About Us

• David Sammons
  LAN Technician

• James Falco
  Customer Success Coordinator

• Tammy  Haley
  Customer Trainer/Advocate

• Kim Zahno
  Customer Success Coordinator

• Melanie Burke
  Customer Success Manager - Team Facilitator

• Steven Tryon
  Team/Project Manager

Our primary service objectives are to reduce hardware and software burdens associated with a school district’s food service management application and point of sale operations. We accomplish this by providing integrated hardware and software solutions specifically tailored to the K-12 food service environment. We then complement that with phone, email, and direct-to-the-desktop support for hardware and software, ongoing training, sharing of relevant information that has been curated and interpreted just for our customers, multiple annual user group events, and comprehensive end-of-year and start-of-year processes.

Technical Support

The most often used service we provide school districts is technical support. We are available from 8 AM (most often earlier) through 4 PM to answer your phone calls. We make every attempt to handle your issue in those moments, but also have direct access to the product manufacturers if your matter requires their intervention.

We are also able to remotely connect to your food service hardware so that immediate and direct support can be provided to you. These tools allow us to see what you see so that we can guide you on your next steps. We treat all of these situations as learning opportunities for your team to help bring about an ever-growing understanding of your hardware and software environments.

Our team is also always monitoring email for messages from our customers. If the issue is not urgent, often email support is sufficient and we make every attempt to respond before your team leaves for the day. Using the email address FoodService@CNYRIC.org delivers your message to our full team to assure relevant and more rapid responses.

Hardware Support

A cafeteria is a pretty rigorous environment for high tech equipment! Our solutions have been tested in these situations and deliver a high degree of durability and consistent performance. If something should break, we have equipment available to keep you running while the broken equipment is repaired. Replacement hardware is most often available within 24 hours. However, we always make every effort to provide equipment within a shorter time period.

Training

Training is crucial to your success. Initial and ongoing training opportunities help to streamline cafeteria operation and food service management activities. Every new customer receives training to address any new hardware and software and training is tailored to match the role each employee plays in your food service program. Our team is also available across the academic calendar to provide task or role-specific training. Whether helping new employees or getting you through a new feature of the system, we will teach the required skills. We guide your team through these experiences and training materials are also available on-line for self-guided training experiences.

Software Maintenance

We work with product manufacturers to review and then update their products whenever a new release is made available. This preliminary testing assures new changes work as expected. Any notable changes to the software are documented and turned into quick, user-friendly training materials for the people within the district who are impacted by these updates.

Needs Analysis & Change Guidance

Prior to adopting a food service system, switching to a different system, or upgrading aspects of your existing system, our team examines your existing operation and talks with your team to understand your service needs. We will help you to determine opportunities for improvement and change that are fiscally responsible, and aligned with your objectives, and that integrate well into your technology environment.

Data Exchanges

Each night, we facilitate the exchange of information from your student management system into your food service system. This assures that your food service solution is always working with the most current student and caregiver details. We take special care to ensure that pre-enrolled students are represented in your food service system so that their first experience at one of your points of sale is a good experience. Also daily, our software solutions communicate funding and purchasing details to corresponding on-line portals used by your student’s caregivers (MySchoolBucks.com and MySchoolApps.com). 

Our team also facilitates the movement of information from your food service system to any caregiver calling/data systems to alert them to negative or low food service account balances. Weekly, we coordinate the migration of relevant information from your food service solution into the Student Information Repository System (SIRS).

A more detailed explanation of data exchanges is available here.

User Groups

At least two, and sometimes three times per year, we prepare and host regional user group meetings. These meetings are typically conducted using remote meeting tools, while any in-person events are scheduled at the CNYRIC and TST BOCES locations for the convenience of our customers.

The first meeting of the year, held in late September, focuses on guiding your staff through the student verification process, NYSED reporting, and the direct certification matching process. In June, we focus our event on preparations for the end of year and start of year roll-over activities. We also share any information we have about upcoming changes to the functionality of our software solutions and/or New York State requirements.

Prior to these meetings, we send simple and easy-to-complete questionnaires to your teams to seek information about their needs. These responses help facilitate annual system roll-over activities and help us to form relevant agendas for these events.

Important News & Information

Our team provides a customer-focused website (this site!) containing relevant news and information. Regularly appearing there are important announcements from assorted NYS departments, the CNYRIC, our team, and the product developers. User group materials are also readily available through this online resource.

Start Of Year

Late August and early September are especially hectic for food service personnel. The CNYRIC team conducts all of the tasks that are suggested by the vendor, plus we add in some of our own to help you ensure that food service lines are ready for the arrival of students. Our goal is to make that first day as smooth as possible. Some of the tasks we conduct are:

• Make backups of your data;

• Import all of your student information;

• Verify income guidelines;

• Update menu items, when requested, to match your needs;  

• Update meal prices as requested;

• Review and update menu board layouts for cashiers (if requested);

• Update reimbursement rates for the new school year;

• Thoroughly review system security settings to add, update, or remove personnel, ensuring least privileged access security levels and role assignments;

• Conduct data verification testing to assure systems are ready to go;

• Once student photographs are available, we will import them to begin appearing at each point of sale.

End Of Year

As each year concludes, we conduct all of the end-of-year tasks as recommended by the manufacturer, plus we add in a few of our own that have proven helpful to districts through the years. Our goal is to work with you to get your financial books properly closed so everything can be aligned for the year ahead. Some of the tasks included in this process include:

• Working directly with food service personnel to help them through their end of year process;

• Verify that student balances and statuses are carried over for next year;

• Create backups of databases (excepting cloud-based products);

• Conduct the end of year processes recommended by product developers;

• Create year end archives to be used for future reference (3-year retention, does not include cloud-based products);

• Specify eligibility cut off dates for free/reduced and temporary applications;

• Clear existing serving line and administrative notes within the database (if required);

• Prepare the system for use by any Summer feeding programs.

Technology Team & Manufacturer Support Liaison

The CNYRIC food service team gets to know your district technology staff and to include them in any discussions about the food service technologies. These district technologists play a key role in the success of your food service program. We make sure they know us and have a good working relationship with us so that we are all working together on the success of your solution. We act on your behalf with these individuals so that you can stay focused on food!

We work very closely with each product manufacturer, representing the interests and needs of our customers in those discussions. With a large installed base of customers, we are able to leverage those relationships into strong advocacy positions with these companies. There have been many situations where our regional needs have caused necessary changes in manufacturer development and support activities.

Other Benefits

The solutions offered by the CNYRIC food service team are fully compliant with all USDA requirements. We are regularly monitoring the activities of the USDA to make sure that any new or changed regulations are available to our customers through these solutions.

The systems we support provide considerable collections of accounting and management reports. We work with food service and business office personnel to make sure they are finding, using, and properly interpreting the reports they need.

Free and reduced meal options are included in all of our solutions. These assure secure and confidential application tracking and processing. They simplify the verification process and also assure confidentiality for these students as they pass through your cafeteria lines.

At the point of sale, cashiers are presented with user-friendly interfaces that are completely customizable to the specific requirements of each district. Cashiers are also automatically notified of any low balances and most importantly, any food allergies a student might have.