Cashless Catering and Online Payment Solution

The aim of this tender is to procure a Cashless Catering and Online Payment Solution in accordance with the Statement of Requirements, for use by School Catering and Education and Children’s Services (ECS). Aberdeenshire Council currently has two separate contracts in place for a cashless catering and online payment solution that are nearing expiry.

The Catering Service must ensure it has an appropriate solution in place that will continue to provide a front of house service and also to generate the accurate critical data that is required to run reports for data analysis that will help the Service to continue to operate efficiently. There is also a desire to push more payments online to stop the need for cash handling that is presently undertaken by staff and reduce the associated risks with those processes.

The aim of this tender is to procure a Cashless Catering and Online Payment Solution in accordance with the Statement of Requirements, for use by School Catering and Education and Children’s Services (ECS). Aberdeenshire Council currently has two separate contracts in place for a cashless catering and online payment solution that are nearing expiry.

Together these systems should enable:

Parents to pay for their child’s school meals online.

Provides visibility for parents on meal orders.

Enables pupils to top up their balance in schools.

Allows staff, pupils, and visitors to pay for catering in schools.

Allows primary school pupils to order in the classroom with the teacher.

Facilitate the online payment for school supplies/trips etc.

Facilitate multi-basket payments.

Continues to facilitate cash transactions where necessary.. If any mandatory (Must-Have) requirements cannot be met, the supplier should not proceed with the tender. Should a supplier continue with their bid without meeting all mandatory requirements, the Council reserves the right to disqualify on the basis of non-compliance.

1. The Council currently has two separate contracts for online school payments and cashless catering systems provided by CRB Cunninghams.

The current contracts for these services will expire on 30th March 2024, however there may be a requirement for a short term extension to allow for sufficient time to fully implement any new solution.

2. Hosted and On-premise Solution

The Council's preference is for a fully hosted solution as detailed in the Statement of Requirements, however should pricing be offered for an On Premises system and Solution, which may result in additional configuration costs for the Council, examples include: additional software; hardware, additional server space costs. The Council reserves the right to add any additional costs which it identifies will be required to configure and operate the particular Solution and System. The Council will clarify the proposed additional costs with the Tenderer providing the system or solution and this cost will be added to the Pricing Schedule value and used for the purpose of evaluation of Tender Submissions.