Pub chain Mitchells & Butlers, which is currently two-thirds of the way through a total IT infrastructure revamp, is preparing to put out to tender on a new retail system that will be rolled out to all of its 1,600 outlets in the UK.
The aim, says Martin Taylor, director of business change and information technology at Mitchells & Butlers, will be to better align interaction between the business and its customers. That will mean encompassing website and social media strategies, making it easier to book a table on the one hand, and to capture orders quickly and efficiently on the other.
That may mean, therefore, investigating mobile technologies for taking orders at the table, as well as ways of better capturing customer data.
"The tender process will be about finding what is best for our outlets: What is the best solution? We have great relations with our core suppliers but this is about what's right for running our individual outlets in our pubs," said Taylor.
"One of the big issues in our industry is around payment and making that process as pain-free as possible."
That will mean considering mobile payment systems, such as via digital wallets built into mobile phones, which many analysts suggest will be the "next big thing" in mobile communications, as well as the current vogue for gift cards that can be bought in supermarkets.
Despite partnering with computer giant Fujitsu for its outsourced data centre, private cloud and other enterprise IT services, the company intends to put the retail system out to tender. Fujitsu, though, along with IBM, will undoubtedly be one of the front runners given its position in retail systems - the legacy of an ICL-era acquisition.
M&B was highly commended in the 2012 UK IT Awards for its infrastructure renewal project. Read more in the next issue of Computing. Subscribe to the Computing print edition here. Or subscribe to our email newsletter here.
