HotSchedules and Kitchen Brains Partner to Put Appliances on Internet of Things (IoT)

AUSTIN, Texas and STRATFORD, Conn., March 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HotSchedules®, a leading provider of cloud-based mobile technology for the restaurant and hospitality industries, has partnered with Kitchen Brains to bring its SCK® Quality Production Manager (QPM) together with the HotSchedules IoT Platform. Kitchen Brains' QPM application integrates cooking platforms such as fryers and ovens with real-time point-of-sale (POS) data. The integration plans, directs, and reports cooking instructions to ensure that food is always hot, fresh and available for guests. The IoT Platform will eliminate the complexity and costs of connecting QPM to other restaurant technologies especially POS systems.   

QPM is part the Kitchen Brains Genius Suite, a collection of technologies that seamlessly connect front and back-of-house restaurant systems with all aspects of food production and facility management, creating a truly intelligent commercial kitchen. QPM monitors real-time and historical sales to dynamically coach the kitchen crew on what to cook, when to cook it, how much to cook and when to discard expired product. Typically, QPM increases a restaurant's fresh product scores from 50%-60% to 95% and product availability from 60%-70% to above 90%. Because product is tracked from cook to holding to waste, QPM can calculate inventory changes and quality metrics by product and by shift.

By connecting Kitchen Brains QPM with the HotSchedules IoT platform POS solutions and cooking equipment will work seamlessly eliminating traditional API complexities while allowing restaurants to maximize their existing IT investments. Restaurants will be able increase speed-of-service, improve food quality and reduce wastage while cutting IT costs.

The HotSchedules IoT platform will collect QPM's data on food quality, wastage, inventory consumption, speed of service and savings. From the cloud, this data can be delivered to any analytics solution including HotSchedules Reveal, an app that provides actionable insights for hospitality businesses on a smartphone, tablet or browser. The data can also be linked to HotSchedules Inventory, a mobile application that enables restaurants to efficiently track and manage inventory and queue orders for products that are below ideal quantities.

Whereas restaurants must normally create one-to-one integrations between each application and technology they use, the IoT Platform becomes a hub for all integrations. In other words, if 10 restaurant technologies would normally call for 45 separate integrations, the HotSchedules IoT Platform reduces that number to just 10. If one technology is replaced (e.g. a new POS system or fryer), it can be connected to the IoT Platform without affecting the other integrations. Thus, restaurants can evolve their technology and dining experience without the usual IT hassles.

In addition, developers can build new integrations and applications for the HotSchedules IoT Platform. Because the platform centralizes all in-store, near-store and above-store data in the cloud, any HotSchedules app or third-party app connected to the platform can access that data. This enables developers to create applications much faster and less expensively than normal.  

"No matter what forecasting software you use, real-time sales data is the key to validating your predictions and adapting to new conditions. Real-time sales data is essential for QPM to deliver precise production management.  That is why partnering with HotSchedules will be valuable to our customers," said Mario Ceste, CEO at Kitchen Brains. "The IoT Platform ensures that you can connect QPM with any POS system, analytics solution or forecasting software. It's a cost-efficient and innovative approach to integrating smart kitchen technologies and leveraging the millions of IoT capable devices we have installed in restaurant appliances during the last twenty-years."

"Many of our customers use Kitchen Brains QPM to serve consistent, quality food across thousands of global locations. This partnership will help them optimize QPM no matter what other technology vendors are used in conjunction," said Anthony Lye, CEO at HotSchedules. "This is an obvious win for both companies and our customers."   

About Kitchen Brains 
For over 45 years Kitchen Brains, more commonly known by the iconic FAST brand name, has globally helped restaurants deliver hot, fresh, available food. Our leading-edge timing and control devices are deployed individually and in unison. They integrate wirelessly across all equipment, powered by SaaS apps solely built for the Smart Commercial Kitchen®.

Labor, training, and operational costs are lowered, while the highest standards for food safety and product quality are met. Management has seamless accessibility to Key Performance Indicators, with cloud-based dashboards and control from anywhere.  

Kitchen Brains has delivered its control technologies on millions of appliances used in hundreds of thousands Foodservice locations worldwide in 40 countries. For more information visit: http://www.kitchenbrains.com

About HotSchedules

HotSchedules provides mobile, cloud-based technology for the restaurant, retail and hospitality industries. The company delivers a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to automate operational challenges, making working for and in restaurants easier and more efficient. Its world-class products include social recruiting, e-learning, comprehensive labor management, BI, inventory, print and digital logbooks and various applications built on their self-publishing API platform. HotSchedules is proud to serve more than 2 million users in over 150,000 locations across 26 countries. For more information visit: http://www.hotschedules.com.

SOURCE HotSchedules

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