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Research centre energises its retail and hospitality POS

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has upgraded its catering and retail point-of-sale operations to a contemporary EPoS solution from Agilysys

 LONDON – June 2012 – The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has revealed details of a recent technology upgrade.  The organisation has now dispensed with its cash registers and moved to a contemporary EPoS solution across both catering and retail operations at its Culham Science Centre, Oxfordshire location. 

The Authority has installed InfoGenesis™ POS from specialist hospitality technology company, Agilysys (Europe) Limited.  “The flexibility of our new solution and the support we’re getting are brilliant,” enthuses Liz Curtis, Facilities Management Group Leader at Culham. 

The new solution has been deployed in the main dining facility, which caters for up to 500 onsite staff and many visiting international scientists.  In addition, both the Authority’s mini convenience store and its Costa Coffee bar have been equipped with new systems.

InfoGenesis™ POS combines powerful accounting, reporting and configuration capabilities in the back-office with an easy-to-use point-of-sale application.  The new solution is deployed on innovative PC-based touchscreen terminals.

Liz Curtis explains: “In the past, we had a basic system with legacy cash registers.  It was inefficient and unreliable and programming the tills was difficult. It became clear we needed a better way of carrying out till operations in our catering and retail areas.”

The impetus for the upgrade came from the Authority auditors.  Continues Curtis: “Our auditors investigated our internal cash-handling audit and found our tills inadequate in two significant respects: they generated no reporting and didn’t provide the level of operator security and accountability that was required for a Government body such as the Authority.”

The Authority auditors placed an action on the team to replace the till system with something more modern, “that would tick all boxes”.  A market evaluation took place and three companies were invited to tender.  Timescales were tight, with the new solution needing to be selected and rolled out within four months.

The catering operations at Culham are managed by Elior UK plc, a leading food services provider with an established base in the Government, Defence and other sectors. 

“Agilysys was recommended by Elior, which gave us confidence and provided a simple way of managing things that really appealed.    Agilysys also offered the best level of support of the companies we looked at, and could provide project managers for the installation,” observes Liz Curtis.

The new solution went live in March 2012, and Culham staff have reacted well to it.  “Some of the catering staff were a little nervous at first but they were all trained in no time at all and now find the system very easy to use.  Both till operators and management appreciate how rapid and easy it is to serve and to cash up.  Cashing up is not laborious as the tills do it all.” 

The hardware itself also comes in for praise: “The new tills are black and look very smart.  They have brought a more professional look to the whole business.”

The management information that the new solution produces is proving extremely useful.  “In the past, we had to rely on each operator’s impressions of what was selling well or badly.  Now, we are getting factual information from each till, which gives a clear picture of our trading.”

Adds Adrian Burns, Vice President and General Manager - EMEA at Agilysys: “Our success in securing this contract and delivering the right solution underlines the value of our three-party relationship: provider, end-client and contract caterer.  Having worked through a detailed phase of consultation and needs assessment, we’re confident we’ve delivered a solution tailored precisely to the Authority’s needs, that we can now support going forward.”

The final word goes to Liz Curtis: “Our auditors will be coming back soon to re-assess our till systems and they will be happy that we now have in place just what was specified; a system that is modern, secure and provides accurate management information.”