Business Meets Technology At NACStech

Integration of PCATS with NACS continues; CIOs look to the future

NACStech, the convenience store industry's premier showplace for technology products and solutions, featured an expanded NACS/Convenience Store News CIO Roundtable program this year. The roundtable was the first of 16 educational sessions that took place during the Las Vegas convention, held May 16 to 18.

NACS President and CEO Hank Armour opened the show's general session by describing NACStech as the place “where business and technology meet.” He added, “Technology solves problems and creates new opportunities for your business.”

Armour also highlighted the one-year anniversary of the merger of NACS and PCATS, the industry's technology and standards group, and listed three reasons that the continued need for standards, technology and advocacy:

1) Mobile technology is changing the face of retail. Today, the industry serves 160 million customers a day. Mobile technology is critical to growing that customer count.

2) Technology and advocacy continue to intersect. The need to be subject matter experts came forcefully to the forefront during the industry's successful push for swipe fee reform last year.

3) Technology usage will become a more predictive measure of business success. Technology will determine retailers' success in how they target their customers, understand what they want and deliver it to them beyond their expectations.

This year's expanded NACS/CSNews CIO Roundtable treated top retailer executives to two concurrent programs. The first focused on Technology Vision & Leadership, and featured guest speaker Jared Weiner, a futurist, who provided attendees with a quick overview of the major technology trends that will affect their workplace in the coming years.

Part two of the roundtable presented an advanced look at the CSNews 2011 Technology Study. The annual research report details how much the c-store industry is investing in technology, where retailers are focusing their investment, and as the areas they plan to explore in the future.

CSNews is the exclusive media partner of NACStech. For more coverage of the event, check out the CSNews Retail Technology site at www.retailtechnology.csnews.com, and look for a special NACStech section in the July 25 issue of the magazine.