TIPS Remote restaurant carry-out queue with mobile apps

[kmcdaniel]

Haven't seen much discussion around the Clearly Anywhere app lately, so I wanted to run a real-world scenario past the forum to see how others would propose handling it.

The Scenario: A busy restaurant with a heavy carry-out volume needs to scale up to 6 remote phone-takers working from home or in restaurant simultaneously.

Proposed Setup:

• Deploying Clearly Anywhere app licenses to the 6 remote employees on their mobile devices.
• Using queues where agents log in and out dynamically.
• Avoiding physical desk phones or remote hardware completely, keeping it entirely app-based via data/Wi-Fi and have the ability to receive text message orders.

Questions for the Forum:

1. Is the Clearly Anywhere app currently the smoothest path for managing remote queue login/logout and business DIDs on mobile, or do folks still prefer other SIP apps (like Groundwire)?
2. How well does Clearly Anywhere handle audio reliability, text messaging and push notifications?
3. Does anyone have a better architectural idea for managing a remote restaurant queue setup similar to this without pulling hair out and requiring users to toggle on and off VPNs?

Would love to hear others thoughts or what people are running in production these days! TIA!

 

[chris_c_]

Groundwire for Android & iOS: The Best $10 You’ll Ever Spend – Nerd Vittles

nerdvittles.com

 

[wardmundy]

And VoIP.ms makes a free one for Android and iOS as well.

 

[chris_c_]

Haven't seen much discussion around the Clearly Anywhere app lately, so I wanted to run a real-world scenario past the forum to see how others would propose handling it.

The Scenario: A busy restaurant with a heavy carry-out volume needs to scale up to 6 remote phone-takers working from home or in restaurant simultaneously.

Proposed Setup:

• Deploying Clearly Anywhere app licenses to the 6 remote employees on their mobile devices.
• Using queues where agents log in and out dynamically.
• Avoiding physical desk phones or remote hardware completely, keeping it entirely app-based via data/Wi-Fi and have the ability to receive text message orders.

Questions for the Forum:

1. Is the Clearly Anywhere app currently the smoothest path for managing remote queue login/logout and business DIDs on mobile, or do folks still prefer other SIP apps (like Groundwire)?
2. How well does Clearly Anywhere handle audio reliability, text messaging and push notifications?
3. Does anyone have a better architectural idea for managing a remote restaurant queue setup similar to this without pulling hair out and requiring users to toggle on and off VPNs?

Would love to hear others thoughts or what people are running in production these days! TIA!

Is it your restaurant? Your client's restaurant?

 

[atsak]

I've had the best luck with groundwire . . . Clearly's stuff is great, but the push tech in groundwire seems to be best in class.

 

[wardmundy]

And the VoIP.ms apps are licensed from Acrobits/Groundwire, and I suspect the Clearly Anywhere app is as well.

 

[KNERD]

For those who want a little more security on their system, the developers made Flexisip. It's an open source Push Gateway that integrates with Apple Push Notification service (APNs) and Google Firebase to route SIP calls and text messages to smartphones even when the application is running in the background or the screen is off.

GitHub - BelledonneCommunications/flexisip: Linphone.org mirror for flexisip (git://git.linphone.org/flexisip.git)

Linphone.org mirror for flexisip (git://git.linphone.org/flexisip.git) - BelledonneCommunications/flexisip

github.com

When you use Acrobits, it automatically uses their push gateway

 

[chris_c_]

Very interesting. It looks like LinPhone also uses Flexisip on sip.linphone.org as its presence, SIP proxy, conferencing, and push notification services to wake up your mobile or desktop VOIP client app to take incoming calls and texts even while the device is in screen off mode for power saving.

 

[Halea]

If your users are on Android phones you might want to take a look at BareSIP. It's an open source project actively maintained and quite mature for personal or business use. The developer has made 2 versions of it, one with basic sip/voip with optional phone integration, the other same as the first plus video support.
They both work quite well. The initial setup is a tad unintuitive (at least to me) but the project has extensive documentation and help. Spending 5mn reading it would make you start with it in no time.
It's available on F-Droid.

 

[MGD4me]

@kmcdaniel...

I'm curious about the 'second' part of your scenario, where you don't wish to rely on additional remote hardware:
The additional remote phones can be setup quite easily, but do you also have remote access to a Point of Sale app running on a PC or laptop, in order to enter a customer's order?

You may already have this 'missing link' operational, it just wasn't mentioned.