ARTS and NRF to hold 2^nd Annual Technology Summit in London , October 7 2004

The program will focus on the impact of IT in building and operating international retail businesses.  Confirmed speakers include: Garry Fisher, IT Director, Reebok Europe; Calvin Hollinger, VP, Store Systems and International IT, GAP Inc.; Bob Graham, VP, Store Technologies, Smart and Final; Massimo Franzese, IT Director, Harrods and Mike Hiscock, Director, Systems Development, House of Fraser.  Thanks to our sponsoring vendors 360Commerce, Oracle, SAS and Torex Retail. 

ARTS and NRF members receive a 75% discount on registration, only £99 or approximately $180 to attend. For complete information on the Summit please visit the ARTS website at www.nrf-arts.org.

IXRetail and Data Model Committees to meet in London, October 4-6

In association with the Summit , the ARTS Data Model and IXRetail committees will meet October 4 – 6 in IBM’s London offices.  This meeting is intended to give our European members an opportunity to work with their US colleagues in a collaborative environment in order to ensure that the needs of European retailers are met by ARTS standards.

Items on the agenda for these meetings include the new Item and Price schemas, the new version of the Data Model and Data Dictionary.  These meetings are free to ARTS members and prospective members may submit a request to attend as guests.  Register to attend this meeting by going to www.nrf-arts.org and clicking on Meeting Registration.

Committee Activities:

IXRetail Technical Committee meeting, August 2 –4 in Washington DC :

• The new Worker Management schema to support the implementation of Workforce Management applications selected through use of standard RFP was approved for public release.
• The Charter for Customer schema v2.0 was approved.  Customer v2.0 is a work in progress available only to ARTS members through the ARTS webboard.  Log into ARTS Members Only on www.nrf-arts.org, select Webboards from the menu at the top of the page and then click on the IXRetail webboard.
• The Timecard schema received work team approval to request review and approval for release to the public.
• It was agreed to compare all public schemas to identify “common data” and standardize these elements across all schemas. 
• ARTS is working with UCC representatives to add all elements contained in the UCC schema to the new ARTS Item schema so that an XSLT cross reference can be created enabling generation of the UCC schema from the ARTS schema.

Data Model Committee meeting, August 5 – 6 in Washington DC :

• It was agreed to review all structures such as merchandise, organization, accounts, etc., within the Model to ensure they are embedded in appropriate schemas.
• All requested changes for the next release are due end October when they will be reviewed for inclusion.
• A new version of the XML Data Dictionary is expected in October.

RFP Committee Seeks Reviewers for Draft Signature Capture Standard RFP

The RFP committee has produced the next draft of the signature capture RFP and is seeking interested and knowledgeable parties to conduct the final review before release.  If your company has installed signature capture devices, or if your company manufactures or sells these devices, we would appreciate your assistance with this project.  For a copy of the draft RFP to review contact ARTS@NRF.com.