ARTS MEMBERS UPDATE - May 2003

Exclusive retail standards information for Members Only  

Top Story of the Month

ARTS Participates in recent NRF CIO Council meeting in Sarasota, Florida.

ARTS was very pleased to participate in the recent NRF CIO Council meeting in Sarasota, Florida.  The ARTS presentation is available on the ARTS Web Site in the Public Presentations area.  It was interesting to hear of the challenges CIOs are facing in these difficult times and have them confirm their interest in and appreciation of the work ARTS is doing to develop standards of benefit to retail IT.  The CIO Council expressed great interest in the POSlog standard and Digital Asset Management, and they encouraged ARTS to add biometric devices to the UnifiedPOS standard.

Key takeaways from the meeting were:

  • The economic environment continues to be tough for retail, but excellent pricing is available from technology vendors.
  • There is concern about the financial stability of some solution providers.
  • Spam – unsolicited email continues to be a sore point.
  • There is a marked trend in improved integration and a convergence of multiple-channels linking the catalog, store and web operations.
  • NRF is promoting further cooperation with other organizations to the benefit of retail. NRF/ARTS will foster closer relationships and joint initiatives with Uniform Code Council (UCC), Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards (VICS), Retail Systems Alert (RSA) and others.
  • Retailers continue to seek efficient methods to connect store systems via “persistent connections.”
  • The Council agreed to work with ARTS in developing a library of standard Requests for Proposal (RFPs) as recommended by Peter Burrows, CIO of Reebok.
The draft version of POSlog is completed and ready for review
at the next IXRetail meeting, May 7 – 9 at RadioShack’s headquarters in Ft. Worth.  version 1 has been expanded to include tender, taxation and many non-POS functions.  Members can review the draft on the ARTS Webboard in the members-only section of www.nrf-arts.org
The Release 4.0 Data Model CD has been delayed by production problems.
Members may expect to receive the CD mid-May.  We apologize for the delay, but you will find it well worth the wait.
Boyd Dimmock, Chair of the UnifiedPOS Committee, is guest columnist
for the ARTS Update article in STORES Magazine this month.  Her article on RFID provides background, a look at the future and how ARTS standards will play a role in successful implementations of this new technology.
Jerry Rightmer, CTO of 360Commerce, has been elected to the ARTS Board of Directors.
Jerry has been an active contributor to IXRetail, chairing the Process sub-committee and the Stored Value work team. 
A revised draft of the ARTS Intellectual Property (IP) Policy
has been provided to the Board for consideration.  The goal of the revised policy is to protect companies that adopt ARTS standards from potential litigation over intellectual property claims by contributors to our standards.  Many standards organizations, including W3C, UCC and OASIS, are adopting similar policies.

Upcoming Meetings and Events:
The next IXRetail and Data Model Meetings will be hosted by Radio Shack in Ft. Worth, TX, May 6-9.
The Data Model meeting on Tuesday will determine the enhancement for the next release.  In the IXRetail meeting approval of release 2 of POSlog and release 1 of Stored Value will be major agenda items.  Register now on the ARTS Web Site.
UnifiedPOS and JavaPOS committees will meet in the NRF offices June 3 – 5
for final approval of release 1.8 of UnifiedPOS.  Register to attend on the ARTS Web Site .
ARTS Executive Director Richard Mader and David Hogan, NRF's new SVP and CIO,
will make a joint presentation at Retek World 2003 in Orlando FL, May 11-14.  See Retek World for more information
ARTS to present at IBM Store System Users Group
meeting, May 18-21 in Miami FL. Hollis Posey (IBM), Jerry Rightmer (360Commerce) and Tim Hood (Triversity) will serve on a panel discussing the benefits of POSlog.  See IBM Store Systems Website for more information on this great event.
ARTS Member Meeting to be held
Wednesday, June 11 2003 from 2:00 to 3:30 at the Retail Systems Alert conference in Chicago.  See Retail Systems for more information.  Case studies on the implementation of standards will be presented showcasing successful approaches to standards implementations and the resulting benefits.  Learn how standards can enable your IT organization to implement new business practices faster and cheaper, and give your input to guide ARTS’ development of ePC (RFID)-related standards.
UCC and AfterBot (Member of ARTS IXRetail Technical Committee) will present
on the value of standards in reducing fraudulent merchandise returns at the NRF Loss Prevention Conference June 2 – 5 in San Antonio, Texas.  See Nrf.com for more information.

INTRODUCING ARTS Newest MembeRS
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corporation United States
Manor AG Switzerland
University of Washington United States

 ARTS has gained 24 new members since January 1, 2003.