ARTS XML and Data Model Committee Meetings
ARTS committee meetings, which often draw as many as 45 participants, offer an excellent opportunity to network with and learn from fellow members. All members are encouraged to come to at least one meeting a year and there is never a fee to attend.  If you can't be there, minutes are available to members on the ARTS webboards.

Here are the highlights from the most recent meeting April 30 - May 3, hosted by Oracle in Austin TX:

• SOA Blueprint:  The blueprint will provide retail businesses with specific guidelines and best practices for implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The work team charter was approved and is available to members on the ARTS webboard.  The team is currently defining the retail services in Buy, Sell, Move (logistics) and Corporate services.  Member comments and input are appreciated.

• Retail Transaction Interface (RTI):  This work team is developing a set of XML messages, largely derived from the POSLog schema, to track the flow of a retail transactions from inception to completion.  RTI is being developed in close coordination with the SOA Blueprint team because the message set can support services identified in the Blueprint.  The draft charter was completed and is now out for approval vote by the ARTS XML technical committee.

• Tax Schema:  Tax will facilitate communication between a retailer's POS application and outside tax services to accurately calculate the tax amount in any city, state or country.  The work team completed a first draft of their charter after first ensuring that all products to be developed will be fully coordinated with the Data Model.  BJ’s Wholesale Club joined the work team to provide retail requirements.

• Foodservices Work Team selected Speed of Service as the next schema to be developed in support of this segment of retail.  YUM! Brands has joined this team to give retailer requirements.

The Data Model committee meeting was attended by representatives from 12 companies and decisions were reached in the following areas:

• Data Warehouse Model:  The work team decided to limit the first release to 5 levels with defined extensions, agreed to document examples in SQL Server and MySQL and developed a cross reference to the ARTS Data Model. Volunteers are needed for test implementations.  Contact ARTS@nrf.com if you are interested.

• Data Dictionary:  The committee reviewed the first draft of a browser-based dictionary with sort and search capabilities and designed a worksheet to correlate Data Model to Dictionary and Schemas. To volunteer on this effort, contact Data Model Committee Chair Kirstin Wright at rwright@retailanywhere.com.

• Change Management: The Data Model committee has selected change management application Gemini to track requests and agreed in principle on a policy for lifecycle management.  Members will soon have access to Gemini to submit change requests.

Vendor Management Data Models Needed!
Retailers: ARTS is developing a Vendor Management schema.  All information donated will be kept in strictest confidence; ARTS only wants the entity relationship diagrams, not the actual vendor information.  Please help us quickly add this missing schema to our library by providing your documents.  You can email materials or questions to ARTS@nrf.com or MaderR@nrf.com.

Workforce Management RFP to be Updated

In discussions with RFP Partner C-Core, ARTS identified many developments in the area of Workforce Management applications.  We are looking to update the existing RFP with: Task Management, On Boarding, Integrating Budget, Labor Standards and to define the infrastructure for SOA.  Please make available your RFPs or documents related to these applications/functions.  Contact Richard Mader at MaderR@nrf.com if you wish to contribute.

New Video Analytics Standard in Development

ARTS has been asked to assist in standardizing video analytics, an exciting new technology that converts video to data for analysis to improve store security and overall operations.  Stay tuned for more information —we welcome your comments and suggestions on how ARTS can participate.  Send an email to ARTS@nrf.com to learn more.

Upcoming ARTS Presentations

• IBM Retail Emerging Business Opportunity (EBO) Webcast on Open POS, 21 June 2007:  ARTS Chair Cy Young of Burlington Coat Factory and ARTS Executive Director Richard Mader will be speaking on open standards, SOA and ARTS impact on POS.  Watch for your email invitation.

• IBM Retail User Group Conference, 20-23 May, Las Vegas: Marty Edelman, Sr. Manager, Retail Systems for Home Depot and Colin Haig, Industry Executive, Retail of SAP Canada present their perspective on SOA and how ARTS standards can facilitate a successful implementation.  Jerry Rightmer of Oracle and member of the ARTS Board will present details of the SOA Blueprint in another session.

• Annual All India Retail Technology Conclave (ReTechCon) 2007, 19-21 June, Mumbai, India: ARTS Executive Director Richard Mader will keynote this  conference, presented by the Retailers Association of India (RAI).  It is anticipated that this presentation will initiate a series of ARTS activities in this hot bed of IT development.

ARTS Members-Only Resources

Take advantage of access to the members only area of the ARTS website at www.nrf-arts.org - this is where you can register to attend committee meetings, download the Data Model, Schema documentation, the expanded dictionary and access the Webboards.  The ARTS Webboards are where you you can ask questions and find all schemas in development as well as white papers on XML, infrastructure and best practices to guide your use of ARTS standards. 

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

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