Description
Delivery Teams is a cloud computing, complex system that works, originated from a simple system that
worked.
It allows the seamless integration of Restaurateur Pro POS with real-time online orders; optionally, it can
simultanously signal the local Delivery Team to deliver the orders, in those instances when the restaurant
does not magane their own delivery. It's workflow is as described below:
Way ahead of it's proper time, this project was developed in 1992.
In it's original design, the "server" side of the
project was written in Clipper by my friend and great programmer Francisco Fernández who worked
for Telefónica de España, and operated over a
Novell® network. The setup allowed for as many stations
as phone lines were contracted, those stations been manned by trained phone receptionists who typed the
orders into the system's pool.
The "pool" of received orders was
scanned every 15 seconds; if an order was found, the delivery address recognized, the "server" called
the appropiate shop using 2400bps modems, and the order was "NetMailed" to and processed by the
receiving store.
It was a simple system that
worked!
In its current version, 32 years later, it is a decentralized, cryptographically secured, RESTful Web Service.
By appying the latest available technologies, - the Web evolves continuously and so has cryptography -
the simple system that worked became a complex sytem
that works.
Origin of Delivery Teams project
While working as a mid-level manager for a fast food chain in the Isle of Mallorca named Chippy's, I suggested the owner to organize a central call
center where orders for delivery could be placed and then distributed to the appropiate shop
- 17 at that time -
depending on the caller's address. That man was a visionary and quickly accepted my plan.
Take note of the fact that while the Internet existed
by 1992 few people outside of academic circles had even heard about it.
I was inspired by
FidoNet's 'NetMail' technology
to develop our own routines to submit the orders to the corresponding shop, taking about 30 - 45 seconds
for the process to complete.
Unless proven wrong, at the
time of it's launch this product was the first system of its class
in the World.
This happened 12 years before the launch of grubhub.
This project marked a milestone in my life as a developer,
remaining the philosophical muse of both Restaurateur Pro and Delivery Teams.
UPDATE: This service is now active as of Aug. 27
th 2021. It will be in production as soon as
a new, inter-operable REST API is completed.
