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Combining a slick user experience and a platform that provides a business with critical data was always going to be a winning formula in the Best Use of Technology Award, and a pre-ordering and payment platform for the education sector that does just this secured Sodexo’s win this year.

Its School Food United (SFU) platform offers much-needed meal ordering and payment functionality for families and pupils across 140 of Sodexo’s school contracts, with 80 of those schools onboarded in the last 12 months.

The uptake of the technology speaks volumes: 23,000 parents are registered to use the app, which has been downloaded over 14,000 times, and there are 30,000 pupils on the system. More than 2.8 million meals have been ordered through SFU since its launch in 2021, with 260,000 meals served on a monthly basis, delivering a 20% increase in meals per school.

The technology has been praised by busy families for reducing admin and removing the need for children to carry cash, while schools applauded improved kitchen efficiency and the reduction of food waste. While pre-payment is an important component of the app, the communication element ensures parents can learn more about each school’s catering services, while kitchens can use this information to make changes to menus.

Judges commended how this two-way dialogue contributes to improving the health and wellbeing of pupils, and a functionality to flag dietary requirements and allergens puts parents’ minds at ease. In addition, the pre-order functionality also helps to remove the stigma often associated with free school meal entitlement.

The competitive advantage of this technology allows Sodexo to gather insights and feedback from its users, enabling the foodservice giant to measure data, such as buying frequency and dish popularity, to improve its menu offering and catering services. Simple feedback forms can quickly capture likes and dislikes, allowing the platform to rank its most popular dishes and tailor themed menus for special events. Meanwhile, simple push notifications can be sent to parents to send reminders to top up cash payments on balances, and monthly newsletters inform schools and parents of what is coming up.

But it is the scalability of this technology which saw Sodexo take the top prize in what was a highly competitive category. SFU is already the biggest digital payment platform in the UK school market, and Sodexo has bold ambitions to deploy it into over 500 UK schools over the next two years. And with such a swift roll-out to date, it could make a real difference in the education sector when deployed in schools across the country.

What the judges said

“In this highly competitive category Sodexo has successfully launched an outstanding meal pre-order and payment platform. A truly well-deserved award winner.” Chris Durant

“The winner was able to demonstrate not only that they innovated but also that they had rolled out and started to meaningfully scale up. The benefits are not only to the business but also to child, consumer and parent. Kerry Ford

The shortlist

Compass Group UK & Ireland – AI self check-out system

Compass Group UK & Ireland – digital recruitment platform

Sodexo – pre-order and payment platform

Past winners

2022 Chartwells

2021 Derbyshire County Council Catering Service

2019 Aviva Stadium, Levy Ireland