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CASE STUDY:
LDF FOOD GROUP, INC.
EarthLink’s MPLS
Direct Connect
helps franchisor put
the fast in fast food
for better service and
happier customers
Snapshot of a networking success story
LDF Food Group, Inc. owns and operates 42 Wendy’s
restaurant franchises in the Midwest. The company
relies on technology to help deliver a fast, efficient,
and pleasant dining experience.
Guests see technology at work when they access the free
wireless Internet, pay with their mobile devices, or use a
Wendy’s app to count calories. Behind the scenes, reliable
connectivity supports the customer experience with webbased employee training and rapid processing of transactions
and vendor orders.
LDF’s previous data network couldn’t scale to meet new
demands. Seeking to increase bandwidth, reduce costs and
improve reliability, efficiency and security, LDF acted on a
recommendation by its consultant: Move to EarthLink’s MPLS
Direct Connect service.
The service payoff
The
business payoff
It’s
All About the Customer Experience
With ample capacity and 99.999%
network uptime, LDF delivers
on its promise of quick service.
All locations rapidly process
credit card transactions, and
the company stays ahead of
increasing bandwidth needs as
Wendy’s corporate launches new
innovations for guests.
Direct transport of POS traffic lowers
LDF’s transaction processor fees
and adds new layers of security for
compliance with the retail industry’s
credit card processing standards.
With its easily scalable network, LDF
can readily open new locations
— a task made even simpler with
EarthLink taking over configuration
and testing.
With the small margins of the restaurant business, savvy owners constantly strive to
improve the customer experience. LDF looked beyond the “techy” advantages of a
MPLS network — and saw opportunities to add network excellence to its formula for
superior customer experiences. With EarthLink as its partner, LDF proves that network
performance and happy customers go hand in hand.
Challenge
Results
Wendy’s corporate marketing team
continually drives innovations that
improve the guest experience. LDF’s
network was pressed to support
new initiatives with the bandwidth,
transaction speed, and reliability needed
to maintain the company’s awardwinning service.
With EarthLink MPLS Direct
Connect, LDF’s 42 stores have
direct, PCI compliant, private
connections to leading payment
processing vendors. The shorter
path for POS traffic cuts transaction
times to as little as two seconds.
Direct transport cuts transaction
fees — a benefit that grows with
each credit card payment.
Clearly, LDF needed a network
infrastructure with greater capacity
and reliability for critical applications,
including the point-of-sale system,
credit card processing, and Voice over
IP traffic.
Security was another concern. The
company sought better processes
for safeguarding customers’ personal
information and ensuring compliance
with Payment Card Industry standards.
Solution
A consulting firm, Flex
Communications, evaluated network
providers for LDF. They concluded
that EarthLink MPLS Direct Connect
was the best option for satisfying
all of LDF’s goals: improve reliability,
efficiency and security; reduce overall
network costs; and adapt readily to
increasing network demands.
Extraordinary network reliability
ensures that LDF’s restaurants
can keep delivering a superior
guest experience. The restaurants
see 99.999% uptime for orders,
payment processing, guest wireless
Internet access and web-based
employee training. A centralized
Data Center Firewall protects all
Internet traffic at each location.
“
Customers come to our
stores for a consistent
product in a quick fashion
and if we don’t supply
either, they’ll not be back.
EarthLink’s reliability helps
us support our customers
the way we want to.
”
Rick Albrecht
Vice President and Comptroller
LDF Food Group, Inc.
LDF also lowered transaction and
phone service costs by thousands
annually, offsetting the cost of
upgrading to its network.
Contact us at
Future
1-877-355-1501
With its substantially improved
network, LDF can keep pace with
future customer-friendly initiatives
from Wendy’s corporate and
accommodate organic growth, too.
About Us
EarthLink provides managed network, security and cloud solutions for multi-location businesses.
We help thousands of specialty retailers, restaurants, financial institutions, healthcare providers,
professional service firms and local governments deliver a reliable and engaging customer
experience in their stores and branch offices.
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