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 in Glasgow!

Another month, another exhibition… this time we were in one of the world’s friendliest cities, and the largest one in Scotland – it was of course Glasgow!

We were there to exhibit at The Learning Places Scotland Exhibition and Conference at the SEC.

We enjoyed making new connections and catching up with existing ones!

Until next time, Scotland!

City of Westminster College “tap in”!

The United Colleges Group already had our cashless catering system, EventPOS, and our visitor management system, VisiTapp, and we had installed new ID card printers and ID design and printing software for the group.

We were therefore delighted to be asked to install our attendance tracking solution, EventMarker, for City of Westminster College!

Primarily it was required for monitoring students’ self-study sessions, which are timetabled but not necessarily staffed by teachers, so no formal registers were being taken.

EventMarker consists of simple PoE smart card readers located in the appropriate places, so that learners can simply tap in and out of their self-study sessions. 

If learners arrive on time they are marked as PRESENT and if they arrive late they are marked as LATE. These marks are saved into the ProSolution MIS database under the relevant lessons. 

Teachers and administrators with the appropriate level of access may edit the marks, for example, if a student was late through no fault of their own.

Thanks City of Westminster College, we look forward to hearing how you get on with your new system!

We take on the Education Estates Exhibition in Manchester!

This month we headed up north to a city famous for its railways and records… Manchester! This was where the Education Estates Exhibition 2023 was held.

We had a blast meeting idXtra customers old and new, and of course we set some time aside to check out what this buzzing city has to offer!

Thanks to everyone who came and visited us at our stand. We look forward to our next event!

Tony x2

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!

London Met Get Upgraded!

Over the summer, the London Metropolitan University chose to upgrade their student card printing system so that it would be more efficient ahead of the new academic year.

We upgraded their student card printing system with middleware processes, so that their card activation is now streamlined to their SALTO Access Control system.

This effective solution saves hours of staff administration time and also improves the safeguarding of their students, as their ID card printing now works seamlessly with their Access Control, i.e door entry and exit!

Thank you London Metropolitan University, we look forward to hearing how you get on with your new streamlined system!

The Team at idXtra

If you’d like to find out more about idXtra’s Access Control systems, please click here.

To find out more about idXtra’s fully integrated solutions, please click here.

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:

ID card printing galore for the Trafford College group!

We were delighted to be chosen as the supplier to the Trafford College group to upgrade their ID card printing systems across their five campuses! 

The formation of the Trafford College group meant that there were disparate systems across the four colleges (Trafford College, Stockport College, The Cheadle College and Marple Sixth Form College), and the aim was to bring everything together with one system.

We supplied twelve new ID card printers and updated and extended their ID card printing software, and we wrote integration pieces in order to push records into three different access control systems.  

The result is a smoother, simplified operation that is easier to support and to extend further.  

Thank you to the Trafford College group, we hope you love your new card printing system!

Please click the following links to find out more information about our products and services relevant to this post:

New City College group gets major upgrade!

In these summer months as the new school year rapidly approaches, many schools and colleges use this time to get upgrades to their premises.

The New City College group are no different, and this month have decided to get a major upgrade to their systems, and opted for idXtra’s cashless catering and visitor management systems.

The NCC group had our cashless system, EventPOS, installed across their six colleges and ten campuses. They chose EventPOS to manage their cashless catering across its very large estate; the system works perfectly for them as it links to MIS to deliver FSM and other bursaries in real time.

A recent and major upgrade to the EventPOS system is that it now caters for allergies and dietary preferences, meaning the safeguarding of students is greatly enhanced.

Not only did the college group opt for a new cashless system, but they upgraded their visitor management system too! We upgraded and replaced all of their systems to our VMS, VisiTapp, across all of their campuses. VisiTapp is highly efficient and reliable, and can be adapted to meet your specific requirements and preferences.

Lastly, just in time for the enrolment period, we supplied the NCC with ten new ZXP 7 card printers plus eighteen new CardExchange v10 licenses. Our card printers and software are very reliable and easy to operate, plus our printers can be hired on a daily basis!

Big thanks to the New City College group, it was a pleasure installing our systems in your premises!

For further information on our products and services mentioned here, please click on the following links:

Attendance monitoring at West Notts College!

We are thrilled to welcome on board West Nottinghamshire College to the idXtra family of customers!

Recently we completed the installation of EventMarker, our attendance monitoring system, in all of their classrooms and teaching spaces. The system was installed in a way that incorporates their existing student ID cards, which meant they didn’t need to get all new cards printed, thus saving time and expense.

Through the installation the idXtra team also fine-tuned the link to their MIS system, for the purpose of exchanging timetable and attendance data. This system was a major investment by the college, which will inevitably result in even better student retention rates and the funding associated with it.

Thank you West Notts College, we look forward to seeing how you get on with your new system!

For information on our attendance monitoring system, EventMarker, and to find out how to book a free remote demonstration, please click here.