Horizon Software's school POS
solution, FastLane™
Identifying children in school lunch lines can be a
time-consuming and arduous process. Many
schools issue PIN numbers to students to be given at the point-of-purchase.
Other schools distribute ID cards to students to be swiped or
scanned. These methods are
acceptable in theory; however, in actual circumstances, children often
forget their PIN number and will lose or damage their ID cards.
Classroom “bullies” can coerce children into giving up their PIN
number or handing over their ID cards.
Horizon Software, a leading
foodservice technology solutions provider, has addressed these very real
issues with the integration of M2SYS' Bio-Plugin™
biometric software into its FastLane™
lunch line POS solution. The
enhanced, biometrically-enabled software is aiding schools in improving
their lunch-line experience.
Children are easily enrolled in the system through the use of a
fingerprint reader. This reader
must only scan one or two of the child's fingers.
After the initial enrollment process, students can easily access
their accounts and purchase their lunches by simply placing their finger on
the fingerprint reader once.
The fingerprint identification system helps to speed traffic through
the lunch lines, which in turn increases food sales.
Because food service is one of the only sources of revenue for a
public school, an increase in student lunch sales directly affects a
school's revenue. This added
revenue provides the school with increased resources that can be used to
improve the education and classroom experience of its students.
Another asset that the integration of fingerprint technology into the
FastLane™ software provides is the elimination of the act of bullying to
steal a child's lunch money. Parents
can be assured that the money that they place in their children's accounts
can only be accessed by their child's unique fingerprint.
Also, because a fingerprint cannot be lost, children will never go
hungry due to the absence or the damage of an ID card, or because they have
forgotten their PIN number. Schools
can also enjoy reduced costs by eliminating the expenditure associated with
providing and replacing ID cards or issuing lunch tickets.
When a child places their finger on the fingerprint reader, the Bio-Plugin™
technology recognizes the unique fingerprint and the FastLane™ software
displays the child's unique information.
This can include special dietary restrictions, student's grade,
account balance, and information regarding the receipt of a free or a
discounted lunch given to low-income students.
This fingerprint system provides anonymity which reduces the stigma
unfortunately associated with receiving a discounted lunch.
M2SYS' Bio-Plugin technology is easily integrated
with minimal development required. The
software provides fingerprint recognition technology seamlessly and allows
for Horizon to focus on their core competency of foodservice management
technology. Horizon is able to
continually provide innovative and quality foodservice solutions without
dealing with the headaches associated with learning the biometric
complexities inherent to fingerprint SDKs.
The FastLane™ school POS system with M2SYS biometric
technology is supported in over 14,000 schools across the US, and
fingerprint recognition software will soon be available in many of
Horizon's other POS
solutions.
