Football club goes live with new hospitality solution across hospitality, food service and retail operations in its stadium and shops
Football club goes live with new hospitality solution across hospitality, food service and retail operations in its stadium and shops
Colchester United Football Club (FC) has gone live with an integrated hospitality solution from hospitality software solutions provider, Agilysys, incorporating its InfoGenesis point-of-sale (PoS) system and its mobile PoS product, mPOS.
Colchester United FC chairman, Robbie Cowling commented: “We wanted a proven hospitality software partner with fantastic knowledge of how stadia and arena work in small and large environments, to accommodate our plans today and our strategy for the years to come. Agilysys could offer this specialist knowledge and experience, together with its feature-rich solutions.”
Colchester United FC recently opened its new-build Weston Homes Community Stadium. This provided the opportunity and capacity to offer a much-improved hospitality service to fans and corporate guests. Lindley Catering was engaged to provide catering in three areas: the public concourses, where match-day food and beverages are served, food and beverage kiosks around the ground, and the new conference and banqueting suite which consists of restaurants, executive boxes and suites offering corporate hospitality for up to 600 guests.
Extensive systems deployment
Following a tender process, Agilysys secured the contract to provide specialist hospitality PoS solutions for all these areas. A total of 50 terminals have been installed across the club, of which 40 in the public areas and 10 in hospitality.
In addition to its hospitality solutions, Agilysys has installed PoS systems in the club’s onsite shop and its retail store in Colchester. This ensures that consolidated reporting is provided across all retail operations. Working with the client and its appointed catering provider, Agilysys devised a detailed project plan for a phased rollout, ensuring that it met Colchester United’s requirement for rapid deployment.
Agilysys has now provided a complete PoS solution, operating on Colchester’s network. This incorporates four PoS terminals, each with in-built chip and PIN, Agilysys software, implementation services that include full front-of-house and back-of-house training and go-live support and consultancy.
Ability to serve more fans faster
Colchester United FC is anticipating a number of measurable benefits from its new PoS solution. It predicts higher spend per head, as touchscreen tills deliver faster and more efficient sales transactions. The use of mPOS by Agilysys mobile devices will enable the club to improve service quality and enable more customers to be served. The club is also confident that the new system will enable it to achieve cost savings through better management of stock and by reductions in wastage and shrinkage.
Agilysys said its solution provides full front-office and back-office capability, with integrated business intelligence (BI) driving consolidated reporting across the whole enterprise. Colchester saw significant value in having access to accurate and up-to-date data. This enables it to analyse sales, event by event and report on revenue share with their catering opartner.
Adrian Chapman, IT manager at Colchester United FC, said: “We have a suite of 200 reports, which we can tailor to our needs and access via the internet at any time and from anywhere. These reports give us real-time control of critical areas such as stock control, operations, management, and finance. This means we can keep our finger on the pulse of the business and pre-empt any problems and bottlenecks.”
Complementing its own functionality, the Agilysys solution can also integrate with the club’s third-party systems such as customer relationship management (CRM), finance, stock control, ticketing and event management. “Agilysys offered us a solution that is future-proofed and fit-for-purpose,” added Chapman.
