QUEUE REMOTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

A queue remote management system and a related method are provided, allowing a user to remotely book, receive and manage a ticket for participating to a virtual queue, and finally to receive the call for approaching the counter and the corresponding physical queue, minimizing the time of physical presence at the counter before being provided of the expected service, with integration between conventional ticket machines, operating at different counters and at different entity locations, and a wireless virtual ticket system operated by any user through his personal client terminal, the system comprising: at least one queue management server (100) wherein a plurality of virtual queues are stored and managed, the virtual queues concerning a plurality of counters (102) of one or more entities, each counter (102) being connected to the queue management server (100) to exchange a predetermined information set concerning the call of queue tickets;a plurality of ticket machines (101) physically associated to said counters (102) and issuing physical queue tickets, each ticket machine (101) being connected to the queue management server (100) to exchange a predetermined information set concerning the issue of said physical queue tickets;a plurality of client terminals(103), allowing a user to obtain a virtual queue ticket related to one or more of said counters(102), each client terminal (103) comprising an identification code or an identification certificate allowing to establish a connection to the queue management server (100) to exchange a predetermined information set concerning the status of a user's queue based on both the physical and the virtual tickets,the counters(102), the ticket machines (101) and the client terminal (103) being connected to the at least one queue management server (100) through a communication network,wherein said ticket machines(101), said counters (102) and the at least one queue management server (100) communicate through a corresponding VPN tunnel (104) or through an encrypted web service established in said communication network, the ticket machines (101) and the counters (102) being linked through a dedicated IP address or domain.