LAS VEGAS -- The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS), the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) and 1SYNC jointly announced at the NACS Show in Las Vegas that they will collaborate to pilot a service offering, PCATS Gateway, that supports the synchronization of pricebook data between trading partners in the convenience and petroleum retailing channel.
The pilot is scheduled to be conducted during first-quarter 2007. The initial retailers and suppliers scheduled to participate in the pilot include The Pantry Inc., [image-nocss] Town & County Food Stores, Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. Results from this pilot are expected to be reported at the NACStech 2007 tradeshow.
The PCATS Gateway will create a pipeline that will allow retailers and suppliers of all sizes to exchange business transactions enabling critical mass for the industry, said Ann Dozier, vice president of strategic industry initiatives for Coca-Cola.
The pilot solution, PCATS Gateway, approved by NACS, will use PCATS' eXtensible Markup Language (NAXML) message standards, and 1SYNC will be the technology solution provider.
The expected benefits from this pilot include:
Improved efficiencies in exchanging price information facilitated by a cost-effective solution that leverages a single petroleum/convenience industry standard. Expansion and acceleration of the commercial value of data synchronization in the petroleum/convenience channel. Elimination of technology barriers that have previously stalled implementations. Simplified integration to retailer backoffice solutions.Our objective is to assist retailers and suppliers in the convenience and petroleum retailing channel in achieving supply chain benefits associated with electronic pricebook synchronization, and the best way to achieve that is by partnering with NACS and PCATS, said 1SYNC CEO Bob Noe.
Lawrenceville, N.J.-based 1SYNC is a newly formed subsidiary of GS1 US that offers data synchronization services. GS1 US is a not-for-profit member organization of GS1 and is dedicated to the development and implementation of standards-based, global supply chain solutions.
Separately, Austin, Texas-based Wincor Nixdorf, a major supplier of IT solutions for the banking and retail industries, said that its NAMOS Compact software for petroleum/convenience retailing has achieved the Conformance Validation Certificate by PCATS.
The PCATS certification validates that NAMOS Compact complies with specific-use instances for the PCATS-NAXML standards, which were designed to ease integration and communication between point-of-sale (POS) systems and the backoffice.
NAMOS Compact's multi-layer architecture enables petroleum and convenience retailers to integrate all functions of the POS, backoffice and pump system control. Its open interface architecture allows additional products or existing backoffice or head office solutions to be seamlessly connected, including outdoor payment and car wash terminals.
PCATS certification increases Wincor Nixdorf's market momentum in convenience and petroleum retailing, and it will give our customers confidence that NAMOS Compact complies with this vital industry standard, said Doug Evans, vice president of retail for Wincor Nixdorf USA.
As technology increases in complexity and sophistication, PCATS certification is the key to ensuring successful implementations for POS and backoffice applications, said John Hervey, executive director for Alexandria, Va.-based PCATS, which has more than 170 retailer and supplier members representing more than 22,000 c-stores.
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