Q-Better Makes Free QR Code/Smartphone Solution Available For Access Control

May 15, 2020 by Dave Haynes

The Portuguese company Q-Better, which has been doing queue management for the past 10 years, has announced a new, free access control software solution for businesses, like retail, that may be opening back up but need to limit how people come inside.

The QR-Queue solution is cloud-based and built around the base idea of scanning a QR code with a smartphone outside a store, which puts that person in a queue. Customers can then hang out in the parking lot or their car, instead of standing in a line-up. They get notified on their phones when their turn to come in pops up.

The company has a larger solution that is fee-based and has more functionality, but this alone would be better than what’s being done in no end of stores, where people are living up in the rain and wind. A simple QR code-based solution (these enhanced scanner symbols have more utility now that scanning is built in to the camera apps of new phones) is pretty basic, but does the job.

Going this path might be all a small store needs. My TD Canada Trust branch has its own version to let one or two customers in at any given time, but where I live, three people at once would be rush hour.

Larger stores that see a steady flow of people will likely want more elaborate, involved systems wth entrance displays running red/green shopper traffic signals, and using sensors or computer vision to read densities.

I assume Q-Better sees this as a way to introduce queue management into businesses that maybe never had to think about it. There’s lots of history of “freemium” software platforms – doing a variety of things – run with the idea of converting users to paying customers through enhanced functionality.

Leave a comment