ePub: Technology for 2008

Most pubs in the UK, especially those that are part of large nationwide chains, are fundamentally process-driven.

Typically, their weekly routine will include providing sales reports to head office, ordering stock, managing staff and properties across the group and dealing with the increasing weight of industry legislation.

For many pub managers this administrative burden is an unwelcome but unavoidable distraction from what they view as their core business focus: ensuring their customers have the best possible experience each time they visit one of their pubs, and making certain those customers want to repeat the experience again and again.

For these reasons any technological solution in the pub sector must meet three key criteria:

• It must have the potential to rapidly add value to the business

• It must be able to simplify process management within the organisation

• It must be easy to use.

Any solution that fails to meet these objectives is unlikely to be successful.

Selling IT solutions into pubs is, of course, about more than just the technology itself. The solutions provider needs to have experience and understanding of the pub industry and, in particular, be aware of the key challenges pubcos and licensees are facing today.

Recent years have seen increasing pressures on pub managers' time. Legislation affecting the pub industry is becoming ever more extensive. The media's continuing emphasis on binge-drinking and social disorder has put pubs under the microscope. They need to be seen to be doing everything they can to ensure they are fully compliant with the latest regulations and are providing a safe environment for customers.

Real-time sales information

Many pubs today, particularly those that are part of a large chain, are round-the-clock businesses that have to be prepared to respond quickly to requests from their head office for nightly sales and profit figures.

But longer opening hours mean pubs often have a smaller window of opportunity to respond to these requests. Therefore, they need real-time solutions that enable staff to check results as and when required and obtain accurate figures immediately.

Doorstaff control

People management is another key element of any pub's business activity. And administering staff who have been contracted in from outside can be a particularly complex undertaking.

Pubs must, for example, ensure all doorstaff they employ have full Security Industry Association (SIA) accreditation.

Recent issues the SIA has experienced in clearing illegal immigrants from its database have been well-publicised. Immigration status checks on all non-EEA applicants have now been introduced as part of the security industry licensing process.

Moving forward, the key issue for pubs is to ensure doorstaff have a valid and current SIA badge and have therefore completed relevant training programmes and undergone rigorous criminal record checks.

This can be addressed with a system that logs in doorstaff reporting for work and runs an automatic check on their SIA status, not only improving efficiency but helping to make sure customers are socialising in a secure environment.

Such solutions can also add value by logging staff on and off, calculating the time worked by each individual and automatically generating invoices.

Property management

For pub chains with extensive portfolios, property management is a key consideration. Management will need to administer all the usual data including rent, rates and leasing, for example. It will often also have to keep track of staff accommodation.

Responsibility for property also involves a level of risk, particularly in relation to fire and health and safety issues, and pubs may be required to carry out weekly or monthly checks which are independently reviewed.

Again, the best IT systems targeted at these areas will not only manage these risks but also support proactive action to mitigate them. They will not solely log an incident - a fire, for example - but will also send text messages to relevant staff, alerting them of the need to take action.

And by maintaining a record of this type of activity, pubs are able to prove to insurers and regulatory bodies that they have been willing to work proactively to reduce risk.Regent Inns was recently able to save more than £500,000 on an insurance bill by doing just that.

Streamlined processes

Innovative solutions like these streamline management of processes at busy pubs. Further benefits can come from integrating systems, enabling pub managers to get an umbrella view of all their operations and have the data required for quick and efficient decision-making at their fingertips.

Portals can be created where licensees can view and manage their procurement system, their emails and their weekly sales reports as well as key data such as the latest weather forecasts and local sporting events all in one place rather than having to search through different folders and web pages to gather the relevant details.

IT providers can now integrate pub tills into purchasing systems, enabling processes to be automated so that when an item is purchased details of the pub's stock levels are automatically updated on the electronic point-of-sale system.

Many IT systems deployed in the pub sector are primarily about process, ensuring the pub manager has done everything they need to do in as efficient a manner as possible. The key is being able to empathise with the challenges facing licensees, to analyse the processes they employ and then to implement systems which make those processes more efficient.

The technology to do this is available today and pub operators need to ensure they work with solutions providers who have sufficient experience and understanding of the pub industry to deploy this technology to best advantage.

Chris Wootton is managing director of procurement control experts e-cocoon - see www.e-cocoon.com​