ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS), the standards development, maintenance, and implementation organization for the convenience and petroleum retailing industry, is seeking a neutral third party to assist it in managing an overall certification program for the various standards that have been or will be developed by PCATS.
Alexandria, Va.-based PCATS believes that a comprehensive certification program along with appropriately related laboratory testing is required to assure prospective purchasers that software or hardware products and [image-nocss] services that purport to be based on PCATS standards actually conform to those standards.
The selected contractor will participate in a joint effort with PCATS to build testing tools, to integrate and manage all conformity testing programs, and, at some point, to provide access to and/or operate a testing laboratory to conduct certification testing as required.
PCATS executive director John Hervey stressed that the selected third must be independent of any manufacturer of software/hardware or provider of services that may be tested for conformance to PCATS standards.
The request for information (RFI) is available to interested parties at http://cms.pcats.org/node/1305. All responses to the RFI must be received by PCATS no later than April 30, 2008.
The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards was founded in September 2003 to continue the development and maintenance for standards work initiated under the NACS Technology Standards Project. PCATS mission is to develop, maintain and help members implement a variety of technology standards. With over 150 members, the group 's membership represents more than 22,000 convenience stores. Membership is open to any petroleum marketer, convenience-store owner/operator, other retail channels, or any of their suppliers or vendors.
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