Can anyone help.
we are trying to get all deliveries confirmed with a signature. We are finding that for many deliveries the signal is not strong enough for the functionality of Breww. This makes getting a signature very painful.
Has anyone else solved this problem?
PIddle brewery
There’s this FR
Deliveries mobile app to work when not in signal - container scanning, POD pictures, signatures, completing deliveries - Ideas & feature requests - Breww Community
In an area with spotty coverage we always used paper.
we do at the moment, but we are also paying for a software where the functionality is questionable. the use of the app is often a challenge due to the size, and you cannot work off line
papers can get lost as well.
we are looking for a better way. we are currently investigating shopify…
There is a feature request that addresses precisely this issue. But see also:
Fallacies of distributed computing - Wikipedia
If you want better connectivity than provided by your mobile phone network in out of the way spots, there’s expensive alternatives. Up to you.
I take it from your comments that you are not in a rural area. There are vast areas of Dorset that have no signal. There are vast areas with poor or weak signal. As far as I am aware, spots as you call them are an urban feature.
Many hospitality areas in Dorset have great views but terrible signal. I am reading of a similar problem with a company in Devon. I suspect Cornwall is the same.
Many large events do not have signals at all the locations even when dedicated equipment is hired. There is simply not the infrastructure or population density.
It is for this reason many companies in the area use software that can work off line and be downloaded later. We do for collecting credit card payments.
It is not therefore as you say ‘up to me’. I assume you live in some urban metropolis.
I am open to any practical suggestions that does not involve hiring our own satellite dish.
I used to work in “The Lakes”, so I really appreciate this problem, and I really sympathise. I entirely agree that Breww should support “offline” working here. Which is why I linked to the FR - wasn’t being funny, get it voted for.
Even in the urban metropolis I’m in now, we have outages which have caused all kinds of bizarre glitches with Breww (a colleague managed to over-assign!? while scanning a pallet’s worth of cask yesterday while our wifi in the brewery was playing up).
Hi Piddle team,
We appreciate your feedback on the app functionality in low to no-signal areas. @jon-kyme2 has flagged the relevant feature request for the Deliveries mobile app to work when not in signal - container scanning, POD pictures, signatures, completing deliveries, and I know this is on our development radar. You may have seen that we recently made an update to our Breww app, which, though mostly invisible on the user end, is designed to allow us to make updates and improvements like the feature linked here quicker and easier in the future and is part of the groundwork needed for us to implement such a feature.
Please remember to add your vote to the feature request and sign up for updates. If you have any suggestions on this functionality, please add your comments to that thread. I know the team looking after those requests will happily review them when it comes to building this feature.
thanks. It is tough for certain. it is because the app has so many features, and the signature is in the middle. Chances of getting to the signature page is slim.
Sadly, we cannot wait for development speed. I really need to solve this quickly. I am thinking of trying it using Shopify signature system. There are some hurdles but we can only try.
thanks for all your comments. Much appreciated.
We’re keen to get offline support but put it on hold until the app had been rebuilt in our new framework. That was finished last week, so that blocker is now out of the way.
I’m sure there will be tools you can use for offline signature capture in the meantime, but I’m not sure Shopify is the right path, to be honest. Shopify is an e-commerce platform.
In the meantime, you could take printed delivery notes to customers in problem areas and get those signed. You can then photo these and upload them to Breww when you’re back on WiFi to record signatures.
thanks Luke,
sadly, your suggestion is what we currently do , but we have three or more people delivering and if they remember to upload ( assuming they have a signal), then they have to send it to a central file so everything is in one place. If you have ever delivered you can imagine how often this happens.
If you can recommend something other than shopify we are all ears, which is why I started these discussions. Shopify has the advantage that it usually integrates into Breww. There are some practical steps that would be needed, orders would need to be made in shopify, and the route plan from breww uploaded.into shopify
However it the best we could find that integrates with Breww. as I say if you have any ideas let me know.
For our part, one of the big issues is that the signature system is difficult to get to for a driver. Think how many screens you have to go through to get to the signature. it is very clunky.
It would be much easier if there was a short cut off the main function bar. I don’t know if this is possible.
Thanks for all your input.
Ian
I’m afraid there is nothing that integrates with Breww in this way. Even if you could somehow turn Shopify into an offline delivery driver app (which I’d be very surprised at), the Breww integration wouldn’t work with this as it very specifically handles a fixed set of features (such as importing orders from Shopify and stock level syncing). As you say, orders would need to be made in Shopify and route plans uploaded, which doesn’t happen with the Breww integration.
I’m all for looking critically at ourselves to ensure we make Breww as good as possible, but I have to disagree here. The number of steps is fairly minimal. Firstly, you choose the date and then the run that you’re doing, then simply click on the first delivery, click “Complete delivery”, and enter the signature. At this point, you can press back, click on the next delivery and choose “Complete delivery”… It’s literally just four buttons per delivery, start to finish.
I’m assuming you’re using the “Deliveries” tab at the bottom of our mobile app, if not, then you should do as it’s much better than using the web interface in the “Breww” tab.
I appreciate you’re looking for a solution today, and I’m sorry that I don’t have one for you today. Now that the new app is in place, we’ve laid the foundations to build the offline support, so without being able to promise a timeframe, I do think we should be able to start this project before too long.
Luke,
Thank you for taking part of in this discussion. Sadly, I am worried that the signature system in Breww will always be impractical, as it is in the logical place as far as process is concerned, but in a terrible place as far as access is concerned.
I will investigate shopify off line to make sure. Our plan is not to integrate the route plan, as for obvious reason we don’t really use it out on the road on for the initial planning. We will only integrate the delivered part of the shopify, which I think works.
we will have to upload the route into shopify but this can be done via an excel spread sheet.
In away it takes us back before we had breww, but we need a signature system.
Thanks, Ian. Could you shed some more light on what you mean here and how you think this could work better?
Luke, this is my error. I found it frustrating because I only open the app for one order. As the driver reminded me, once you have reached the delivery page you keep that open all the time, so there is no frustration.
The team here are of the view that it will all be fine is we can just find a way of working off line.
thanks again for your help.
Ian