5 reasons to upgrade to the latest version of Kitchen iQ

Our Product team regularly release new features and functionality for our solutions aimed at increasing the value our technology adds to your business, including our kitchen and service management solution, Kitchen iQ.

We’ve put together this blog to give you some insights into some of the great functionality we’ve released recently for our Kitchen iQ product, highlight the importance of upgrading regularly, and showcase some of the benefits all of this can bring to your venue.

What’s new in Kitchen iQ?

Load balancing orders

In a recent release for Kitchen iQ, we added the ability to create load balancing rules to evenly distribute orders across multiple stations. These customisable rules enable a primary station to assign orders to one or more secondary stations, ensuring a balanced workload for your team and helping you stay in control of demand – even during peak hours.

Enhanced choice items

Choice items are now taggable, which makes it even easier to keep track of order statuses across multiple stations. This is particularly useful for side dishes or sauces that may be ready before other parts of an order.

Action history sidebar

Kitchens are fast-paced environments, so we’ve enhanced the sidebar functionality within Kitchen iQ. The sidebar now shows the last 30 actions, as well as allowing you to reverse an action if the preparation wasn’t quite right.

Print rules

You can now print a ticket for items without waiting for the full order to be completed – particularly useful for smaller spaces where there may not be space for a screen!

Wait times

In a recent release, we added functionality to allow Kitchen iQ to automatically calculate an estimated wait time for an order to be ready.

Multiple calculations can be configured to determine wait times on specific courses and terminal group areas within a venue.

Results can be displayed on site in the Channels screen, allowing front of house staff to understand and communicate how long the order should take to complete. This feature increases customer satisfaction, keeps them informed and reduces any uncertainty that may come with an extended wait time.

What are the benefits of upgrading?

1. Performance improvements

The Kitchen iQ site server and database has been optimised in recent versions to improve the performance and stability of the application, while maintaining existing functionality. If you experience particularly busy periods of trading, you’ll find these enhancements beneficial.

2. Improve efficiency

New features have been made available to improve efficiency in a busy site. Load Balancing is useful to quickly push incoming orders to an additional station when additional capacity is required. Recipe Cards from Ten Kites can be opened directly on IoT screen controllers, quickly displaying ingredients, cooking instructions, plating, allergen info etc – all at the touch of a button.

3. Device compatibility

Touch screen controls was introduced to support new any new screens or portable devices used on site. Future enhancements are being considered for future versions of Kitchen iQ.

4. Improve customer satisfaction

The Kitchen iQ releases contain important bug fixes to support your business, ensuring that orders are processes seamlessly and customers are satisfied with the service. The new Wait Time Information feature can also be displayed on screens to provide your team with the estimated time it will take for an order to be ready, based on calculations performed by looking at current activity on site at that time.

5. UI improvements

Customer View enhancements have been introduced, allowing collection points to display more accurate information and have customisation options to be aligned with the sites branding. Tagging child order lines is now also supported, to allow users mark off part of an order that is ready or delivered. Recent releases have also included enhancements to the Count View, with the option to display same day Delayed Order counts sent from the POS, highlighting the number of items that need to be prepared and supporting your team with advance bookings.

How do I upgrade?

Please speak to your Account Manager about upgrading to the latest version of Kitchen iQ.