July 2006

• Agenda Published for August IXRetail and Data Model Committee Meetings

  The IXRetail and Data Model Committees will be hosted by Oracle August 14-17 in Minneapolis.  IXRetail work teams scheduled to meet include: Comparison Shopping Engine (CSE), working on a schema to upload product information from retailers and their agents to CSEs; Foodservice, working to create a special view of POSlog for use by restaurants and fast food; and Warehouse Management, developing schemas to integrate these applications into the application architecture.  This will be the final face to face meeting of the CSE team prior to releasing the first draft for public review.  If you have problems uploading product information to CSEs or have ideas on how to improve the process, we need you to attend and give input.  A delegation from Japan is attending the Foodservice meetings to ensure a true international perspective for this project.

   

  The Data Model committee will continue to focus on synchronizing the Item schema to the Model and making enhancements to the data dictionary.

   

• ARTS and NRF Announce Networking Dinners to Focus on IT-Store Ops Link

  This special series of networking dinners brings together the Stores Operations Director and the IT Director or Manager directly responsible for store systems.  Stores continue to be the focus of the IT budget and activities; a critical success factor is a good working partnership between Store Ops and IT.  Retailers will have the opportunity to share tips and information in a relaxed setting.  Dinners will be held in Dallas, San Francisco and New York area starting August 30 with a dinner hosted in Dallas by Fujitsu.  If you are a retailer interested in attending or you are a vendor interested in sponsoring other dinners, please contact arts@nrf.com.

   

• 4^th Retail Technology Summit to be held 5 October 2006 in London

  Speakers from Virgin, Boots and Harrods are confirmed for this outstanding retail IT event with a focus on the successful use of standards (click here to view program).  The  2006 Summit theme is Creating Commercial Advantage with Retail Technology & International Sharing of Standards.  There are a few sponsorship opportunities available for this event, representing a great opportunity to get your logo in front of  EMEA IT decision makers and show your support of standards.  Contact Lisa Marzetti, NRF’s Sr. Director, Vendor Relations, to learn about the complete sponsorship package.

   

• IXRetail and Data Model to meet October 2 – 4 in Paris

  Thinking of doing business in EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa)? Attending the annual European IXRetail meeting presents the perfect opportunity to lean from local businesses and fellow ARTS members.  Are you one of the many companies in EMEA that has downloaded ARTS standards and has questions?  Attend these meeting and learn from the experts.  Guests are welcome by prior arrangement.  Click here for more information about this meeting or email Karen Shunk if you are interested in attending.

• ARTS Develops SOA Education Sessions

  The first of these sessions, entitled Understanding Open Architectures (SOA and ESB) to Improve IT Business Support and Implement ARTS Standards, takes place 26 September in Dallas.  These are straight talk educational sessions to guide your investment in architectures, XML and infrastructure and are being prepared by ARTS in collaboration Fujitsu, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun.  This is a phenomenal opportunity to hear from the experts in this hot field.  The course will comply with the ARTS policy of vendor neutrality.  For more information please see the ARTS Conference Calendar.

   

• Last call for Input on the Standard RFP for Master Data Management

  The 4^th draft is now available for review and is tentatively scheduled for release at NRFtech in August.  Request your review copy by sending an email to arts@nrf.com or contact committee chair Ann McCool.

   

• Review the ARTS Standards Library at NRFtech

  If you are attending this invitation-only event for senior IT management, you will have a rare opportunity to see this impressive comprising the Data Model, IXRetail schemas and Standard RFPs all in one location.  UnifiedPOS is just too big for printing at more than 1,300 pages!  NRFtech will be held August 6 – 8, for information contact Karen Shunk.

         Product News

• Product Content Management (PCM): This new schema, meant to replace Digital Asset Management, is out for vote by the work team and expected to go to Technical Committee for final approval week of July 17.  It is expected to be released for public review the first week of August.

• Item v1.2 – The ARTS staff is updating the Dictionary to ensure all elements of the Item schema are included and properly defined.  The vote for approval and public review could come as early as the next IXRetail meeting, to be held in Minneapolis.

• Data Model v5.1.0 – This minor version update is out for vote by the Data Model Committee for approval to release for public review.  ARTS expects to produce and distribute a new Data Model CD by end of July or early August depending on production time.

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