Univerisity of Birmingham

In an economic climate where scrutinising every aspect of a business is a ‘must’ to ensure it is streamlined and efficient, the University of Birmingham was looking at improving its back office processes to increase both the visibility of the operation and its administrative efficiency.

 

With 27,500 students and 6,000 staff on-campus, the University boasts 35 different catering outlets - from coffee shops and grab n’ go eateries through to full blown restaurants and bars, some having direct deliveries while others are supplied by transfers from the central catering store.

 

In such a complex catering environment, drilling down into the management figures to extract the right information for gauging performance by individual outlet or item purchased, was a tall order under the existing back office system.

 

Having gone through a tender process, the catering department chose to work with Fretwell-Downing Hospitality (FDH) and install the IT specialist’s Saffron Spice management information system.

 

Lynne Fowkes, the University’s catering systems manager explains: “We opted for FDH because they are an established company with a good reputation, and had a system that was designed to operate in complex catering environments. We also wanted to fully implement the nutritional analysis functionality and in this respect having a system that already had this capability was an attraction.”

 

Having first upgraded the EPoS system serving the 45 tills across the campus, the University began the phased installation of Saffron Spice, working closely with FDH throughout to ensure upheaval was kept to a minimum during the process, and to ensure the system was tailored specifically to the university’s catering requirements.

 

Six months on and benefits are already being derived from operating Saffron, and with more on the horizon.

 

Firstly, while the actual system of processing data hasn’t altered dramatically, the speed of input has significantly been improved.  Once an invoice has been entered into Saffron and authorised, Saffron will automatically export the information to the University’s finance system, CODA, for payment. Under the previous stock management system, the invoice would have to have been re-keyed in for invoice matching purposes, thereby doubling the input time.

 

Similarly, for the first time, transfers can be processed using the transfer templates, and the level of reporting has moved up several notches by replacing much of the time-consuming, onerous tasks involved with creating excel spreadsheets of information. In particular Saffron has now introduced line-by-line reporting so the University can extract information on each product and see in more detail how each outlet is performing.

 

The fact that Saffron Spice is web-based is also an advantage as managers and those who need access to input the data can do so from any PC or laptop as long as there is a broadband connection. Managers can now access their own reports far easier and yet the level of security is maintained courtesy of the password-controlled permissions that have been established before users can gain entry on the website. 

 

The story continues to evolve as the catering department is currently piloting Saffron’s support in stock down dating by integrating the technology with Uniware’s UMIS system. So far, this aspect is proving successful and is enabling the intelligent analysis of data on sales from EPoS and stock reports to flag up any discrepancies – for instance, if any stock is missing or correct portioning not achieved.

 

When it comes to ordering, the system is also being tailored to introduce restrictions so that users can only order from specific suppliers. Saffron will prevent users from placing an order with a supplier that is not on the list, thereby ensuring best practice by maintaining the preference for those suppliers where specially-negotiated contracted prices have been fixed from the outset.

 

Just as restaurants are being encouraged to offer nutritionally-balanced options and divulge nutrient content such as calorie counts to diners, the University of Birmingham also has this on the agenda.

 

As Lynne Fowkes explains: “In the future our students will be coming to us from schools that have been serving meals according to the nutrient standards. We can’t ignore the fact that there will be greater awareness about eating healthier and this will enable customers to make more informed decisions.

 

“This is why we are keen to work further with FDH to introduce Saffron’s ‘traffic light’ nutritional analysis functionality which shows the results by denoting the levels of particular nutrients according to red, amber and green symbols, a widely-used and easily understood system.

 

“Overall, Saffron Spice is giving us the satisfaction of being able to track and audit the complete operation effectively, which is extremely important when every penny counts. By increasing the level of reporting we can see where there are any loopholes and take action much more quickly.”

 

Scott Brown, FDH’s business development executive adds: “The University of Birmingham’s requirements from a management information system ideally suited the installation of Saffron Spice, including its integration with the EPoS and financial software.

 

“As the use of Saffron evolves further, it will demonstrate just how an intelligent system can support a fast-paced complex catering environment – a situation where even in the best-run operations it can be easy for discrepancies to slip through unnoticed, and just the sheer quantity of data can bog down staff in time-consuming tasks.”

 

www.bham.ac.uk