For Immediate Release
Contact: John Hervey ([email protected]; 703-836-1630) or Ted Mason ([email protected]; 703-836-1137)
April 18, 2005 – PCATS Members Pilot Travel Centers and Eby-Brown Company Exchanging Item and Price Information Electronically
Alexandria, VA – Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, and Eby-Brown Company are now in production with the weekly exchange of electronic item and price information using standards developed by members of the Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS).
Standards developed by PCATS are based upon eXtensible Markup Language (XML) technology and are known as PCATS-NAXML, short for the NACS eXtensible Markup Language.
PCATS-NAXML standards are an open, non-proprietary language that convenience store retailers and suppliers can use to address the problems of system-to-system integration and data exchange. It lowers some of the price barriers of traditional electronic data interchange, making it particularly attractive for companies looking to gain entry into or expand the use of electronic commerce.
Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, operates 270 travel centers in 40 states and has aggressively implemented PCATS invoicing, item data and price standards since 2004.
Eby-Brown Company began over 100 years ago as a tobacco and candy distributor and has evolved over the years into one of the largest wholesale distributors of convenience store products in the country.
PCATS-NAXML standards are designed for specific-use instances such as exchanging electronic data about items, price, promotion and invoices. The document known as PCATS-NAXML ItemPrice is being sent by Eby-Brown to Pilot Travel Centers on a weekly basis.
According to Margaret Akins, business analyst for Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, the PCATS-NAXML ItemPrice file has been received weekly since October 2004. Akins stressed the importance of making sure all item and price data is correct before implementing electronic invoice exchange programs.
“Prior to receiving the PCATS-NAXML ItemPrice file we would receive a spreadsheet file once a week by e-mail. The marketing department would work the information and then send a spreadsheet to the price book department for input into our systems. This was a tedious process that provided multiple opportunities for errors to be introduced into our item and pricing systems” said Akins.
By receiving the PCATS-NAXML ItemPrice file, Pilot Travel Centers can load the information into a corporate system where multiple persons are granted access to a single source of data. In addition, the data can be compared against the company’s price book and differences can be identified systematically, noted Akins.
Akins added that Pilot Travel Centers future projects include updating its price book information systematically. In addition to the partnership with Eby-Brown Company, Pilot Travel Centers currently has six implementations of the PCATS-NAXML Invoice document.
“While we have been exchanging Electronic Data Information with our customers for many years, Pilot Travel Centers is the first customer with which we are utilizing PCATS-NAXML,” said Bob Burkholder, CIO of Eby-Brown. “We are now in production, and are ready to service other c-store retailers using this industry wide standard,” Burkholder added.
Both Pilot Travel Centers, LLC and Eby-Brown Company are active members in PCATS.
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About Pilot Travel Centers, LLC:
Pilot Travel Centers LLC is the nation's largest retail operator of Travel Centers, catering to the professional driver and traveling motorist in 40 states with 270 retail interstate properties. Customers will find a nationally recognized fast food restaurants serving hot meals 24/7, and many travel conveniences such as showers, ATMs, internet kiosks, check cashing, money orders, laundry, game rooms, public pay phones with data ports, wireless internet, audio book rentals, Western Union, pre-paid phone cards, and washes, shops, and CAT Scales for trucks.
Pilot Travel Centers LLC is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee and employs 14,000 people nation-wide. Pilot Travel Centers LLC is owned by Pilot Corporation, also based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Marathon Ashland Petroleum, based in Findlay, Ohio.
About Eby-Brown Company:
A privately held company, Eby-Brown, with headquarters in Naperville, Illinois, is one of the largest distributors in the United States, providing consumer goods and other products to retailers in the convenience channel of trade. Small and large retail groups, as well as independent retailers throughout the eastern U.S. have come to depend on Eby-Brown for flawless execution in distribution and an array of state-of-the-art technological and decision support systems. To learn more about Eby-Brown, please visit www.eby-brown.com or contact Ron Coppel at 630-778-2800 x287, email at [email protected]
About PCATS:
The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS) was founded in September 2003 to continue the development and maintenance of standards work initiated under the National Association of Convenience Stores’ (NACS) Technology Standards Project. With 145 retailer and supplier 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. Information about PCATS may be found at http://www.pcats.org
PLEASE NOTE:New PCATS Office Location as of November 1, 2004:
901 King St.
Suite 300
Alexandria, VA 22314
Main Phone: 703-836-0919
Fax: 703-836-7964