PDI announces joint venture with iControl at 2013 Idea Exchange.
From the site of its 21st annual Idea Exchange, PDI announced a joint venture with iControl Systems to introduce a new supply chain solution.
The PDI Supplier Portal, which is powered through Harmony by iControl, will enable convenience retailers and their suppliers to exchange pricebook item, cost, promotion, and invoice information in real time.
PDI president Greg Gilkerson said his company is excited about the new business relationship and its potential impact on the industry. “Automating the exchange of information between retailers and Direct Store Delivery (DSD) suppliers is one of the last great hurdles to Doing Business Electronically. We are proud to work with iControl to deliver this powerful solution to our customers and eventually, the entire convenience store industry,” Gilkerson noted.
In addition to performing pricebook synchronization functions, the PDI Supplier Portal will handle regulated payments for alcohol purchases, allowing retailers and suppliers to transact business while maintaining full compliance with state and federal regulations. The cutting-edge SaaS technology also facilitates scan based trading (SBT) which minimizes vendor check-in labor and uses data to collaboratively reduce shrink and increase sales by improving inventory stock positions.
“PDI is a highly respected leader in the convenience sector that has been providing world-class solutions and services to their customers for 30 years,” said iControl Co-CEO Tal Zlotnitsky. “We are addressing a problem that is widely recognized as a huge challenge to convenience store operators and their supply chain. In collaboration with PDI, we have the solution to solve this problem swiftly, profoundly, and elegantly. We look forward to a highly successful relationship.”
During the two-day conference, PDI also unveiled a much-anticipated addition to its core software offering. As the newest suite in PDI/Enterprise, PDI/Workforce will help supervisors improve productivity and efficiency through effective time and labor management. PDI/Time Clock, the first completed module in the suite, is already fully operational in several companies.
“PDI/Workforce offers a sleek, web-based architecture that’s unlike anything we’ve ever designed before,” said Jim Wade, PDI vice president of development. “Its simple yet powerful design not only streamlines the software deployment process but also provides intuitive controls that require minimal training for our customers. We spent the last several years developing this product, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the final result.”
This year’s Idea Exchange was held at the Grand Hyatt DFW hotel and attracted nearly 100 retailers and petroleum marketers from around the country. The conference concluded on May 6.
