
Page 1 of 3	Thinking outside the square The visible signs of Technology in Hotels, Clubs and Entertainment Venues are the Plasma Screens adorning the walls with life-size footballers literally crunching the crisps on your table; the bells, whistles and choo-choo train noises in gaming rooms; TV screens reflecting the winnings from the Dapto doggies or the Tamworth Trots; light and sound shows mixed by DJ Lolly Wrapper thru the wee small hours right across the metropolitan region. These form the Sales Pitches to the Punters, the candy enticing the kids, the lures for the shoals of thrillseekers. Behind the lights, lures and loud music, today's venue manager, be it pub, club or theatre relies on an ever more sophisticated array of technology to help maintain costs, control of patrons and staff and to ensure that the venue is a safe, secure, vibrant environment that people want to go back to. Cash registers have become Point of Sale systems, Bundy clocks now require you to log on with biometric scans of thumbprints, handprints or Iris. No more asking your mate to clock you on because you're running late unless you can handle a digital amputation as a consequence. (I wonder why butcher shops haven't been queuing for these) Not only do todays "Bundy clocks" have your genetic code on board but they have also become staff message centres, roster builders and communicators, payroll and labour budgeters and calculators and much more. Interfaces to paging systems can advise managers if you have not logged in or out and interfaces to POS systems can provide the manager with a "real-time" labour % at any minute of the day. The POS terminal can even become a T&A log-in and message point with the addition of a biometric digit scanner. Closed Circuit TV systems can now monitor each Point of Sale terminal and record and playback transactions requesting item sold or cashier or time of day or voids or no-sales. If you think Big Brother (the book, not the TV series) was over-rated, take a look skywards at all the perspex domes in the ceiling, next time you are waiting for the dealer at the Casino Blackjack table and try to convince yourself that someone isn't watching you. Staff can now contact managers without leaving their station by linking Point of Sale systems to RF transmitters which transmit text messages to vibrating pagers or mobile phones. When a manager rocks up behind the bar with change apparently out of the blue just at the right time, or when security walk through the lounge just when the crowd seems about to get out of hand, it is most likely no accident. Paul Miller from Cave Night Club has had paging linked to his POS system for over two years and uses it every night to page managers and security without staff having to hang on the phone waiting for a response. Micros POS and Jtech USA recently collaborated on a number of projects with some large US restaurant corporations to provide exception reporting to managers directly from the POS system. For instance, if a waiter rang an order through the POS system and there were no drinks on the total order, the system could send a message to the duty manager to check whether the waiter had forgotten to ask and send him back again. It's all part of maximising the customer spend during the tight shopping-window available. In the highly systemised and highly competitive USA dining industry, this has taken upsell to a whole new stratosphere. Add to that integrated paging links with fridge temperature controls, alarm monitoring, patron call buttons and staff paging and you can almost run the show from your hip, you can certainly feel the vibe there. Micros ended up so impressed with the results of the collaboration that they bought the company, Jtech that is! Paging and DECT portable phone systems have also allowed hotel and club managers to communicate on the move and have largely eliminated noisy PA systems and flashing red number boards. DECT phones can also accept paging messages so with the right interfaces, the manager on the move needs only one device to stay in constant communication with everyone on the bar floor. NEXT PAGE >

Thinking outside the square

The visible signs of Technology in Hotels, Clubs and Entertainment Venues are the Plasma Screens adorning the walls with life-size footballers literally crunching the crisps on your table; the bells, whistles and choo-choo train noises in gaming rooms; TV screens reflecting the winnings from the Dapto doggies or the Tamworth Trots; light and sound shows mixed by DJ Lolly Wrapper thru the wee small hours right across the metropolitan region. These form the Sales Pitches to the Punters, the candy enticing the kids, the lures for the shoals of thrillseekers.

Behind the lights, lures and loud music, today's venue manager, be it pub, club or theatre relies on an ever more sophisticated array of technology to help maintain costs, control of patrons and staff and to ensure that the venue is a safe, secure, vibrant environment that people want to go back to.

Cash registers have become Point of Sale systems, Bundy clocks now require you to log on with biometric scans of thumbprints, handprints or Iris. No more asking your mate to clock you on because you're running late unless you can handle a digital amputation as a consequence. (I wonder why butcher shops haven't been queuing for these) Not only do todays "Bundy clocks" have your genetic code on board but they have also become staff message centres, roster builders and communicators, payroll and labour budgeters and calculators and much more. Interfaces to paging systems can advise managers if you have not logged in or out and interfaces to POS systems can provide the manager with a "real-time" labour % at any minute of the day. The POS terminal can even become a T&A log-in and message point with the addition of a biometric digit scanner.

Closed Circuit TV systems can now monitor each Point of Sale terminal and record and playback transactions requesting item sold or cashier or time of day or voids or no-sales. If you think Big Brother (the book, not the TV series) was over-rated, take a look skywards at all the perspex domes in the ceiling, next time you are waiting for the dealer at the Casino Blackjack table and try to convince yourself that someone isn't watching you.

Staff can now contact managers without leaving their station by linking Point of Sale systems to RF transmitters which transmit text messages to vibrating pagers or mobile phones. When a manager rocks up behind the bar with change apparently out of the blue just at the right time, or when security walk through the lounge just when the crowd seems about to get out of hand, it is most likely no accident. Paul Miller from Cave Night Club has had paging linked to his POS system for over two years and uses it every night to page managers and security without staff having to hang on the phone waiting for a response.

Micros POS and Jtech USA recently collaborated on a number of projects with some large US restaurant corporations to provide exception reporting to managers directly from the POS system. For instance, if a waiter rang an order through the POS system and there were no drinks on the total order, the system could send a message to the duty manager to check whether the waiter had forgotten to ask and send him back again. It's all part of maximising the customer spend during the tight shopping-window available. In the highly systemised and highly competitive USA dining industry, this has taken upsell to a whole new stratosphere. Add to that integrated paging links with fridge temperature controls, alarm monitoring, patron call buttons and staff paging and you can almost run the show from your hip, you can certainly feel the vibe there. Micros ended up so impressed with the results of the collaboration that they bought the company, Jtech that is!

Paging and DECT portable phone systems have also allowed hotel and club managers to communicate on the move and have largely eliminated noisy PA systems and flashing red number boards. DECT phones can also accept paging messages so with the right interfaces, the manager on the move needs only one device to stay in constant communication with everyone on the bar floor.

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