Workshops Address The State Of Standards

PCATS (Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards) moderated the Standards track of workshops during this year's NACStech, offering insight into accomplishments and future plans.

In the "Data Security Long-Term Strategy" session, newly appointed executive director of PCATS, Gray Taylor, highlighted the new data security committee started last year, and explained the goal of creating a cost-effective, 10-year implementation strategy and roadmap.

In the session, "Looking Into the Technology Crystal Ball: What is PCATS Doing Next?" various committee leaders reported on their goals for 2010, as well as the current status of each working group. Donna Perkins, point-of-sale/ pricebook manager for E-Z Stop Food Marts Inc., explained the lottery working group under the EB2B committee is currently building a matrix of lottery data by state, including what files are available, the delivery format and what retailers need to do to get them.

The goal is to have "one place for lottery data, so back office, lottery providers and retailers can go to one place for the information," said Perkins. Additionally, the Loyalty Standards Committee completed its standard and is in implementation mode, while the POS/Back Office Committee released minor enhancements to Version 3.4.3 and is working to create Version 4, which will improve interoperability.

The track also included a session devoted to the loyalty standard, where Nathan Peters, manager of IT at Mid Pac Petroleum LLC in Honolulu, talked about using the standard with the chain's Kama'aina Rewards program launched in November 2008. The system collects detailed data on customers down to the SKU number, and because of the program, gasoline gallons sold at the company increased at double the rate of the state's average, he said.