Download “Best Practices for Independent Operators”

Want new ways to make your business more profitable?

Download the “Best Practices for Independent Operators” guide to explore the latest convenience retail trends, tools, and insights that will impact your business in 2025 and beyond.

This information-packed guide is specifically designed for independent operators like you! You’ll discover:

1. Emerging c-store trends
2. Insights on identifying the right technology solutions
3. Tips for collaborating with CPG brands

Get the guide, then connect with PDI experts to learn how to maximize your technology investment.

Interested in other convenience reports?

Find more PDI reports here.

In today’s fast-paced convenience and fuel retail industry, your business is constantly facing changes and new challenges. From shifting consumer behaviors to breakthrough technology and stiffer competition, the effort to maintain your business edge can feel like an uphill battle. 

That’s why “Connecting Convenience” is more than just a tagline for PDI. To us, connecting convenience means providing you with the solutions and tools to boost productivity, make smarter decisions, and engage more effectively with your customers. 

We’re continually investing in innovative solutions and services that streamline core business operations to further increase your profitability—whether you’re running a single location or managing a national retail chain. 

Today, much of the industry recognizes PDI for our Enterprise solution, which has provided a reliable technology foundation for fuel and convenience retailers across the decades. But did you know that we deliver a lot more than ERP software? You can now go well beyond ERP with over 30 different PDI solutions designed to help you secure your business, engage consumers faster, enhance your customer experience, and unlock the full potential of your data. 

More than ERP: A fully integrated retail ecosystem 

If you’re like many convenience retailers who already know and use PDI Enterprise, the good news is that these additional offerings integrate seamlessly with it! 

You not only get the benefits of each solution—you benefit from the collective advantage of working with a single vendor, leveraging systems your IT team already knows, and building on a rock-solid technology foundation. 

The result? Greater efficiency and higher productivity to streamline your operations while opening new growth opportunities for your business. For instance, with PDI Retail Site Management, you can leverage enhanced capabilities like PDI Enterprise Foodservice and Next-Generation Lottery Tracking. 

Or, if you’re thinking about upgrading to Electronic Shelf Labels, PDI offers the only solution that’s fully integrated with both Enterprise and Pricebook. This level of integration creates exciting new ways to expand your in-store digital media, strengthen your loyalty program, and create a good base for your retail media network strategy. 

There’s a PDI solution for each business goal 

No matter the size of your business or your progress on your digital transformation journey, PDI helps convenience retailers succeed in a variety of ways. We’ll help you: 

• Secure your business: Strengthen security for all aspects of your business to protect your key assets and customers. 

• Engage consumers more effectively: Use targeted tools to connect with your customers at every touchpoint on their own terms. 

• Elevate your customer experience: Create seamless, engaging experiences in-store and beyond. 

• Turn insights into action: Unlock the value of your data and analytics to build impactful engagement strategies. 

• Expand your brand: Amplify your brand and solutions to reach new markets and customers. 

• Supplement your team: Leverage PDI professional services expertise to fill gaps and enhance your operations. 

Leveraging PDI’s powerful, integrated solutions as the backbone of your convenience ecosystem, you can feel confident that your business will be ready for whatever comes next. 

Explore Now or Connect with an Expert

Contact our experts to discuss how PDI can help your business far beyond ERP—today and well into the future.

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Securing Restaurant Networks

KBP Inspired worked with PDI Security Solutions experts to:

• Offload network management activities
• Modernize its network technology
• Simplify its business operations

Business Challenges

• Inconsistency with network services due to multiple security and network vendors
• Reliance on legacy hardware that complicated IT management
• Limited visibility over site issues, traffic monitoring, and data usage

Solution Overview – PDI Network Management Solutions

PDI Network Management Solutions, including PDI Firewall as a Service, provide highly distributed businesses with a fully managed network security solution. Key capabilities include a cloud-based network platform, automated 4G wireless backup, tools to support PCI compliance, and optional Wi-Fi and 5G Internet services.

Read more about PDI Network Management Solutions

Customer Results

• Improved Wi-Fi services to deliver a better guest experience
• Introduced next-generation 5G primary Internet services
• Consolidated network management under a single vendor

Strengthening Cybersecurity

Working with PDI Security Solutions experts, RTS:

• Strengthened its cybersecurity posture
• Sped up threat detection and incident response
• Modernized security offerings for its clients

Business Challenges

• An increasingly sophisticated global cyberthreat landscape
• A lack of specifically trained cybersecurity resources and expertise

Solution Overview – PDI Cybersecurity Solutions

PDI cybersecurity solutions, including PDI XDR and MDR, provide businesses with a fully managed option to help prevent sophisticated cyberattacks. These advanced services include continuous monitoring along with real-time threat detection and response from a 24/7/365 Security Operations Center staffed by highly trained security experts.

Read more about PDI Cybersecurity Solutions

Customer Results

• Delivered fully managed network and endpoint protection
• Enabled 24/7/365 continuous monitoring, detection, and response
• Freed up clients to focus on their core business operations

Secure your business with help from the experts

Cybersecurity has become a full-time job. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be your job. When you don’t have the internal resources or expertise to adequately protect your business, turn to the cybersecurity experts.

With a comprehensive suite of fully managed cybersecurity and network security services, you can get the cost-effective protection you need for even the most highly distributed environments.

Simplifying Security at Scale

A national fast-casual restaurant chain implemented PDI Firewall as a Service to:

• Keep its private Wi-Fi secure
• Reduce its IT management burden
• Avoid PCI non-compliance fees

Business Challenges

• Aging hardware devices that were due for replacement
• Growing need for better protection of customer data and payments to meet PCI compliance

Solution Overview – PDI Firewall as a Service

PDI Network Management Solutions, including PDI Firewall as a Service, provide highly distributed businesses with a fully managed network security solution. Key capabilities include a cloud-based network platform, automated 4G wireless backup, tools to support PCI compliance, and optional Wi-Fi and 5G Internet services.

Read more about PDI Network Management Solutions

Customer Results

• Deployed Firewall as a Service at over 400 restaurants
• Added a layer of protection for business systems and data
• Reduced IT workload by deploying solutions fully managed by PDI

Some relationships start out great and just keep going strong. Other relationships might seem good for a while but eventually fizzle out. And some relationships should be avoided at all costs. 

To borrow from a popular online dating app, “swiping left” to avoid a potential relationship is sometimes your best move. And that’s exactly the way you should treat any malicious actors trying to infiltrate your business. 

Retailers in the fuel, convenience, and restaurant industry continuously face outside threats that can disrupt business operations, impact compliance efforts, and negatively influence brand reputation. That’s why it’s so important that retailers understand how to avoid cyberattacks. Two key dynamics in the industry make retailers a compelling target for hackers: The high number of customer transactions processed and a general lack of onsite IT expertise. 

In addition, decentralized networks can complicate cybersecurity and lead to data breaches across the convenience ecosystem. For instance, major retail brands might have dedicated IT teams, but they also have widely distributed networks across thousands of sites. 

At the other end of the spectrum, there are nearly 20,000 independent c-stores in the US alone—many with almost no IT support. In the UK, 70% of stores in the convenience sector are run by independent retailers. Most of these smaller stores have almost no IT support. In addition, a growing number of unstaffed retail sites and fuel stations are also vulnerable to cyberattacks such as ransomware because of their connections to the Internet. 

Regardless of where your business falls on this spectrum, it’s probably safe to say that you’d rather focus on your core business than spend all your time worrying about networks and other IT components. But when you’re facing a steady stream of cyberattacks, you simply can’t ignore the threat and hope for the best. 

How can you limit cyberattacks from impacting your business? 

The first step in avoiding cyberthreats is to make sure you’re prepared for them. One of the greatest challenges is trying to prevent threats from ever accessing your systems. You can stay ahead of hackers with a secure managed firewall that leverages the latest security technologies. A fully managed firewall is also a good way to reduce your workload since professional security experts remotely handle the network management tasks. 

However, if you do experience a cyberattack, timing is critical to minimize the impact. Containing and resolving any attack that gets past your perimeter defense requires 7/24/365 proactive monitoring, identification, and response. Cybersecurity solutions such as PDI XDR and PDI MDR Essential can provide robust endpoint protection to help you stay safe. 

This level of frontline protection is increasingly important if you have IoT devices, such as fuel tank gauges and smart sensors. Anything connected to the Internet is a potential threat to your business, so you should prioritize secure connectivity—including both private and guest Wi-Fi. If you’re modernizing your business with 5G, that also applies to secure 5G primary Internet services. 

What if the danger is beyond the scope of your business? 

Even though a cyberattack can quickly take your business offline, some threats or incidents are beyond your control—such as when equipment fails. The recent outage by telecom giant AT&T in the US provided a clear example of how some businesses are more prepared to continue their operations than others. 

Avoiding single points of failure is critical for business continuity, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to maintain redundant systems (which is neither cost-effective nor practical). However, you can incorporate key features such as automated failover in case one system goes down. 

For instance, fast-casual seafood restaurant chain Captain D’s was ready when some of its restaurants experienced an Internet service disruption during the AT&T outage. Fortunately, the impacted restaurants were able to quickly fail over to an alternate wireless connection from a different carrier. As a result, those restaurants were able to continue processing transactions without impacting their customers. 

Ready to improve your cybersecurity relationships? 

If you’re not ready to combat hackers on your own, working with an experienced Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) like PDI can quickly strengthen your cybersecurity game. 

With help from the experts at PDI, you can proactively prevent cyberthreats and enjoy round-the-clock monitoring to keep your business—and your customers—safe. Even better, by offloading your network and cybersecurity workload, you can get back to focusing on your core business. 

Ready for a Relationship?

Stay ahead of hackers with help from the cybersecurity experts at PDI.

Start Now

When the unpredictable happens, will your business be prepared? That hypothetical question became reality when Internet services provider AT&T recently experienced a widespread outage throughout the United States.

With thousands of individuals and businesses impacted for up to 12 hours before the outage was resolved, the impact was felt across all regions of the US.

The stakes of the outage were especially high for businesses that rely on AT&T as their primary Internet provider. Without reliable Internet connectivity, most businesses have a difficult time staying up and running without incurring financial loss and customer dissatisfaction.

That’s why it’s increasingly important to have a business continuity plan that can withstand the loss of primary Internet service. In the case of national fast-casual restaurant seafood chain Captain D’s, having an embedded failover solution paid big dividends during the recent outage.

With multiple locations initially impacted by the outage throughout the Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest, Captain D’s was able to keep its restaurants up and running thanks to a fully managed network security solution coupled with 5G as a Service from PDI.

Automatic wireless failover maximizes uptime

When the main Internet connection failed at some Captain D’s locations, the PDI system automatically switched to an alternate network. This high-availability technology is a feature of PDI’s Managed Network Service products, including Firewall as a Service and 5G as a Service.

A robust multi-carrier failover strategy allowed the affected sites to maintain operations despite disruptions in one carrier network.

Similar automatic failover occurred in other enterprises that were using PDI solutions, which not only enhance cybersecurity and simplify PCI compliance but also safeguard against operational downtime and potential loss of revenue.

In the event the primary Internet connection fails, the system seamlessly transitions to an alternate carrier, enabling businesses to continue serving customers, processing transactions, and avoiding income loss due to downtime.

The Captain D’s sites were able to quickly resume operations after discovering the outage, benefiting from the disruption-free business continuity. The network devices, fully managed by PDI, are overseen by security experts who help ensure maximum operational uptime.

Internet outages, while not frequent, are predictable incidents that businesses should be prepared for. With a solid high-availability backup plan and a dedicated security partner, businesses can mitigate such outages before they cause a significant impact.

Discover more about PDI network management and security solutions, or contact us to learn how we can assist in securing and advancing your business.

With an increasing number of consumers prioritizing financial value as a key purchasing decision, efficiency and cost savings have become primary objectives for fuel and convenience retailers. As a result, retailers are doubling down on digital transformation—investing in innovative technologies that help them adapt faster to changing consumer behaviors.

As a core part of the fuel and convenience ecosystem, PDI remains at the forefront of the industry’s technology evolution by delivering new solutions and collaborations designed to enhance agility and productivity.

Attendees at NACS Show 2023 in Atlanta, GA will get the first look at some of these new offerings at the following booths on the Expo floor:

• PDI Booth #B3419
• C-Store Essentials Booth #B3615
• PDI Skupos Booth #B3823

With the common objective of “Connecting Convenience,” these new offerings promote better consumer engagement while boosting enterprise productivity and delivering flexible new options to strengthen network security. These updates include:

• PDI Point of Sale (POS)
• PDI Firewall as a Service – Small Branch
• PDI Retail Site Management Subscription
• PDI Sustainability Partner Packages
• PDI-Jolt collaboration
• PDI-REPAY collaboration
• Skupos acquisition

PDI Point of Sale (POS)

PDI is expanding its cloud-centric, hardware-agnostic, all-in-one POS software solution complete with mobile POS, self-checkout, and foodservice capabilities for availability in North America. This flexibility combines everything retailers need to onboard service providers, manage payments, send payouts, and perform a wide range of other tasks.

The versatility of a configurable user interface enables the system to support multiple use cases—including kiosks, queue-buster tablets, and self-service drive-through ordering—all on the same hardware. With more deployment flexibility and virtually unlimited scalability, the PDI POS solution helps fuel and convenience retailers revolutionize their POS systems to:

• Expand customization points
• Improve the customer experience
• Achieve higher levels of reliability

PDI POS pilot programs are currently in development in the US, with wider availability planned for 2024.

PDI Firewall as a Service – Small Branch

Now available for small branch retailers, the PDI Firewall as a Service offering increases network security at a highly cost-effective price point. This flexible offering delivers robust firewall capabilities for smaller distributed businesses, including:

• Proactive monitoring by PDI security experts
• Access to a 24/7 help desk and online management portal
• Automated LTE wireless failover to help avoid business disruption

This next-generation firewall also provides content and web filtering, along with intrusion detection and prevention to help secure business-essential networks.

PDI Retail Site Management Subscription

From foodservice to lottery and much more, PDI Retail Site Management helps c-stores efficiently scale by automating manual processes and increasing access to a rich trove of data. Now, retailers can leverage all these capabilities in a subscription-based pricing model that gives them even greater financial flexibility.

PDI Sustainability Partner Packages

PDI is offering four new subscription-based sustainability packages to help businesses meet their sustainability goals and address growing consumer preference for sustainable solutions. Each package includes Certified Carbon Offset Projects, Local Community Impact, and Annual Certificate features.

Additional options are available in specific packages, including:

• PDI Sustainability Partner Package
• PDI Sustainability Partner Recognition Package
• PDI Sustainability Partner Recognition and Promotion Package
• PDI Sustainability Partner Recognition, Promotion, and Activation Package

PDI-Jolt collaboration

PDI has expanded its relationship with Jolt to help retailers overcome their day-to-day task management challenges across sites. In particular, this collaboration helps retailers improve their operations by increasing staff efficiency with new tools and services.

With the goal of driving better outcomes across sites, retailers can help ensure accountability with compliance reporting and exception noting down to the site level. Key benefits include:

• Implementing task accountability features that provide insight into site-level staff behavior
• Driving staff excellence to improve store appearance and customer satisfaction
• Building sustained habits to help ensure tasks get done on time, every time

PDI-REPAY collaboration

PDI is working with REPAY to facilitate the outsourcing of Accounts Payable (AP) payment processing in a way that subsidizes associated fees. For example, retailers often want to float payments, but suppliers want faster cash remittances. Allowing REPAY to negotiate payment terms helps ensure a win/win outcome for both parties:

• For no additional cost, vendors are paid the way they prefer—by Virtual Card, ACH, or physical checks
• Retailers using PDI Enterprise Accounts Payable can reduce payment processing fees and eliminate check printing, mailing, and ACH processing

Skupos acquisition

With the recent acquisition of Skupos, PDI has expanded its reach to 25,000 independent c-stores in the US. The Skupos platform empowers more effective relationships and more profitable retail by connecting smaller c-stores with Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands far beyond the historically segmented industry ecosystem:

• CPG brands can access scan-data insights on independent sites at a much broader scale
• Independent retailers can access more national and regional CPG offerings and programs

Visit PDI at NACS Show 2023

You can meet with PDI experts to learn more about these new products and collaborations at NACS Show 2023. Be sure to visit PDI Booth #B3419 in Atlanta, GA from October 4 to 6.

Is your business Internet too unreliable—or does it require too much management time? With PDI 5G as a Service, you get a fully managed primary Internet solution to standardize, secure, and consolidate your network. 

Watch this webinar led by the PDI Security Solutions team to learn why 5G as a Service might be right for you. 

We cover topics such as: 

• The business advantages of 5G as a Service 
• Ideal scenarios—and what makes it a good fit for you 
• Flexible pricing with a monthly subscription model 
• How to get more information