Suffolk County Council Catering Staff Dial 
in Data Using New Technology

            

The catering division of Suffolk County Council is forging ahead with a paperless system for retrieving the weekly returns information on school meals served at the 350 schools across the county.

Using either an internet or telephone keypad entry system, Suffolk County Catering (SCC) is managing to significantly reduce the time it takes to enter the information onto the central system before reports can be issued to the catering managers.

Traditionally the 240 primary schools and 100+ secondary schools would enter four weeks of data on a spreadsheet each month before sending it in the post for the administrative team to key into the system – a task that involved making a staggering 8000 entries every month. Under this system, capturing the weekly summary data, which includes numbers of meals served, food used and staff hours, took, on average, around five working days to process for the secondary schools and 10 working days for the primary schools.

SCC therefore decided to overhaul this transfer of information and installed the web-based management information software, Saffron Spice, provided by catering IT specialist Fretwell-Downing Hospitality (FDH). For the sites where the school administers the information and has access to a PC, Saffron Spice is now accessed by means of logging onto the internet and entering Suffolk County Council’s school meals management reports through a password controlled website. Users then key in the data directly which is then immediately available to view by the central team.

Importantly, and with new technology now available, SCC has also been able to cater for those sites that bank the catering income on behalf of the school and yet do not have access to a PC, which has therefore hampered access to Saffron online. These 40 school kitchens now use their telephone keypads to record the data by dialling into an automated software package, Datacall that integrates with Saffron Spice centrally.

Using the dial-in system, the heads of kitchen provide their account details and then work through a number of pre-set questions, answering by punching in the relevant numbers on the phone keypad. The system then automatically transfers the figures onto Saffron Spice, again giving more immediate updates for the central team. Any errors, for instance when users punch in a wrong number, are minimised because the system will repeat back each figure that has been entered to confirm it is correct before moving onto the next question. Having carried out an initial pilot, both systems were rolled out over three phases to all schools within Suffolk. FDH worked closely with SCC, both from the outset to clearly understand the catering team’s objectives and how the technology could be used to achieve those goals; and throughout the phased implementation providing training support.

Since embracing the dual technology, the volume of paper returns being sent to SCC’s headquarters has been greatly reduced, and the data can now be processed within five working days. Immediacy of reporting is also improved with managers now able to pull off reports on a weekly basis if required.

As Graham Freer, County Catering Manager remarks: “We are now able to check on the performance of the business with much greater frequency and investigate areas which have been flagged up by the system, for instance if there has been an overspend or underspend at a particular site.” Christine Mallett, Project Officer adds: “It has been very successful especially when you consider the initial reaction from the school offices to inputting their information over the internet. The majority seem to have been pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy the system is to use. 

“Similarly the telephone entry system has also been very well received for its simplicity and speed.”

FDH comments: “This is a prime example of how technology can overcome some of the challenges that multi-site catering operations can face, and also illustrates how different software packages can ‘talk to each other’ to provide a seamless transfer of information.”