The back-of-the-house kitchen or restaurant has rightfully earned a reputation as one of the most demanding work-places, both in terms of the requirements of the staff and the sheer intensity of the physical environment. With ovens, stoves, dishwashers, and a cadre of other equipment firing constantly on all cylinders, the kitchen quickly becomes a crowded, hot, and loud workspace. And, the ability to seamlessly receive, execute, and serve or deliver orders in a timely fashion is today’s most critical factor defining the success of any kitchen or restaurant.

As COVID-19 has forced restaurants to quickly adapt their business from a dine-in to a delivery model, the technology to help ensure the accurate receipt and fulfillment of customer orders has never been more critical. The biggest challenge facing most kitchens in terms of receiving and executing orders presents itself in the shortcomings of the most commonly used technology: most restaurants were operating with a non-certified, off-the-shelf device that they attempted to pair with a standard kitchen ticket printer via a Bluetooth connection.

Not surprisingly, this disjointed technological hodgepodge presented several issues for restaurants. First, off-the shelf consumer devices are not GMS certified, meaning they don’t receive critical 90-day Google security updates. And, as consumer devices they were not designed to withstand the intense heat and moisture of a kitchen and specifically support the functionality and applications required by restaurants to seamlessly receive and fulfill delivery orders. Plus, with the noise in the kitchen these off-the-shelf devices didn’t have the visual or audio components necessary to ensure incoming orders are seen and heard.

Lastly, these consumer devices operated poorly in the hot, humid conditions, and the dual device setup contributed to connectivity issues, meaning the orders weren’t printing on time, or even at all. And, the Bluetooth connection many restaurants used to try and sync these consumer tablet devices and kitchen printers were often interrupted in functionality on account of many factors, not limited to the heat from the kitchen, meaning that orders were missed, tickets weren’t printed, and business was ultimately lost.

With billions of dollars at stake in revenue and a delivery-based model becoming the new normal for restaurants, a new and more effective solution was desperately needed. Enter Social Mobile’s M10p, a first-of-its-kind device built with the MediaTek Genio 500, offering an enterprise tablet with a Seiko’s flagship CAPM347 printing mechanism directly integrated. Working with some of the largest food delivery companies in the world, Social Mobile designed the M10p to tackle the issues facing restaurants and the rapidly growing food delivery industry.

“The Genio 500 is a powerful yet efficient AIoT platform perfectly suited for Enterprise IoT applications that require high performance edge processing, advanced multimedia capabilities, multiple high-resolutions cameras, connected touchscreen displays, and multi-tasking OS. M10p Enterprise device developed by Social Mobile exemplifies the versatility of the Genio platform.” said Sunil Chhugani, Director, US Business Development, MediaTek. “MediaTek is proud to partner with an innovative company like Social Mobile that understands the market needs and creatively applies the power of the technology to the evolving needs of the Restaurant industry.”

With the M10p, Social Mobile created an enterprise tablet designed to withstand the intense kitchen environment and operate across LTE bands for easy global usage. The device supports PoE, RJ45, ethernet, and landlines so that no additional expenses are incurred in the instance when LTE functionality may not be readily available. And, to future-proof the device, Social Mobile also incorporated E-SIM capability so the device can be shipped to and deployed in any market without needing to physically insert a SIM Card. The revamped design also includes two front-facing stereo speakers which are loud enough to ensure that the kitchen staff can hear the notifications of an incoming order despite the surrounding noise. And, the LED strip included on the device also helps offer an additional means to ensure employees receive the critical updates about incoming orders.

“Social Mobile quickly recognized that the absence of the proper technology to support the needs of the rapidly growing food delivery industry was a major challenge facing restaurants and delivery services alike. As such, we partnered with MediaTek to build the M10p specifically to offer an affordable, reliable solution to these challenges,” said Robert Morcos, CEO at Social Mobile.

To that point, Social Mobile’s M10p has helped food delivery companies and restaurants have a reliable tool to facilitate uninterrupted connectivity between tablet devices and kitchen printers. By integrating the thermal printer directly into the ruggedized, enterprise M10p and powering it with MediaTek’s SoC incorporating an LTE modem, the interruption of connectivity between the kitchen ticket printer and the tablets responsible for receiving and tracking orders, is eliminated. Plus, Social Mobile’s M10p can also seamlessly power a register till, EFTPOS, or barcode scanner, making the device readily usable as an all-in-one POS. All in all, the M10p is the ideal device for anyone looking to deploy a versatile solution that can add value anywhere in a restaurant.

With a lifespan of more than three years, one global SKU, and the only Google certification of its kind, Social Mobile produced a truly unique and streamlined device to solve a major challenge. This first-of-its-kind device allowed large food delivery companies to facilitate rapid growth, since the same SKU was readily deployable domestically and internationally. In addition, with the staging and kitting already completed by Social Mobile, all M10p devices come packaged and ready-to-deploy right out of the box.

This article was originally published by MediaTek.