ARTS MEMBERS UPDATE - August 2003

Exclusive retail standards information for Members Only  

Top Story of the Month

ARTS Standards Pavilion at 93rd NRF Annual Convention & EXPO, January 2004 in New York City
Sponsors of the ARTS Standards Pavilion at the 93rd NRF Annual Convention & EXPO January 11-14 2004 are preparing for Retail's BIG Show in a REALLY BIG way. 

Last week the 12 sponsors of the Pavilion met in Atlanta to plan demonstrations and presentations for the Pavilion in order to provide retailers information on how to implement ARTS standards. 

Standards featured in the Pavilion will be POSlog, Digital Asset Management (DAM), Digital Receipt and UnifiedPOS. 

Working together, sponsors that are often competitors will demonstrate how to integrate their applications using standard XML schemas or using integration-assist software that enables 

ARTS standards-based applications to link with non-standard applications. Hourly presentations by experts that have implemented ARTS standards will give you the opportunity to ask specific questions relative to implementing our standards within your IT environment.

ADS Retail Takes ARTS Data Model Conformance Test 
ADS Retail is the latest on the growing list of companies taking the ARTS Data Model Conformance test. Testing is available to all vendors that have used the Model as a basis for development. If companies say they use the ARTS Model, ask them to prove it.
IXRetail Conformance test prepay offer ends December 30 
The development of a test for POSlog Conformance is nearing completion and will be available in December, with IBM the first member to apply for testing. Access to the conformance test that also serves as an excellent quality-assurance tool will be available to members for US $5,000. ARTS members may pre-pay prior to December 31, 2003 for US$3,500 - a 30% discount.
Significant Progress at November ARTS IXRetail meetings Among the developments from those meetings hosted by AfterBOT in Atlanta:

The Customer schema is scheduled for release at the NRF Annual Convention, the Price schema will be extended in spring 2004 to support PLU downloads and POSlog v2.1 will be released in January with minor corrections and enhancements. Meeting minutes will be available to members on the ARTS Webboard in the members-only section of www.nrf-arts.org.
Data Model Committee Begins Development of Next Release 
The ARTS Retail Data Model will be expanded to include Customer Order Processing as well as all the data elements in POSlog V2. Companies implementing POSlog are finding it extremely beneficial to install the Data Model as the data repository.
Japan .Net for Retail Members to Adopt POSlog V2 
Richard Halter, ARTS IXRetail consultant, met with representatives from IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Infrontia, RSI, Fujitsu and Vinculum, all members of the .Net for Retail Group in Japan, to discuss implementation of POSlog v2. Thanks to the positive response at this meeting, POSlog will soon be in use worldwide.
ARTS and UCC Explore Consolidation of XML Data Dictionaries 
ARTS and the Uniform Code Council (UCC) held the first in a series of meetings to explore options for providing a single source of XML data tags for retailers. The joint project will review the current XML Data Dictionaries of both associations and consider options from cross-referencing to consolidation. A preliminary report on the findings will be available by the end of December.
Release of standard RFP for POS applications is delayed 
Version 1 of the Standard RFP for POS will be available by the end of November but the ARTS website redesign will delay posting. If you require an electronic copy prior to mid December, please contact ARTS. ARTS is pleased to report that BearingPoint has already used portions of our first RFP for a client.

Upcoming Meetings and Events:
ARTS Session at Retail's BIG Show, Sunday January 11, 11:30am - 1pm
Speakers from leading retailers and vendors will discuss benefits of using ARTS standards at the 93rd NRF Annual Convention & EXPO in New York City. Please see nrf-arts.org  for more information.
The next IXRetail Technical Committee meeting 
Will be held at the NRF Annual Convention, Wednesday, January 14 in New York City. In this meeting the Committee will prepare a 2004 activities plan for Board review and approval. Please register to attend on nrf-arts.org.