ZAZU

Zazu is a mobile and web restaurant management and booking platform.

Product Summary

This application has scaled in feature set over the last number of years. In its most basic and original format, this app was originally planned to allow for people to search for venues, make bookings and complete payments.

In recent times (at the client’s request) we have added food ordering and delivery to the platform. As the platform is supported by an API, we also carried this feature set to a white labelled web link that the founder can upsell to venues.

Finally, following the project’s initial development, we also added a table management function to the project.

Technical Description

We utilised a modern technology stack along with integrating leading services to deliver a highly performant and effective platform.

Technical Setup

The architected solution consisted of the following:

API – Django + Django Rest Framework (Python

Dashboard – React (JavaScript)

Servers: Heroku (built on AWS)

Database: Postgres (AWS RDS)

Payments Processor: Stripe

Continuous integration: Heroku

Continuous Delivery: Heroku + Github

Twilio: Whatsapp notifications Google API’s: Maps

Interesting Notes

As part of the table booking feature, we built a waiting list feature into Zazu. This utilises a Twilio integration to send SMS messages to ‘walk ins’ and those that had booked through the app last minute. 

As the founder of the platform was concerned about the cost of SMS messages not being scalable over the long term, he requested these messages be sent via WhatsApp.

 Zazu was granted a place on the beta programme for the Twilio Whatsapp feature set.