idXtra Showcases Cutting-Edge Campus Solutions at Bett 2025

We are delighted to share the highlights from idXtra’s participation at Bett 2025, the largest education technology exhibition in Europe, held at ExCeL London from 22–24 January 2025. This year’s event provided an invaluable opportunity for us to engage with education professionals, discuss the latest trends, and unveil our newest innovations designed to enhance security, efficiency, and convenience for schools, colleges, and universities.

Showcasing the Future of Education Technology

At idXtra, we are dedicated to providing integrated solutions that streamline campus management while ensuring a seamless user experience for students, staff, and visitors. As a BESA-approved supplier and ISO 9001-accredited company, our reputation for reliability, quality, and technical excellence continues to grow.

Bett 2025 was the perfect platform for us to introduce two groundbreaking solutions that redefine campus operations:

1. EventPOS Mobile Cashless Catering System

Our Mobile Cashless Catering System is more than just a way to manage school meals; it’s a comprehensive solution that streamlines operations across your institution, enhanced by our latest EventPOS Tablets – The Blackview Active 8 Pro and Microsoft Surface Pro 9.

  • Speed Up Service & Reduce Queuing: With advanced technologies like face, fingerprint, and smart ID card recognition, our system drastically cuts down till waiting times. Students can swiftly make payments, giving them more time to enjoy their meals and return to their activities. The elimination of cash handling further accelerates the process, ensuring smoother, quicker transactions.
  • Mobility Across Campus: Our system’s lightweight and portable design, complemented by padded leather, hand and shoulder straps, allows it to be used anywhere on school grounds. Whether in the canteen, classroom, or playground, the system’s all-weather, waterproof, dustproof, and drop-proof construction ensures durability and reliability in any environment.
  • Cost-Efficient Flexibility: While primarily cashless, our system retains the flexibility to accept cash, debit, or credit card payments where necessary, catering to all your school’s needs without additional hardware costs. Its robust design and efficient operation make it a cost-effective solution that minimizes downtime and maximizes productivity.
  • Real-Time Updates & Parental Control: Parents can top up accounts online, with the convenience of accepting debit or credit card payments. Transactions update in real-time, allowing parents to manage meal payments, receive low-balance alerts, and monitor meal history, all from their devices. This enhances transparency and gives parents greater control over their child’s diet.
  • Discreet Free School Meals (FSM) Delivery: The system delivers FSM entitlements discreetly, allowing eligible students to receive their meals without stigma. This ensures all students are treated equally, promoting a more inclusive environment.
  • Allergy Alert for Food Safety: The system automatically provides allergy alerts during transactions, helping to ensure food safety and reduce risks for students with dietary restrictions.
  • Advanced Reporting & Seamless Integration: Gain instant access to comprehensive reports that help you track trends, manage resources, and make informed decisions. Our system integrates smoothly with most MIS databases, reducing administrative workload and enhancing operational efficiency.
  • Offline Data Synchronisation: Our system ensures seamless operation even in areas with limited or no Wi-Fi connectivity. Offline data synchronisation allows transactions to be recorded and processed once the connection is restored, ensuring no loss of data and continuous service.

2. Smart Kiosk – A Multifunctional Campus Hub

We were also proud to introduce our latest Smart Kiosk, a dynamic solution that goes beyond being just a digital signage or payment machine. This powerful, all-in-one kiosk enhances efficiency across school campuses by integrating visitor management, cashless catering, and serving as an interactive school information panel. It can display event announcements, timetables, staff directories, and emergency alerts in real time. Additionally, the Smart Kiosk functions as an IT helpdesk where students and staff can log technical issues, request IT support, or access troubleshooting guides. This multifunctional solution is designed to be an essential part of modern school campuses, improving communication, operational efficiency, and user convenience in a single integrated system.

Engaging with Education Professionals

Our stand at Bett 2025 was a hub of activity, with live demonstrations, hands-on experiences, and insightful discussions. We were thrilled to engage with school administrators, IT managers, and catering teams, sharing how our solutions can transform campus operations. The positive feedback we received reaffirmed our commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction.

Looking Ahead

As we continue to innovate, our focus remains on delivering fully integrated, cost-effective, and future-proof solutions tailored for educational institutions. We are excited about the journey ahead and look forward to collaborating with schools and colleges to create smarter, safer, and more efficient learning environments.

For more information about our solutions or to book a demo, contact us at info@idxtra.com or visit www.idxtra.com.

See you at The Security Event at NEC Birmingham on 8 – 10 April 2025!

idXtra Shines at the Schools & Academies Show 2024 with Innovative ID & Payment Solutions

We are thrilled to share the highlights from our recent participation in the Schools & Academies Show at the NEC, Birmingham on 20th November 2024. It was a momentous occasion for idXtra Ltd, marking our debut at this prestigious event.

As a trusted partner for educational institutions, we are committed to providing innovative ID and payment solutions that streamline operations and enhance safeguarding. Our status as a BESA-approved supplier speaks volumes about our unwavering dedication to quality and exceptional service.

At this year’s show, we were excited to showcase our latest offerings:

EventPOS: Our cutting-edge Cashless Catering System, is now available for portable tablets and laptops, ensuring faster service and reduced queueing times to keep your customers happy and engaged.

VisiTapp: Our Visitor Management Solution, featured on a variety of touchscreen kiosks and terminals to show its flexibility and capabilities. The system improves security whilst enhancing the visitor experience.

Exclusive Evolis 241 Card Printer Promotion: We introduced our exclusive offer for dual-sided printing for no additional cost. Make a healthy saving whilst improving the quality and performance of your ID card printers.

Participating in this exhibition allowed us to connect with many like-minded professionals in the education sector.  We were delighted to engage in fruitful conversations and networking opportunities. We look forward to continuing our conversations with many new contacts and serving the education community with innovation and collaboration. For more information about our solutions and promotions, please contact us at info@idXtra.com.

Queue busting at BETT!

Kicking off 2024 with our favourite event of the year, it was of course the BETT show at ExCeL London! It was great to see so many idXtra friends and customers there, and to make some new connections.

We were thrilled to present our new campaigns for this year which centre around our cashless catering and visitor management systems.

Two different systems, but one shared goal: queue busting!

Our ultra-efficient systems with user-friendly interfaces allow visitors and students to be processed at super speed. But as if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also just launched a ‘queue buster’ tablet!

A portable tablet with an in-built card reader and software, staff members can simply take it down the queue and process more payments, thus easing the thoroughfare. In busy breaktimes, this is a life saver!

Long queues in the canteen and lots of hangry students? Fear not, idXtra can save the day!

How many cheese puns is too many?

To support this new campaign, any visitor who came to our stand and admitted to being ‘cheesed off’ with their cashless system, was given a complimentary mini cheese and entered into our prize draw!

Thank you to all of our customers, old and new, who came to see us at the show – we look forward to the next one!

Very smart cards at Caterham School!

We were delighted to be chosen by Caterham School to upgrade and streamline their smart ID card system. 

The brief was to utilise any serviceable aspects of the existing system, updating where necessary and feasible, and to add state-of-the-art solutions to form a modern student, visitor and staff safeguarding solution. 

The project comprised of adding new ID card printing stations, with internal smart card encoding units, to print and program smart ID cards. 

The solution is streamlined and driven by live data from the iSams MIS database.  Upon card issuance, users’ credentials are sent in real-time to the cashless catering system, the visitor management system and the access control system (Paxton Net2).

This minimises the need for staff intervention and maximises security, keeping students safe all throughout the school and the associated Sports Centre. 

Thanks Caterham, we’re glad you “tapped in”!

Hands up if you love Cashless!

As the autumn leaves begin to fall and the new academic term begins, Kensington Aldridge Academy have decided to go cashless with their catering and upgrade to EventPOS!

Their new cashless catering system replaced a competitor’s system that had not been updated for 11 years – that was expensive and inefficient. 

We happily provided a state-of-the-art new system for less cost, which has made their break and lunch times much more efficient.

They can now enrol fingerprints / thumbprints for a whole year group in around just 30 minutes.

Thanks KAA, enjoy your smoother break times!

Portsmouth Grammar School go Cashless!

This month we installed our popular Cashless Catering system, EventPOS, in the independent secondary school which has a student population of 1,351.

Their system is programmed specifically to their requirements, to charge different rates for those who pay daily, versus those who choose to pay for a term in advance. 

This categorisation is not visible to students, nor are bursaries or any allergens/dietary requirements.

They opted to use smart ID cards with their system, but other options such as biometric fingerprint readers are also available.

Their system is linked to WisePay for parents and carers to top up and monitor their children’s accounts.  This keeps parents happy as it is so easy to use!

Thanks to The Portsmouth Grammar School, we can’t wait to hear how you get on with EventPOS!

To find out more about our cashless catering system, click here!

idXtra at BETT 2023!

Spring has finally sprung, and this month we were thrilled to exhibit at the BETT Show again, for the first time since the pandemic!

It was great to see so many idXtra customers at our stand, and to meet some new ones too! Thanks to everyone who came and said hello.

Sales Director, Tony Walsh (right) and
Regional Sales Manager, Tony Brock (left)

Our new eye-popping graphics made a feature on our stand, highlighting our five main systems and emphasizing how they can all work together harmoniously.

We’ve got some special show offers on, which apply to VisiTapp, EventPOS and card printer bundles. These are here for a limited time only, so act fast if you’re after a great deal!

A few lucky visitors received a special idXtra ‘Business Bear’ – how cute!

Our next appearance will be at The Security Event 2023, from the 25th – 27th April at the NEC in Birmingham. We hope to see many of you there!

Queue-Busting Extension for EventPOS!

We are very excited to soon be launching an extension for our cashless catering system, EventPOS by idXtra!

In the form of a handheld portable tablet or a mini till, along with a card reader, these ‘pop-up’ stations will allow you to extend your services at lunchtime/breaks and reduce queues.

Adding a portable tablet or mini till to your existing EventPOS setup would allow you to have a ‘pop-up’ station, for example, at a mini cafe or drinks stand for an event, without the need for an additional big EventPOS till.

Additionally, incorporating this to your setup would improve throughput and reduce queuing in the canteen. At busy times, adding a ‘pop-up’ till station at short notice can ensure that students aren’t waiting for large amounts of time to grab their lunch.

Find out more about our cashless catering system, EventPOS, here.

Get in touch here if you’d like to find out more about our mini till / tablet extension for EventPOS!

Welcome on board the United Colleges Group!

As it begins to feel like summer at last, we welcome on board a new customer to the idXtra family- the United Colleges Group! We are thrilled to welcome them and we look forward to working closely with them.

We have been chosen by the United Colleges Group to supply their new cashless catering and visitor management systems, alongside some streamlining of ID card issuance and population of the access control system.

We are installing our cashless catering system, EventPOS, at 22 locations across all of the United Colleges Group’s campuses (City of Westminster College and College of North West London). Their upgrade to EventPOS will simplify the issuing of discreet free school meals and bring several disparate systems together as one system, on a single network linked to MIS. 

Our visitor management system, VisiTapp, will enhance the security and safety of their staff, students and visitors, whilst improving their front of house image. Our VMS comes in various forms and it can be customised precisely to suit their specific requirements.

Thank you United Colleges Group, we can’t wait to upgrade you!

To find out more about our systems and services, check out the links below:

Season’s Greetings from idXtra!

As 2021 slowly draws to a close, we reflect on what a year it has been. Amid the Coronavirus pandemic, we are thankful to be able to spend this festive period with our loved ones.

We would like to thank our loyal customers for their continued patronage, and we look forward to all that is to come in 2022!

Before we see in the new year, we’d like to welcome on board two new idXtra customers, Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke and Newham College London!

Queen Mary’s College have just had our cashless catering system installed in their premises; it will make their catering and payment processes so much easier. To find out more about our cashless system, EventPOS, click here.

Newham College London have also recently decided to have EventPOS installed in both of their campuses, Stratford and East Ham. The new system is a big step forward from their previous one.

We look forward to hearing how both colleges get on with their new tech!