With over 750 pupils, and 130 staff, the catering department is challenged with providing around 2,250 meals and snacks every week. The school chose VMC after experiencing a range of problems with their old system.

The VMC system went live in October 2006, and was installed without any real disruption - bringing a host of benefits, according to Derek Todd, bursar of St Albans. Derek explains: “There were so many problems associated with our old system; for instance if the system crashed information could be lost. The readers were very slow and if the cards were dirty or greasy it took a very long time to read.

“As the tills were not wireless it could prove difficult to move them and more often than not we had to call out an engineer. So we approached VMC to come up with a more efficient solution.”

The school now has a wireless cashless system together with management functions for the catering and bursar’s office, which enables remote management of the system, managing card history transactions and individual card printing. A full backup facility also provides for system recovery.

Derek continued: “The cashloader machines have saved so much time for till operators. The previous system meant that the students either had to go to the Bursary to load cash on their cards or do this at the point of purchase. This meant longer queues during very busy serving periods.

“The new technology is simple to use, the tills are easy for training staff and there is more information for the till user and customer. The software is upgraded when new versions are introduced and the queuing system is more efficient due to quicker tills. Our catering manager now has more information for pricing, trends and ease of use.

“VMC have done an excellent job and I would have no hesitation recommending them. We were very impressed with their commitment to the project in terms of their time spent on site, knowledge and support. The after-sales service was very good and the training given prior to the launch was excellent for the office software and till training. What we have now is an all-round superior system which works incredibly well for us.”

Kim Pennington, UK sales manager at VMC comments: “We felt it very important to provide the school with a user friendly, management system, combined with reliable touch screen tills. Our project with St. Albans further augments our knowledge within the education section and we were thrilled to be given the chance to work with such prestigious academic institution.”

For further information telephone VMC on 01926 816400 or visit www.vmcltd.co.uk.

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