ARTS Welcomes New Members

Where did February go?  Since the NRF Annual Convention & EXPO, ARTS has enjoyed a long list of successes and engaged in many activities.  We have a lot to tell you about in this newsletter:

• ARTS Standards Pavilion at the 95th NRF Annual Convention & EXPO
  This year's Standards Pavilion was very well received.  More than 200 guests stopped by to see demonstrations of applications integrated into complete solutions via ARTS XML schemas.  Descriptions of the demonstrations can be reviewed by clicking here.

  We would also like to thank all the folks who reviewed the concept demonstration of web access for POS and provided comments.  Rest assured that work team chair PK Do is using them to drive development of the standard.  Contact PK if you would like more information on the project.

  The educational session, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about RFPs But Were Afraid to Ask, was attended by over 150 people.  Following an overview of the contents of the six RFPs now available free of charge to ARTS and NRF members, C-Core Consulting Group and Clicks & Mortar Consulting educated the audience on how to maximize use of these RFPs in a managed RFP project to ensure selection of the "right" application for your business. The complete presentation can be reviewed by clicking here.

• ARTS Continues International Outreach with Presentation in London
  ARTS is committed to internationalizing its standards.  The latest step in this outreach came when Richard Mader, ARTS Executive Director, made a presentation at the Retail Business Show in London in February. This was an opportunity to spread the message of ARTS standards.  We also met with vendors building on our standards in Europe to hear their suggestions for enhancements and to plan future activities to encourage their adoption.

• European Technology Council Meets at Harrods
  CIOs from many of Europe's largest retailers discussed issues of common interest, and it was gratifying to learn that these retailers are increasing their demand for standards-based solutions and ARTS conformance.  Our thanks to Harrods for hosting the meeting, and to Manhattan Associates for sponsoring the reception and dinner afterward.  The next meeting of the Council will be June 7 at the Retail Solutions trade show in Birmingham, UK.  If you would like more information about attending the meeting or joining the Council, please contact Richard Mader.

• ABM Integrated Solutions Shows Commitment to Standards, Tests Conformant to POSlog 2.1.1
  ARTS is pleased to announce that ABM Integrated Solutions' Market² version 3.X POS application for grocery retail has passed POSlog 2.1.1 conformance.  Details are available on the ARTS website by clicking here.

• ARTS and Shop.org Cooperate on Standards for Data Exchange with Comparative Search Engines (CSEs)
  A new work team has been formed to develop XML schemas of standard formats to upload product information from retailers to CSEs and to provide confirmation of processing information and click stream data back to the retailers.  According to the Rimm-Kaufman Group and r:eThought, leaders of this initiative, huge benefit will accrue to both retailers and CSEs through development of these standards.  AOL, MSN, Shop.com, Yahoo and others have expressed support.  The first meeting of the work team will be a conference call Tuesday, March 28. If you are an ARTS member and wish to participate, please contact us at arts@nrf.com.

• ARTS Technical Committee Meets to Establish Priorities for 2006
  The ARTS Technical Committee met Wednesday, January 18 in New York City to establish project priorities and the committee meeting schedule for 2006.  All members were emailed a survey to vote on priorities on March 6. If you have not yet responded, please do so by Monday, March 27.  The complete schedule for committee meetings is on the left margin of this newsletter.

Committee News

•  UnifiedPOS 1.10 Approved 
  The Committee met in February at PSC in Eugene, OR.  Major topics discussed were enhancement to Cash Handling, Image Scanner, updating RFID Reader for Gen-2, and creating CIM device descriptions.  OPOS-J has already begun translation of release 1.10 in Japanese.  Complete minutes can be found on the ARTS website by clicking here.

• IXRetail Forms Foodservice Work Team to Create Views for the Foodservice/Grocery Retail Segment
  During the most recent IXRetail meeting hosted by Sun Microsystems, the special Foodservice Work Team was formed to create special views of existing schemas for this retail segment with assistance from NAFEM, the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers.  NAFEM is already cooperating with ARTS on the ProCon Converter which will remain a separate work team with many common members. Minutes for this meeting will be posted on the Webboard.

• Data Model Committee 
  The committee completed mapping POSlog 2.1 to the ARTS Data Model.  The next release of the model is scheduled for summer and will be in sync with the Schema.  The committee is also considering forming a work team to create a special view of the model as a design for data stores as many Business Intelligence suppliers have expressed an interest in standards. Minutes are posted on the Webboard in members only.

This is a free service to keep you up-to-date on the latest new programs and publications available to you through ARTS.

It is our hope that you will find ARTS Update a valuable resource and will share it with your friends and colleagues.

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