Technology: Science fact or fiction?

With the right technology now in place, are pubs set to embrace the brave new world? Phil Mellows reports.

Almost a century ago EM Forster's dystopian fantasy The Machine Stops imagined a future in which an all-encompassing technological network delivers everything everyone could possibly need to their rooms. Nobody ever goes out. Not even to the pub.

Today, that science fiction seems quite credible. Advanced telecommunications and the internet have enveloped our lives in technologies most of us barely understand. Even entertainment - perhaps especially entertainment - is delivered straight into the home. As one researcher coined it, "staying in is the new going out".

But while Forster's novella predictably ended in tears, there is a positive side to technological advance that the pub industry is beginning to embrace. The pub can be a part of the shimmering new world - and you can have a pint and meet your mates at the same time.

The danger is that there is so much new wizardry out there at the moment that operators may either plump for expensive gimmickry that is destined for tomorrow's rubbish tip or be dazzled into technological paralysis.

The test of technology is whether it improves your efficiency, your customer spend, your service levels and your profitability. And it is beginning to look like the answer lies with the network.

Developments in telecommunications and digital electronics have made it possible for all those clever bits of kit to be linked together in a network that makes life easier for publicans, improves the service to customers - and makes the business more profitable.

Pubs will also be better equipped to battle the sitting room for the leisure pound, providing the kind of high quality, all-round entertainment that can prise people off the settee.

Last week's Amusement Trades Exhibition at Earl's Court was, for instance, a glimpse of a future beyond the fruit machine and jukebox that will be featured in Your Business at a later date.

This is not just technology for the big high street chains. John Harrison, with 25 years in IT behind him, most recently with managed-house giant Spirit, believes the time is right for the pub industry to move into a brave new era - and there is no reason why the humble tenant should not be a part of it.

Since leaving Spirit at the beginning of this year he has teamed up with ECS, technology service provider to Laurel, Mitchells & Butlers and Whitbread as well as John's old company, to extend to tenanted estates the kind of gains that managed groups are already beginning to enjoy.

ECS's field based team will install and service the systems and John has calculated that the initiative can be self-funding with each pub benefiting to the tune of £2,500 a year.

The future is waiting at your bar. And it's cashed up.

The year of the Intelligent Bar​

According to Brulines, a company which is going way beyond its original remit to measure how much beer goes through the pumps, 2004 will be the year of the Intelligent Bar.

It has linked up with telecoms company Orange and wireless telemetry firm Box Telematics to create a machine that gathers a whole range of information about what's going on in the pub.

Called the EdisBOX it can not only tell you how much beer has been poured but how much cash has gone into the fruit machines and how much stock you've got left.

It can spot consumption trends, count customers as they arrive at the pub and monitor smoke levels in the atmosphere. It can also test the quality of the beer you are serving, its temperature and the cleanliness of the beer lines.

Downloaded in real time to the Brulines website the data can be analysed to maximise the potential of your business. It presents the prospect of licensees and pubco headquarters playing Big Brother, remotely monitoring a pub's performance. Staffing levels can be adjusted not only according to how many customers you have each hour of the day, but by how many of them actually visit the bar. A drop in beer quality can be acted on before the drinker notices, air cleaners can be switched on before it gets too smoky.

This is not science fiction. Condition monitoring has now completed a successful trial in 200 pubs and is set to roll out across the country, with Punch Pub Company, Enterprise Inns and Greene King already on Brulines' books.

"With competition for the leisure pound now so intense, pubs and bars which don't concentrate on offering their customers the best possible experience will lose out to other bars and leisure activities," said Brulines managing director Jim Dickson.

"The concept of the Intelligent Bar tackles this major issue. We know that people tend to change the pub they drink in when they encounter bad quality beer, poor service and excessively long waiting times at the bar.

"So we have designed the EdisBOX as an intelligent virtual member of staff. It automatically collects and transmits data to our server to provide a suite of market intelligence reports that are emailed direct to the publican's desktop or accessed through the Brulines website. In addition to stock levels the system will identify the need for line cleaning as well as providing crucial marketing information reports on footfall, consumption levels, equipment utilisation and beer quality. "Behind the bar the EdisBOX can also be used to measure the efficiency of a cooler in the cellar, meaning the pub operator can perform preventive maintenance or arrange a replacement before a failure has a serious impact on sales.

"The hard information gathered by the Intelligent Bar represents a real opportunity to monitor, understand and evaluate customers' drinking habits. And as more licensed premises become intelligent bars we will be able to define the true make-up, likes and dislikes of the UK's drinkers."

Pictured: Brulines' EdisBOX can track customer footfall through a bar and analyse consumer behaviour.​

Everybody's gone text mad. But is the pub trade tapping into the opportunity? Duncan Sandford of interactive design agency Gemonline Interactive explains how you can make the most of SMS.​

The use of text messages as a communication and marketing tool has rocketed over the last couple of years with, according to the Mobile Data Association, 20.5 billion texts being sent in 2003. That's the equivalent of 55 million per day.

Now that 70 per cent of the British population owns a mobile phone there is huge marketing potential waiting to be exploited - but how can the licensed trade tap into this phenomenon?

Entertainment in pubs is an obvious starting point. For instance, displaying text messages sent by customers on a plasma screen is a good way to attract the youth market.

But the traditional pub can also make use of SMS. Take the pub quiz. Players can text the answer to a question posed on beer mats or posters and, if they are correct, another question can then be texted to their phone. Keep repeating the process and if the customer gets enough right answers they are sent a voucher for a free drink. By combining point-of-sale promotion, text messaging and instant prizes this type of campaign can create customer goodwill as well as promote a specific drinks brand.

As with all promotional activity, strong back-up systems are absolutely crucial for SMS campaigns to work. The "call to action" marketing materials such as posters and beer mats must be accurate and removed as soon as the promotion is over. And the campaign will certainly backfire if demand for the drink being promoted exceeds supply.

Text messaging is also a valuable way of letting existing customers know about special offers and promotions. This involves