside Uniware to maximise Upay usage and to install Chip & Pin terminals accepting debit/credit cards, Contactless & Apple Pay.
Payments with Upay
After Aramark’s take over, the Colchester campus opted to have a Upay awareness day run by 2 of Uniware’s staff. The awareness day took place on the 5th October 2017 with leaflets and enticing goodies being given out to students & staff.
It was a successful day with news spread about the exciting new promotions that had been set up including Buy 9 Coffees, Get 1 Free and various lunchtime meal deals!
As well as promotions, Colchester Institute also offer loyalty points to earn and spend in the outlets! The customers earn points per £1 spent and then can let them build up over time and redeem them against any products they would like.
They also offer what we call “Free Spend Tokens” which gives a daily £3 allowance to students and staff that are eligible.
Uniware EPoS Management & Provision
The appeal of the Uniware solution is based on our centrally managed system. With Colchester installing the Uniware solution at 3 sites across Essex, they needed to make sure that the EPoS provision could be locally and centrally managed.
Uniware's role-restricted, cloud-based system (the Uniware Cloud) allows for single-site or multi-site management. This gives the college the ability to set loyalty, promotions, prices lists and edit cashless customer data at any place and at any time.
EPoS Provision
Colchester Institute favoured the Cielo 15” Performance PoS terminal. This point of sale terminal comprises of a sleek, ultra-slim display with aluminium chassis and Intel i3 processor.
Made for retail & hospitality environments, the Cielo Performance boasts enhanced splash proof capabilities and advanced power efficiencies.
In August 2017, the Colchester campus also added 7 black Verifone VX820 Chip & Pin terminals to further enhance the solution.
Detailed Reporting
With over 200 standardised reports, the Uniware Cloud back office & reporting suite covers the college’s needs for detailed reporting and visibility on ROI.
