Example Use Cases

In addition to the use case descriptions written below, see the demo videos.

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Work request management

A hotel guest had the valet store their car. The hotel has their own PC-based third-party system for managing the valet-parked cars. As the guest comes to the front desk and begins to check out, this third-party system knows that a valet needs to fetch the guest's car, and it triggers a Relay workflow with information about the stored car. This Relay workflow will announce to all the valets on duty via their Relay device that Alice Smith's car parked in stall 23 needs to be brought to the hotel's front door, and asks that someone accept the work request. This audio prompt repeats every 30 seconds until one valet accepts the work request by pressing a button on the Relay. All the other valets then receive an announcement with the name of the valet that accepted the work request. And the accepted state of the work request is fed back to the third-party system, where the front desk staff sees this update on their computer screen. When the valet delivers the car to the front door, he presses the Relay's button again to indicate that the work request has been completed. The completion of the work request is fed back to the third-party system, and the front desk staff sees this final update on their computer screen or hear it on their Relay earpiece, and then they can say to the guest, "Ms Smith, your car is ready."

Panic alerting

Hospitality workers are spread out in a large hotel working by themselves, far away from their co-workers. They can use the push-to-talk audio capability to communicate with team members and management while they are spread out, to ask questions and pass along information. If a worker comes across a medical situation or otherwise has an emergency they need help with, they can press a button on the Relay device to issue an emergency alert, without having to dial a number or say anything. The emergency alert is received by the system, and a broadcast announcement is sent to a predefined group of responders carrying a Relay that include the security team, management, and the web console operator. The announcement includes the name of the worker who sent the call for help, and the room-level location of the worker, so the responders know exactly where to go in the hotel. All the Relay devices of the responders and the worker who sent the call for help will automatically be joined to a shared audio channel until the emergency is resolved. When they press the talk button, by default they are talking to this emergency group, so the whole group stays in sync. The system asks one of the responders to acknowledge the emergency request by pressing a button. When they do so, a message is announced on the worker's Relay saying that their emergency request has been acknowledged, with the name of the responder. When the emergency has been resolved, the web console operator can click a button, enter a description of the incident, and that information along with the timestamps is logged in an incident database, which is available for later queries and audits. FYI, this is a built-in workflow, so no custom coding is needed for this. This built-in workflow uses the same Relay APIs that are available in the SDK, so you could replicate and customize this use case using the SDK.

Service audit trail

A building cleaning company uses Relay for push-to-talk voice communication, because only one cleaning worker is in a building, and the team is spread out through many buildings across the metro area. One of the building tenants has been complaining about an area being dirty. With a Relay-produced NFC tag located in that area, when the cleaning worker services that area, they tap their Relay device to the NFC tag. The tap triggers a workflow that emails the tenant that an area has been serviced, announces a task completion to the manager, and adds an entry into an auditable database that includes the static location of the NFC tag and the dynamic location of the Relay. The cleaning manager can show that database to the tenant as proof of the areas being attended to in a timely manner.

Phone call for location-centric service

A team of contract workers delivers food throughout a large institution, one worker per floor. When the front desk needs to reach one of the workers to make a special request, they pick up their phone and dial a single phone number. At that phone number, an automated voice response unit asks them which floor their request is for, so it can be routed to the correct contract worker. The front desk worker presses the "3" on their telephone keypad, and the Relay workflow bridges the front desk's call to the Relay of the 3rd-floor contract worker as a full-duplex audio conversation. The contract worker's Relay will ring with a vibration, audible tone, and LED lights, and they can press a button to answer. When the conversation is done, the contract worker can press a button to hang up and terminate the call with the front desk.

Real-time inventory updates

Want to give your workers real-time data access in a warehouse environment? Program a Relay Button to map voice commands to live warehouse database queries on inventory levels and item locations. Send text-to-speech voice alerts when inventory levels fall below pre-set thresholds.

Automatic Time Logging

Do your workers need to allocate time to specific job sites? Use a Relay Button tap to log work done at a particular site. On button press, capture location and time stamp to automatically associate it with a particular location and start a tracking session. Send a voice notification if they exit the job-site without ending their session.

Instant Help Button

Ever struggled to provide real-time help to remote sites? Program a Relay Button to quickly connect users to real-time help: A single tap of the button alerts your support staff that a user needs help at a specified location via in-app notification or SMS. Support can then send a message back via text-to-speech or jump into a live two way call to resolve the issue.