Licensees are now never more than a click away from their pub with a new remote dial-in facility.
There you are, lazing on the beach in Marbella, and suddenly you wonder how Fred and Geraldine are doing while you're away. So you plug your mobile into your laptop and within seconds you can check out how much beer the pub is shifting.
Science fiction? Not any more thanks to a new system from flow monitor firm Nucleus Data, proving once again that such technology is more than a means of nabbing tenants who are buying out of the pubco tie.
A remote dial-in facility means that licensees can pick up the latest sales figures at their pub, updated to within an hour, from anywhere in the world.
"It's a huge step forward in helping licensees to maximise the benefits of beer dispense monitoring," said Nucleus Data operations director Clive Consterdine.
"Even if people don't want to keep an eye on trade while on holiday there is a huge benefit in just being able to plug in your laptop anywhere you like to get the latest information.
"It's great for multiple lessees who can monitor all their pubs from the office or from home, or while out on the road, or even check on one or more pubs while visiting another of them," he continued.
"Publicans who want to do their paperwork upstairs, or who don't live on the premises, will also benefit. They can plug the laptop into any phone line - fixed or mobile."
Nucleus Data says it has been inundated with demand for the system, which costs £2.25 plus VAT per week. "Pub company business development managers are recommending that their tenants and lessees take up the remote dial-in option because it gives them a new element of control to make their businesses more profitable," said Clive.
"One of the key benefits of dispense monitoring to licensees is that it reduces losses by quickly identifying leaks, spillage through bad practice and staff fraud. So for the price of a pint a week the remote dial-in system could save the cost of 100 pints."
Licensees can use the data to analyse which brands are selling best at which times. That helps them keep a tighter control on stock rotation and plan their ordering and staffing levels, improving customer service.
One of the first publicans to subscribe to remote dial-in is Sonia Crook, tenant of a Thwaites pub, the Rose and Crown, in Clitheroe, Lancashire (pictured top). 'It's just so useful to have the information I need to be able to manage the business wherever I happen to be,' she said. 'I'm convinced that in a couple of years the trade will be wondering how we ever managed without it.'
How it works
The new system uses computer-to-computer communications technology. The licensee's computer simply telephones the dispense system in the pub cellar and, after entering security information, licensees have immediate access to current and past data giving them the ability to analyse trading patterns by beer brand and by the hour, day or week.