MenuMark News

January 2007

Welcome Welcome to the Datasym January 2007 edition of our newsletter. Our aim is to let our friends and colleagues know what we are up to (well, some of it, at least!!). We hope that you will find something of interest here. If you do, please get in touch and we can supply more information. If not, then constructive suggestions for the next edition are always welcome.	Menumark SQL Now Available
	Menumark has been our company’s core application since its first creation in 1979 and through this period has already seen many generations, re-inventing itself to apply to the requirements of the current time. Menumark SQL is the latest generation of Datasym’s catering control software which moves the application to the next level. Built upon the industry standard Microsoft SQL Server database, robustness and flexibility previously reserved for large multi national organisations now comes to Datasym’s products. The new platform will allow excellent performance over networks for multi user situations. Third party application integration such as accounts and organisation wide purchase ordering solutions (such as the PECOS system used throughout Scotland) is also made easy by the new SQL platform. The first released version of Menumark SQL offers full product maintenance, real time communications with Datasym’s EPOS application Datasym.POS (running on marketleading Toshiba touch screen hardware),	full stock control functionality (including wireless handheld tablets), menu analysis functionality via keyboard, summary entry, menu scanning, and our new MenuMate onward ordering solution. Further functionality such as seamless integration with Dietplan nutritional analysis, production planning and cook chill routines will become available during 2007. Datasym will be pleased to upgrade existing Menumark systems for support contract holders throughout 2007.

Datasym Website and Forums
News of Datasym products, installations and developments is kept up to date on the company website at www.datasym.co.uk. As well as ever changing content, visiting our website will now display an additional ’Forums’ button at the top of the screen.	Datasym introduced forums towards the end of last year and they enable its customers to interact with each other and share Datasym related ideas as well as making suggestions for future developments. It is also possible to sign up for automatic notifications as new posts from other users are made. Why not have a go and share ideas with others?

Under Development: Nutmeg Link

Datasym are currently working with Nutmeg, the UK’s leading supplier of nutrition analysis and menu planning software to school caterers and care homes, to create a link between Menumark SQL and the Nutmeg application. An ideal addition to the existing Dietplan link, Nutmeg gives an instant analysis of chosen menus within Menumark and highlights imbalances in nutrients against any set standards. For example, if the balance of dishes on a particular day exceeded the recommended level of sodium, Nutmeg offers alternative but similar dishes from the hospital’s database (eg chicken if the original was a chicken dish) which contain a lower level of sodium and give a simultaneous cost comparison.

It is also planned to link actual patient meal choices now available for capture via Datasym's MenuMate onward ordering solution so that longer term patient’s nutritional consumption can be compared against adopted standards using Nutmeg’s software. Please contact Datasym for further information.

“For the first time individual patient orders can be recorded and the potential is enormous”	On-Ward Ordering via MenuMate
	Datasym are continuing to pioneer bedside meal collation in the form of MenuMate, the add on module for Menumark available on both Windows Mobile and Standard Windows Operating Systems. Since its launch, MenuMate has been trialled at Royal Bournemouth and Solihull hospitals with orders and subsequent installations at Royal Bournemouth and the two Royal Marsden Hospitals. Solihull is expected to order the live system in the first quarter of 2007. Controlled trials at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, performed by Terry Reeves (Catering Manager) in conjunction with a dietician proved that MenuMate was able to dramatically reduce wastage. This was primarily due to the vastly decreased lead time, quoted as 3 hours from meal order to food service achieved at every MenuMate session. Royal Bournemouth, in conjunction with their IT department have further streamlined the process by providing an export of patients and their locations 15 minutes ahead of the meal order process. Further to the original routines, summary entry, bulk wastage and plate wastage routines are now available. Summary entry has been used to enter counts on weekends when dedicated ward staff have been limited.	Bulk wastage records unserved food with plate wastage recording individual patient’s uneaten food on a per dish basis. The linking of patient-specific meal orders and plate wastage for the first time provides the ability to track a patient’s actual dietary intake over time. The MenuMate SQL back office being web based, provides easy viewing of all current and historic MenuMate information from your standard PC web browser. This makes it ideal for dieticians to use to review the meal choices chosen and later consumed by patients in their care.

Datasym Partners Expolink for Mobile Solutions
	Datasym is pleased to announce its recent partnership with Expolink, allowing the sale of Expolink’s Onsite Data and Maximiser handheld survey and quality control applications. Datasym has also joined forces with Expolink to create a tailored version of Onsite Data specifically to collect the NHS Patient Satisfaction Survey results.	Datasym’s ability to provide these mobile solutions from Expolink allow the potential to utilise handheld terminals purchased for MenuMate to the full as> they can run side by side with Datasym’s on-ward ordering product. Please contact us for further product and pricing information.

Datasym Performs with EPOS in the NHS
	Datasym has continued to successfully install its EPOS software Datasym.POS into NHS Hospitals around the country. Datasym has been software partners to Toshiba for the over 10 years providing EPOS solutions outside of the NHS to clients which include BMW, Makro, Costa Coffee and even The Home Office in London. It has come as no surprise that the exact same front end that has performed so well in non NHS hospitality markets for Datasym	is now being marketed to the NHS linked to Menumark. Existing users include Hinchingbrooke, Royal Bournemouth and Freeman Hospitals. Providing real time sales, hourly reporting, fingerprint security and cashless functionality as just some of the many features, please ensure you contact Datasym before looking anywhere else for EPOS for your dining areas or gift shops.

Datasym Welcomes David Wilmshurst
	David Wilmshurst has joined us in January from Cobweb Solutions where he worked on the helpdesk providing support for email hosting and web based solutions. David is a welcome addition to our helpdesk staff. He replaces Robin Nelson-Tomsen who unfortunately had to leave his position in late 2006 due to ill health.

Datasym Welcomes Chamal Rangajeewa

Chamal Rangajeewa has worked with Datasym for the last two years having come to us as part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership Scheme in conjunction with Bournemouth University. Chamal has been responsible for developing the MenuMate front and back end, the product which will see Datasym continue to flourish as current UK market leaders in NHS catering solutions. With the Knowledge Transfer Partnership ending this month, we are delighted that Chamal has joined Datasym.

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