How smart is your pub? If you think that polishing the horse brasses and dusting that bottle of ruby port makes your pub smart, think again. We are talking technology.
In the last couple of years the world has changed. Millions of ordinary people, not to mention ordinary businesses, have gained access to the Internet and innovations in telecommunications have increased the speed at which information can be moved around to a degree that was previously unimaginable.
So what does all this mean for the humble publican? There are a bewildering array of new technologies and, to make matters worse, their true relevance is shrouded in geeky jargon.
The basic rule to remember, however, as in so much of life, is that it's not what you've got - it's what you do with it that counts.
Victims of the dot com shake-out have usually been the companies that have failed to really understand that they need to give people more than than just a fancy website to keep them coming back after the novelty has worn off. And if consumers demand a practical use for technology, the same is even more true of businesses.
In the pub industry there are powerful signs that those commiting themselves to the technological cutting edge are breaking from the seductive hold of flash wizardy and taking a hard-nosed attitude to putting their commercial goals first.
At managed pub operator Yates Group, this has even led to a reorganisation of part of the company to merge marketing with technological development.
This means that its new entertainment strategy is not just plasma screens and sculptured sound but that it is led by a need to give its customers something they will value and keep returning to.
In the same way, the Yates website is linked to the entertainment programming in the pubs to encourage interactivity and generate a kind of community among its potential target market.
The theme of customer-focus is common to all the systems that, at the moment at any rate, are looking as if they will survive the turbulent early years.
They are also growing more versatile. Companies like UDV off-shoot Translucis are offering not only a big screen entertainment system but also a range of business services for the licensee.
Bass Brewers' Barbox is more than an on-line buying site, steadily adding a whole range of facilities which it hopes will prove useful enough to cause publicans to log on every day.
Tenants are not left out. Nucleus is a system devised by pub group Commer and machine operator Kunick Leisure that aims to give vital business information for licensees that cannot afford full EPoS systems, while those who do have EPoS are encouraged to turn the data to greater effect.
The very website you're using now to read this article is indicative of the pattern that the introduction of new technology is taking in the industry. After only a year's existence, the previous Publican Newspaper website graciously stepped aside to make way for thePublican.com - something much bigger, better - and more useful.
It is a trend that few in the pub industry can afford to ignore. As Yates Group's Rob Thompson put it: "Five years ago pub operators were only worried about selling beer and whether to put lasagne and chips on the menu. Now we're dot com companies ourselves."
Pictured above: Unique Pub Company takes advantage of the ever-increasing internet audience by launching a lettings website to attract new recruits, which can be found at www.uniquepubs.com