Technology

Analysis: Three Advantages of SaaS Technology to Raise the Bar on Your Draft Program

I remember my first Bar & Restaurant Expo, back when it was Nightclub & Bar. I looked so slick wearing new dress shoes to navigate the tradeshow and seminars.

Rookie mistake!

By week's end, I was forced to walk around on my tip-toes because my feet ached so badly.

My, how things have changed - and not just my trade show footwear decisions.

With continued labor shortages, ballooning food costs, and increasing operating expenses, restaurants can't afford NOT to leverage the efficiencies tech brings to the bar. Luckily, while data analysis software has always been available, restaurants are no longer priced out of the opportunities Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) presents, and implementation has become far less daunting.

Let’s examine BrewLogix®'s Performance PlatformTM for example.  This newly released IoT (Internet-of-Things) product uses non-invasive keg sensors and a powerful cloud-based draft inventory management platform to dramatically impact draft program automation, inventory valuation, staff education, and profit realization.


Automated Deck Planning

Bars can certainly be chaotic. How do you reduce that chaos?

Automation.

Planning a bar’s beverage program is both an art and a science. The Performance Platform gives draft program planners the tools (data, insights) to be artful, while automating the implementation of the on deck plan. The Performance Platform gives your bar or beverage manager easy “click and drag” capability to plan your keg rotations and make those decisions immediately available to your bar staff.

As kegs are moved on and off the sensors, the program automatically updates your inventory, tracks your assets, feeds on-tap product information to your staff and prompts you when kegs are about to kick. Bottom line, this level of automation empowers your best staffers to focus on the things that matter most.


Real Time Inventory (Without Touching a Keg)

Businesses have long embraced technology, perhaps with the exception of restaurants and bars. Look no further than the archaic practice of rocking a keg back and forth to estimate how much beer remains inside. Other systems for keg inventory exist - scales, flow meters, and keg check apparatuses. They all have their advantages (although more and more bars are moving away from devices that touch their beverages), but none have the data-rich sensor technology the Performance Platform provides.

Instead of the shake-and-guess technique, or even the extra math involved with flow meters, BrewLogix's patented sensor capabilities identify the fluid ounces remaining in each keg and translate those readings into real-time inventory values, throughput calculations, pours remaining, kick date projections… all without guessing, human error, or mental math.  The Performance Platform helps you track, value, and analyze your kegged beverages from the moment they arrive until they’re fully depleted.


Efficient Communication

Where would our ability to communicate be without technology? Yet in a fast-paced bar setting, more and more managers have abandoned email to deliver new product information to staff. They’re simply looking for a better way that adjusts to changing staff models and schedules. The Performance Platform dedicates a critical portion of the platform to “BrewKnowledge” – a place where trusted, accurate product knowledge is immediately available to your team members.

The Performance Platform has the advantage of being powered by BreweryDB®, the most expansive curated brewery and beer database in the industry. The Performance Platform’s automated integration with BreweryDB delivers a higher level of BrewKnowledge to your staff. As kegs enter your cooler – and ultimately move on tap, the BrewKnowledge dashboard continuously updates with the exact information your team needs to enhance your customers’ experiences.

An optimized draft program is a prime example of how technology can transform your business from good to great. Draft beer and other emerging draft beverages are profit drivers for bars and restaurants. Leveraging the data pouring from your kegs is now a more attainable reality for today’s best on-premise managers.

Bars have always relied on the crucial decisions of owners and staff – now you have the chance to get dramatically better information. Modern bar management requires access to your own data, and the BrewLogix Performance Platform provides it on-demand. Anything less is like wearing new shoes to a trade show.

It's just painful.


Are you missing out on actionable insights that can optimize your draft program? For more information, request a demo of Performance Platform by BrewLogix and realize the draft performance you never knew was possible.

The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.