Many readers of this article have likely been to, or have at least heard of, the Wendy's fast food chain. One franchisee operator, LDF Food Group, will soon partner with Earthlink (News - Alert) Holdings Corp. to create a new private network that will help Wendy’s employees complete customer transactions more quickly and will improve the overall customer experience that some readers may get to enjoy.

LDF has a long history with Earthlink, a managed network provider, according to a recent article at Loyalty360.org. All LDF-owned Wendy's locations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas use Earthlink for their point of sale, inventory management, and employee engagement and training systems. The pair will be taking their relationship one step further by implementing the new private network as part of an overall network upgrade.

Acting as a consultant for LDF, Flex Communications spoke on behalf of the operator. Jennifer Orr, director of client development at Flex Communications, commented that, as LDF has expanded, it has grown out of its former network.

"LDF's successful growth made their former network obsolete," Orr said. "Shifting to EarthLink's MPLS is a natural step as it provides the reliability and security of a private network, and the footprint to support LDF's distributed locations at the right price point."

The Earthlink multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) system can drive down credit card processing costs for Wendy's consumers and reduce transaction times to as few as two seconds. The benefits for LDF do not stop there however. LDF was also looking to increase the amount of bandwidth it has to provide for its corporate marketing and loyalty programs, online employee training, and free customer Wi-Fi, and the Earthlink network will be able to provide Wendy's locations with the bandwidth necessary to meet those desires.

Rich Albrecht, the vice president and controller of LDF, said his customers expect to have a consistent experience and that the Earthlink network will be able to work behind the scenes – by providing a reliable, secure network – to give customers what they are after. Furthermore, he said he believes that his own IT team will find a more consistent network that will allow them to focus on developing applications and projects rather than fixing errors. Earthlink Executive Vice President Rick Froehlich also noted that the stable network will be able to continue to support LDF as it grows.

With further expansion and a greater number of franchise locations, LDF will certainly need a stable network that will place new locations on good footing from the start while continuing to solidify consistent operations at established locations. The pairing of LDF and Earthlink for this project appears to have the strength to support LDF for several years to come.