Bishop Burton College – Sports Centre Operations
Managing sports centre operations can be very tricky with the diverse set of requirements. We were able to support Bishop Burton College through their EPoS transition. Our software now manages all their EPoS, cashless catering and sports centre operations.
The background
Bishop Burton is one of the UK’s finest specialist vocational, further education colleges. It provides provision from Agriculture and Equine to Sport and Design. They were the very first to achieve the prestigious Training Quality Standard with Excellence in Environmental and Land Based Subjects.
The campus at Bishop Burton is outstanding. They have a fully working farm, floodlit sports facilities, equestrian centre and much more. All in over 890 acres. They also have four catering and retail outlets on campus; a bar, a shop, cafe and a sports & fitness centre.
The problem
With such a large site, the college wanted to be able to link everything together. They also wanted a standardised system across the campus. They needed to be able to offer memberships to the sports and fitness area, giving access to members only. And, they wanted to go cashless in their retail and hospitality outlets.
A lot of the EPoS solutions out there could do some of those from a single system. The unique offering from us at Fidelity, is that our solution can do it all from a single system. This makes us a natural fit for educational establishments and sports centre operations with retail and hospitality elements.
The solution
The college network infrastructure was already strong. We were able to install eleven PC based touch screen till terminals throughout the campus. All running from the colleges own wide area network.
Our GPoS touch screen software on all till units had our Instant Cashless software installed. This is how we manage a cashless catering operation. Linking to the back office reporting dashboard, cashless catering is really flexible.
Real-time reporting can track what people are spending where and when. Plus, student credit, spending limits and even what can be purchased where and when can all be limited or monitored very easily.
Lost or stolen cards can also be turned on or off with ease and credit transferred immediately.
Cashless catering and touch screen tills also speed up the throughput at busy meal times.
Managing promotions ahead of time
Our GPoS back office software allows complex promotions to be pre-set and scheduled. At the beginning of a new term or week, any up coming promotions can be programmed in so they are ready to run. This could be for discounts, happy hour, buy one get one free, etc. Set them up and they will be activated at the predefined time.
Leisure access
Our ‘Leisure Touch’ system was installed in the sports and fitness centre. This uses 17″ touch screen monitors linked to our back office software to let members into the fitness suite. The system tracks all student activity with their membership card. The system also stores a photo of the member that pops up on screen when swiped. This limits peoples ability to use someone else’s members card.
In summary
All our software has been created and written in-house by our team of developers. This gives us the capability to provide our customers exactly what they require. We have found that ‘off the shelf’ EPoS software will give around 70% of the functionality a customer requires ‐ with our Fidelity solution this rises to 100% where we work together in partnership.
We’re currently working with around 120 universities and colleges in the UK, supplying their EPoS, cashless catering and sports centre solutions.
