Time to tech advantage

The recession may have seen the closure of many pubs, but one positive thing it has managed to do is force licensees to look at how they can be more efficient in their businesses. EPoS (electronic point of sale) is no longer a dirty word for licensees. EPoS is proving to be essential in the current climate, providing licensees with an opportunity to monitor stock levels, authorise card transactions, run sales reports and check staff performance.

One area that has seen growth over the past year is licensees using their EPoS systems to drive customer loyalty. Many systems provide customer-loyalty functions as part of their offer, allowing the pub to purchase cards for less than a £1 each. This can be an important way to drive footfall into the business.


ICRTouch has its own built-in customer-loyalty scheme, which is proving popular with pubs. "We have seen an increase in licensees looking at loyalty cards so as not to lose their customers," says general manager Mark Robertson. "The recession has forced licensees to focus on driving customers to repeat purchase in their businesses."

Another benefit of using EPoS in the current climate is to monitor staff activity. While a good relationship with staff is an important element of running a business, there is a small percentage of staff who do steal from their employers. It can be just a pint that is not rung through the till or simply giving a friend a free bottle of beer across the bar. But with margins so stretched for pubs at the moment licensees can't afford to let this sort of pilfering continue. EPoS systems allow the licensee to check their stock levels and ensure that staff are doing their jobs effectively.

"Security is a problem. It is a very small percentage of pubs that have this problem, but in this current economic climate it is becoming more prevalent. Beer is a high-value product. A member of staff only has to pour five pints and that can be £15 that is not going into the system. Licensees have to be seen to have their fingers on the pulse."

ICRTouch has also seen increasing interest in its CCTV offering. This allows the licensee to monitor staff members' till useage and watch what they are putting through the system. Robertson says: "It makes the staff member think twice. If the bar person is serving four pints, the licensee can see if only £1 is put through on the till."

On a different front, hand-held ordering systems are being used by increasing numbers of pubs that are trying to make their operations more efficient. The hand-held technology means a waitress can take orders for food on the floor, while the bar continues to operate as normal.

"Pubs are adapting a lot more, to become more like bar restaurant operations. The ordertaking terminal allows table service in a busy bar." And the technological innovation is set to continue, with fingerprint-recognition biometric technology becoming more popular. "Pubs want to check that the person working in the bar is the person who is doing the work".

May 2009

• ICRTouch wins the contract to supply the Islands new Cashless system for School Meals.
• Panasonic choose ICRTouch as their preferred partner with the installation of a new EPOS system in London's West End the installation was carried out by ICR's team.

Round the World with ICRTouch

ICRTouch has now been accepted onboard with the sailing fraternity. Island Cash Registers (ICR) supplied OC Events with an XN905 running ICRTouch for the I-Shares Cup sailing series.

The till would follow the OC Event and the off shore challenge around Europe visiting ports of call like Lugano, Switzerland, Hyéres, France, Skandia Cowes Week, Kiel in Germany and Amsterdam. The 15" XN905 was used in the bar of the hospitality and VIP suite where it coped well with high volume transactions and moreover, managing the VIP and business client's accounts.

Each client would designate a hospitality spend for each day at the bar and through branded customer account cards they controlled the usage at the point of sale. The prestigious client list included BMW, BT, JP Morgan, Musto, Origin and Tommy where staff retained the cards as mementoes of their day.

One feature that excelled was the set up all PLU's / Products as images, given the staff were from the various venue cities, converting the text was not an issue. A cup of coffee was the same in any language when presented as a picture!!

Commenting on making the I-Shares Cup such a success, OC provided ICR with the wonderful photograph below as a token of their appreciation.

Skandia Cowes Week 2008

It was another great, busy, busy, Cowes Week and ICRTouch was in all the best bars & events.

The Ellen MacArthur Ball was a great success where ICRTouch & PocketTouch2 ran on four Ipaq 214's provided by the organisers, All About Catering with an excellent mobile ordering service.

The Big Marquee on the Parade (www.mainsail.co.uk) used us again for their tills, the pictures below showing their main bar, 6 deep most of the week running 8x XN905's linked to TMS. The Marina Marquee, Royal Yacht Squadron, Island Sailing Club plus many more of the bars and events were rigged out with ICR tills.

All in all, another great event. Every year the local clubs and bars call on ICR and ICRTouch for our expertise and quality of service.