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Sperry Oklahoma Independent School District
Bryan McGuire
Technology Director
1,334 students

Sperry Streamlines Food Service Operations
Bryan McGuire, Sperry Independent School District’s technology director, recommended that the district invest in Infinite Campus to replace their DOS-based student information system. Sperry was looking for an education management system that could provide needed information to their employees so they could more effectively perform their jobs for their 1,334 students in northeastern Oklahoma.

Integrated Solution
By purchasing Infinite Campus in 2003, McGuire states, “Infinite Campus brought us out of the DOS black hole and into the current century by providing our staff with the information they needed on their desktops instead of requesting it and waiting for a reply from the main office.”

Another benefit Infinite Campus provided for this one person technology operation was that McGuire did not have to manage the SIS servers or software. Infinite Campus hosts the system at its corporate headquarters.

“That one benefit was a big selling point for me as a technology director,” said McGuire. “I didn’t have to support any servers or infrastructure onsite and I could focus on my other duties which include networking, personnel support and investigating new technologies to help our district.”

Implementing Food Service
During the fall of 2005 Sperry implemented Campus Food Service. It replaced an older, separate DOS-based system that was not Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) compliant and was unable to provide lunchroom data back into Infinite Campus efficiently.

“This was one of the easiest choices we’ve had to make,” stated McGuire regarding their move to purchase Campus Food Service. “The system can utilize all the data already available in the Infinite Campus database which helped us get the lunchroom features up quickly and is helping to streamline our ongoing cafeteria operation.”

The transition was simplified since the system relies on student data already available within the Campus Census database. This eliminated duplicate data entry typical when setting up most food service systems.

Touch Screen Terminals
Sperry invested in IBM SurePOS™ 500 Series terminals to support a multilane lunchroom replacing their bar code technology. The point-of-sale (POS) terminals use touch screen technology with a self-evident visual data entry screen.

The meal line process is simple: the student or faculty member enters their personal identification number (PIN) into a touchpad and the POS terminal provides the cafeteria employee with photo ID verification along with appropriate meal demographic information about the diner. The system records the transaction and the data is sent immediately to the Infinite Campus database.

Campus Food Service gave Sperry unlimited menu layout options. They designed four layout options including breakfast, lunch, a la carte and a high school food court. The displays for these options are customized and maintained by Sperry’s food service director. Sperry can easily modify these options to meet future needs.

Real-time Information Availability
The instantaneous availability of information helps Sperry monitor double purchases, crosschecks purchases between POS terminals and helps spot unusual transactions. Another benefit of the integration is that Sperry parents and guardians can immediately monitor, through the Campus Parent Portal, their students’ meal purchase information and account balances. Parents have already called McGuire to express their appreciation for the online access to this information.

Simplified Reporting
Sperry plans to utilize the free and reduced application management (FRAM) module that is fully integrated in Campus Food Service. By using FRAM, Sperry can process an application, provide the family with immediate results and give the children with an appropriately priced meal the same day while assuring data confidentiality in the lunchroom.

The system comes with built-in transaction, balance and accounting reports. Infinite Campus supports ad hoc reporting so food service directors and others can take advantage of all the information available in the database to create customized reports and generate low-balance letters.

“The reports in Campus Food Service are easier to manage, provide us with more detail and let us easily review historical data at any time,” says McGuire. “Reporting is just one of the features our food service director appreciates about the system. In fact, we are both looking forward to the additional options Infinite Campus provides so we can continue to improve our lunchroom program.”

Campus Food Service
Campus Food Service was developed to help simplify cafeteria point-of-sale (POS) operations. Food Service helps dining professionals establish food service accounts, track food purchases, and manage free and reduced price lunch reporting. Food service information is managed through the easy-to-use Campus Web interface which is available to users with the appropriate security rights.