Client Success Story - New York Life Insurance
New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 Company, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and one of the largest life insurers in the world. Founded in 1845 and headquartered in New York City, New York Life and its affiliates offer life insurance, annuities, and long-term care insurance.
Why Cashless
New York Life decided to implement cashless after a major renovation in the café area. The company management and food service contractor, ARAMARK, wanted to increase customer satisfaction, as well as automate important data needed to run the food service operation. New York Life originally implemented the CBORD® OmniACCESS™ system in 1997; however, in April 2003 they upgraded to CBORD's Odyssey PCSTM system.
New York Life Success
Kevin Harmon, Senior Staff Associate, has indicated that there are a total of 3,900 employees, and they currently have 75% participation in the program. In addition, Harmon stated that “the cashless system has helped to reduce labor costs at this facility.” Before going completely cashless, the café used eight cashiers; with the new system, they only require five cash registers. This was an initial cost savings of $90,000. New York Life reassigned the employees to other duties, and the point-of-sale (POS) registers are now used in a “vendor room.” The vendor room is used for outside vendors who come to the facility to sell items such as clothing, shoes, jewelry, and gifts. Employees can make purchases at these vendor sales by using their cards, and the company gets a commission from the vendor for these purchases.
In 2002, the company received a $60,000 commission for these sales and is projecting more in 2003. Of these purchases, approximately 40% are made by employees who use their cards, or as the employees say, “swipe.”
Harmon says, “Cashless has created a culture in the organization.” People refer to “swiping,” and many have come to rely on it, making a ritual of going to Café Madison in the afternoon for coffee breaks. This has limited the need for female employees to carry their purses; they have their ID badge with them at all times and can use it anywhere.
Harmon also thinks the system is great because it is a database, and he can export a great deal of information into spreadsheets for analysis. That information, particularly revenues generated, can be shared with senior management.
Since implementing the cashless system, average lunch transactions increased from $2.96 to $3.75.
Contractor Perspective
From a contractor standpoint, Ray Stormes, General Manager, said, “I realized that the systems in the food service area needed to be automated.” Stormes needed to get more detailed information to supply ARAMARK headquarters with accurate reporting that could also be shared with New York Life senior management. Stormes loves that at any time he can attend a production meeting with management and report on all activity with hard numbers.
CBORD Configuration
New York Life's Odyssey PCS system includes twelve Micros 2700s, ValuePorts, and Odyssey's Real Time Administrative Interface Development Kit. In addition to the Manhattan location, the company uses the system at its remote sites in Clinton, New Jersey (two Micros 2700 POS registers), and Parsippany, New Jersey (three Micros 3700 POS registers, which were installed in summer 2001 to replace the existing Micros 2700s).
