ARTS Welcomes New Members:

October 2006

• ARTS Standards Pavilion is Back!

  The ARTS Standards Pavilion at the NRF 96th Annual convention and EXPO will be bigger and better than ever in a new 40 X 20 booth.  Each of the four ARTS standards (Data Model, UnifiedPOS, Standard XML Schemas and Standard RFPs/ITTs) will be highlighted in case studies of successful implementations.

  Plan now to attend the NRF Annual Convention. Click here to register online.  If you are interested in sponsoring the Pavilion (Booth 2155), contact Richard Mader.  Click here to see the location of the Pavilion on the EXPO floor plan.

•  ARTS to Create Standard Data Warehouse

  Calling on 15 years of retail standards experience to identify the “right” data elements necessary to manage a retail business, ARTS is working with leading companies such as Teradata, Business Objects, Home Depot, CSK Auto, IBM and Microsoft to select the appropriate elements from the ARTS Data Model to design a standard data warehouse for retail.  

  ARTS plans to release the standard data warehouse by Q2 2007 to support the many retailers who are currently working to upgrade their Business Intelligence capabilities.  To meet this target, ARTS needs volunteers.   For more information on how to participate or to volunteer, contact Karen Shunk

• ARTS Data Model v5.1 Now Available on CD

  The long-awaited Data Model release 5.1 is on the way.  The CDs have arrived in our offices and will be mailed to all members next week.  You may also download from www.nrf-arts.org but we warn you that after 15 years the Model is very extensive, crammed full of valuable information — more than 30 Megs — so don’t download on dial-up!

• ARTS to Update POS RFP for Country-Specific Requirements

  As both retailers and their vendor partners extend their range across international boundaries, it is critical for them to know government requirements and widely accepted practices for POS.  ARTS is developing a process for both retailers and vendors to provide this information which we will compile in an addendum for international requirements of the POS RFP.  Watch the What's New section of the ARTS website for more information.

• First SOA Boot Camp a Huge Success

  More than 40 attendees rated the ARTS SOA education class an 8.6 on a scale of  10 and requested more in-depth information on implementing service oriented architectures.  Sponsors Fujitsu, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Sun Microsystems contributed to a program that gave a comprehensive view of SOA options.  The next SOA Boot Camp is scheduled for January 31, 2007 in Orlando FL at the Shop.org FirstLook 2007 conference.  Cost for ARTS, NRF and Shop.org members is $395/nonmembers $795.  Contact La Sans Crawford to register.

• 2nd Annual US - Japan Retail IT Leadership Forum, 7 November 2006, Tokyo

  ARTS and NRF will participate in the second annual US-Japan Retail IT Leadership Forum 7 November 2006 in Tokyo.  Bill Holder, CIO of Dillard's and Alex Seidita, Director, Enterprise Architecture for Home Depot, are featured speakers at the Forum.  Please see the event website (in Japanese) for more information.  ARTS appreciates members sponsoring this event: Epson, Fujitsu, Microsoft, NCR, Reflexis, SAP and Toshiba-Tec.

         Committee Meetings

• ARTS XML and Data Model Meetings, 2-4 October 2006, Paris

  The ARTS technical committee meetings hosted by SAP in Paris greatly advanced our efforts to improve management of our standards.  The Data Model Committee completed a first draft of a life cycle management process to formalize tracking of requests and changes to improve release change notices and give guidance for upgrading to new releases. 

  ARTS XML (IXRetail) outlined a series of updates to be applied to POSlog, Price, Customer and Item schemas so they conform to the format and content of the recently-released NEAR, CSE and PCM schemas.  Updates will include common data, embedded definitions, synchronization with the Data Model and creating logical groupings.  Enumerations in both the Data Model and XML schemas will be a focus for expansion and clean-up as part of creating the new dictionary that will become the single source of all data definitions including enumerations.

• UnifiedPOS, 17-19 October 2006, Austin TX

  During its meetings hostedy by Wincor Nixdorf in Austin, TX, UnifiedPOS has developed plans to greatly enhance the API specification to incorporate XML and WSDL to enable device definitions to function across platforms and work well with in service oriented architecture (SOA).  This holds the promise of being the next great advance for peripheral device connectivity, perhaps even web services.  Watch What's New carefully for more information or contact the committee at UnifiedPOS@nrf.com

• Next ARTS XML and Data Model Meetings 13-15 November in Delray Beach FL

  The next ARTS technical committee meetings will be held 13-15 November, hosted by Escalate Retail in Delray Beach FL.  This special meeting will address the following topics:  New York Pavilion Planning, Data Warehouse Project, Foodservices work team, CSE work team on promoting adoption and collaboration with PCM, Warehouse Management work team and finalization of the new dictionary.  Agenda and venue information available on the ARTS Meeting Calendar.

         Product News

• ARTS Announces Release of Schema to Support Online Advertising

  ARTS released its latest schema, Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE), to enthusiastic reviews at the recent Shop.org Summit in New York.  CSE defines a standard data format for sending product information to the Comparison Shopping Engines and for standard confirmation messages.  It is estimated that, once implemented, CSE will cut the time investment required to post product online by as much as 50%.  Read the press release and download the schema.  We solicit your comments and confirmation that you will use this valuable new XML schema. 

• ARTS to Release 14th Schema, Product Content Management (PCM), by end of October

  PCM expands and replaces the DAM schema to process images and other assets required to manage product information.  PCM will link with both the Item and new CSE schemas to offer retailers and manufacturers a complete set of standards to deal effectively with catalogs, product postings and internal product information management.

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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