1st university with a self-service canteen

Tallinn University of Technology got their first self-service point-of-sale on Friday with an aim to reduce queues during lunch rush hours and help to reduce a burning problem – shortage of personnel in the service sector.

„With an innovative concept we would like to offer a much quicker service to our customers that should shorten the queues in rush hour for 1/4. The reason for present long queues is an easy one: there are already several thousands of employees in TalTech wanting to enjoy their lunch at about the same time,” said Mr Indrek Liiv from Dussmann, that is the company offering catering service for Estonians schools and kindergartens.

"We are not planning to switch totally to self-service as the role of service personnel is important and canteen visitors should also keep the option to pay in cash. At the moment one can only pay by card in the self-service point-of-sale,” Liiv added.

In addition to Tallinn University of Technology Dussmann is catering 24 schools and 14 kindergartens in Estonia. Accordin to Liiv, TalTech canteen is the first educational institution to start to use a self-service payment solution. This self-service point-of-sale has been developed by Ektaco, who has been the point-of-sale system partner for Dussmann already for ten years.

„Several clients have said that although a self-service point-of-sale does not definitely mean increase of one’s turnover it does reduce costs and make it possible to serve ones clients quicker and offer them a smoother way to pay for their purchase. This is the reason we have seen the increasing interest towards self-service point-of-sale solutions. I believe that in the near future it is a common way and not anything new and innovative,“ said the COO of Ektaco, Mrs Külle Tärnov.

Catering companies in Estonia that use self-service point-of-sale, CompuCash, from Ektaco are Plus cafes in the Mustika Centre and Tallinn Central Bus Station, Bliss Tray buffet-restaurant and Reval Café coffee corner in a Swedbank office building.

You are very welcome to ask for more information about CompuCash self-service point-of-sale from here.