Finding the E-PoSitives - Feature
Imagine 20 or so years ago someone told you that one day it would be possible for a member of staff to walk around a pub garden taking orders for food and drink and never have to go back to the bar or kitchen with scribbled notes or shout out the orders.
You'd probably have thought the local lunatic asylum was missing an inmate.
Yet today this is a reality. Staff can use hand-held key pads that send signals to the bar or kitchen giving details of the order, which can then be either printed out or displayed on monitors.
This is just one example of how the silicon chip, wireless technology, the internet and other such developments are changing working patterns and increasing business efficiency.
Even the humble till has evolved into a valuable business tool. Modern touch-screen tills can monitor and report on a host of items, such as employees' attendance records, stock control and ordering, sales performance of individual members of staff, how special promotions are doing and customers' buying patterns.
Until recently, sophisticated EPoS (electronic point of sale) tills - and the seemingly endless amount of data they can produce when linked to different software modules - have largely been the domain of the big operators. Now, thanks to the falling cost of technology and the rising need of licensees to monitor and control costs because of the competition, EPoS has become viable financially for many small operators and single-outlet licensees.
Tom Bell, managing director of Quest Retail Technology, explains: "EPoS is definitely moving down towards the smaller trader. Although it will always be the multiple operators that will get the most benefit, small traders are recognising that EPoS can help them counter fraud, handle stock control and assist in the management of the outlet. Also, having a good EPoS system helps improve the image of the pub.
"For example, stock control is often too much work for small businesses. If they fail to enter details of the latest deliveries because they haven't got the time, they then have to call in a stock auditor to sort things out."
Bell says anecdotal evidence from Quest customers suggests savings of 2% to 7% have been achieved using EPoS to foil cash and stock shrinkages.
Another major benefit is that it only takes seconds to change prices and add or remove products with modern touch screens. Bell says: "If you had an old cash register, you'd have to call the company out - it would cost you £40 and it may have taken days before someone arrived."
The Quest boss quotes a ballpark figure of between £1,000 and £2,500 for each till, depending on the customer's requirements. His top tip to anyone buying an EPoS is: "Buy a solid state solution, not a PC in a box. PC-based tills don't last as long, they can get viruses, the hard drive can fail, and they are not up to the harsh environment inside pubs where food and drink can be split over them. Also, they tend to crash at the worst time, when the pub is busiest."
