Government

FDH recently had an article published in the Cost Sector Catering Magazine discussing the benefits of implementing catering management solutions within the Local Authority education departments. Below is an extract for this article; a full copy is available in a PDF format below.

Schools save £’000s by Upgrading to Saffron

School meal providers using the new Saffron system from Fretwell-Downing Hospitality are reporting £’000s-worth of saving - and this is only the beginning.

Charles Mobbs, Director of Fretwell-Downing Hospitality explains: “Each installation is different and the beauty of Saffron is that it can be tailored to meet individual needs. From the IT team’s perspective, it can control all the business processes and interface with other systems, including finance, HR and e-commerce. At the user level, it can be setup to produce reports at the touch of a button .”

The Saffron system is ideal for multi-site operations, where central office gathers information from the units and turns it into essential management reports. Streamlined central processes speed up data input - and therefore report output - and free up staff for other tasks, away from the computer.

“Saffron can grow with the client’s investment in IT. If it is still a paper-based system at unit level, forms can be filled in manually and the numbers processed at head office. As local authorities install PCs in their units, we can introduce a web-based version of Saffron, so restaurant managers input their data direct. ”

Several local authorities have already discovered the advantages of the specially developed school meals version, including quality of data, performance, flexibility, time and cost-saving, and they are delighted with the results.

Original Article (PDF format)

Cheshire’s DSO Division (CBS) was looking for a new management tool to replace their current in-house designed and supported solution. CBS needed to replace the current system with a solution that could carryout all the functions of the CBS business, and allow the division to grow into new areas, such as e-commerce and web based initiatives.

Saffron is used to control over 300 primary and secondary schools within the Cheshire region. Each school completes weekly school returns and this data is then entered into Saffron, based at the central office in Chester. This information is then made available to regional and district managers, reporting upon all aspects of their trading position.

Mike Chance, General Manager CBS Catering explains why Cheshire selected Saffron and FDH, “Having had a computer system for many years, the time had come to look for a replacement. We selected the Saffron solution, as we believe that its flexibility and functionality is the best match to our requirements. With over 300 schools and 1,200 staff, managing information, charges and income represents a major task and one that must be performed efficiently and effectively.

We are looking forward to the implementation of the system and using Saffron to provide better, quicker reports, improved management information and a speedier recipe costing process .”

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