DEVELOPING DRAFT BEVERAGE SMART MANAGEMENT PLATFORM FOR BARS AND RESTAURANTS

Looking back at 2019, the founders of BarTrack sought ways to empower their in-house team by leveraging outsourcing capabilities to cover parts of the product development process. Since then, the MobiDev dedicated development team has worked closely with BarTrack's team on tasks such as an analytics platform and PWA development, ensuring smooth integration with the entire BarTrack system. Over the years, this collaboration has contributed to BarTrack's remarkable growth, transforming it from an ambitious startup into a flourishing business with over 300% growth reported in 2023.

New product Software Engineering Dedicated Team HoReCa

KEY FACTS:

Country

USA

Industry

HoReCa

Cooperation period

since 2019

Cooperation type

Dedicated development team of 3-7 experts

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KEY FACTS:

Country

USA

Industry

HoReCa

Cooperation period

since 2019

Cooperation type

Dedicated development team of 3-7 experts

THE STORY BEHIND

The idea of a smart tech solution that would revolutionize the draft beverage business came to BarTrack founders while they were visiting a local bar for a routine beer. In 2018, this idea brought BarTrack’s president, Brett Danielson—then a student—and his teammates a victory in JMU Business Plan Competition, earning them a scholarship exceeding $25,000. The innovative idea of an IoT-based smart solution for tracking and optimizing beverage pouring via special scanners quickly gained attention, and BarTrack iteratively attracted over $15 million in investment as of 2022.

While extending the system to provide venues with a platform integrated into their POS solutions, for managing their draft beverage programs, BarTrack founders were in search of a development team to cover some parts of the product development process. That was the starting point of cooperation with MobiDev.

INDUSTRY CHALLENGES

Draft beverage entities must constantly maintain the optimal temperature for kegged beverages, perform regular cleaning and maintenance of draft systems, and keep track of keg levels for timely restocking. Additionally, significant amounts of beer can be lost due to spillage, over-pouring, and inefficient draft systems. These are some of the key tasks that BarTrack’s functionality addresses.

Dedicated Team IoT QA Node.js

HOW WE DELIVERED

1

Created a unified solution for bar management using a PWA

Addressing the primary requirement to create a single bar management platform compatible with different types of devices, the MobiDev team conducted tech research and proposed a Progressive Web Application approach to give users the ability to switch between locations and view real-time data, such as keg levels, inventory, and temperature/pressure, from their desktops, tablets, or smartphones, all while enjoying a uniform experience across various environments.

2

Leveraged integration with POS systems to provide detailed analytics

To provide the foundation for detailed analytics and understanding of operational efficiencies, MobiDev implemented functionality to compare internal BarTrack pour data with external sales data. MobiDev’s dedicated developers built integrations with several of the most widely used POS systems and devised complex ETL processes to get the data that BarTrack needed for their downstream analysis. Once the data is in the BarTrack system, the Hourly Reports feature provides customers with the ability to track relevant KPIs, with a particular focus on comparing pour versus sales for each beverage – enabling them to promptly identify waste and develop an action plan for remedying the issue(s).

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3

Designed and built Automated Business Intelligence reporting in PDF and XLS

Using the expansive set of internal and external historical data, the MobiDev team designed and developed a BI solution for providing customers with unique Daily, Weekly, and Monthly reports in both PDF and XLS options. One of the biggest challenges of developing these reports was creating a clear and concise structure for the reports so that users could easily digest the large amount of diverse data that they previously had never been exposed to.

4

Implemented a Scalable Digital Menu Solution

BarTrack is uniquely situated in a position where they have real-time beverage information for each customer, and one of the requests from their user base was to display this externally on TV menus. Following the principles of Sustainable Design, MobiDev team developed a Digital Menu that provides a fully customizable, real-time view of the beverages a customer has on-tap – displayed on TV screens in their taprooms.

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5

Work on cooperation with BarTrack in-house team

From the very beginning in 2019, our cooperation was based on the division of key BarTrack functionality development between the in-house and dedicated Mobidev teams. While BarTrack's in-house team remained responsible for IoT integration of custom sensors and backend development, MobiDev fully covered the front end of analytics platform development and PWA creation.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Analytics app
React.js, Node.js (Express), PostgreSQL, Sequelize, Puppeteer for PDF reports generation, Google Cloud (Sheets API, Drive API) for XLS reports generation, AWS (S3), Cron Jobs
Main app (PWA)
React.js (PWA), MobX-state-tree, Material UI, realtime updates (WebSockets)
Digital Menu app
Next.js, TypeScript, MobX-state-tree, real-time updates (WebSockets)
PoS Integration app
Node.js (Express); PostgreSQL, Sequelize, Puppeteer, Cron Jobs
Main BarTrack Server
developed by the client’s in-house team - Node.js (Express)

OUTCOMES

Initially a modest side pursuit, BarTrack has grown into a flourishing business that captured numerous partners worldwide. In 2023, the company reported over 300% growth compared to 2022. This surge was driven by new partnerships with POS technology providers, the launch of an ongoing partnership with industry leader Micro Matic, and the release of new products to support beverage quality in the hospitality industry. Additionally, in 2023, BarTrack introduced revolutionary beverage and food quality management tools to its innovative draft product lineup with the launch of The Smart Draft System. This system includes Smart Refrigeration Monitoring, Smart Kegerator Monitoring, Glycol Monitoring, and Cooler Monitoring.

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