Fraunhofer HHI's Queue Management System with SMS notification is a Web-based application that enables an efficient management of the available time of public authorities or private companies and of their customers.
The system is suitable for all business units or departments with services that rely on the physical appearance of their customers, usually leading to queues of people when those services are frequented extensively.
The system enables waiting people to remove themselves from the site and to perform more useful or enjoying activities than just waiting (e.g. shopping, drinking coffee, visiting a friend in the neighbourhood, etc.).

The main features of the system are the following:

A) Service providers' customers (e.g. citizens as customers of public administrations) can

• inform themselves by means of the WWW about the estimated waiting time before they frequent a service site
• queue up virtually by means of a kiosk system at the service site or by telling the service personnel their requests
• let themselves be notified by means of SMS in advance (e.g. 10 min) that it will be their turn at a given (estimated) time.

B) Service providers' employees (e.g. civil servants) can

• make appointments with customers and put them into a virtual queue by means of a Web browser
• call up waiting customers by means of a Web-based notification board, located in the waiting area
• notify waiting people by SMS that (s)he will be served soon and should come to the counter or service desk.

The system does not require any special equipment - One needs only a computer with access to the Internet and a Web browser.

Example: Office of Citizen Services

In an office of citizen service, the system functions as follows:

The official in charge (civil servant) at the office adds a new customer (citizen) to the database which manages the queues of the offices of citizen services. If the citizen wants to get a notification by means of SMS (s)he must state her/his mobile phone's number. Another possibility is to let the citizen queue up and issue a queue number by means of a touch screen terminal or a kiosk in the waiting area.

 If the official changes the queue (e.g. by removing a customer who has been served from the queue) in a way that the customer's waiting time drops under a certain time (e.g. 10 min), an http request is sent to an SMS service provider and its server generates an appropriate SMS message and sends it to the customer (see photo).
When the civil servant is ready to serve the citizen, (s)he calls her/him up by means of a call-up board, usually located in the waiting area.

Fraunhofer HHI's Queue Management System in Berlin

The queue management system with SMS notification has been tested successfully within the framework of a pilot trial in which 17 offices of citizen services in Berlin participated. Since 2011 this service can be offered in all districts of Berlin.

See also the video by tv.berlin (comments in German).

Mobile SMS queue management

We designed a small web-interface, easily accessible even with smartphones, for a queue management with SMS especially for a mobile use.