July 2007

ARTS to Launch Video Analytics Work Team at Next ARTS XML Meeting

The newest work team of the ARTS XML committee will be officially formed at the next meeting to take place August 13-15 in Microsoft's Washington DC offices. 

Video analytics greatly exceeds the capabilities of surveillance cameras used to monitor POS and sales floor action for loss prevention.  New enhanced video systems allow retailers to enhance store performance by matching traffic counts with POS sales, or by monitoring foot traffic to increase sales per square foot.  ARTS will work with a group of experts to create standard XML data formats to allow retailers to integrate application from multiple vendors.

Other work team meetings in Washington include Tax Rules, Retail Transaction Interface (RTI), SOA Blueprint and Speed of Service for food operations. 

Data Model Committee Finalizes Agenda for August Meeting

The Data Model Committee will also meeting in Washington DC at Microsoft's Washington DC offices, August 15-16.  The principal agenda items for this meeting are finalization of the new dictionary and review of a working prototype of the Standard Data Warehouse. 

To test the Data Warehouse prototype, ARTS needs actual examples department/class merchandise hierarchies and store groupings.  Please help by providing your worst case scenarios to ARTS@nrf.com, confidentiality guaranteed.

The complete meeting agenda for both the ARTS XML and Data Model Committees is available by clicking here;  register now to attend in the members only area by clicking here.

ARTS - NRF Technology Summit, 18 October 2007, Brussels

The 5^th annual Summit will be held October 18th in the Renaissance Brussels Hotel, 19, Rue du Parnasse.  This year the Summit will focus on the retail business benefit from investing in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).  The morning sessions will offer retailer SOA success stories while the afternoon will feature two session tracks with educational offerings on the basics of SOA and the ARTS SOA Blueprint, a guideline for SOA success in retail.  Watch www.nrf-arts.org to register soon.

UnifiedPOS Committee to Meet August 28-30 in Long Beach CA

UnifiedPOS has several significant efforts underway; preparing the next release and developing the future. The next release, Version 1.12, will support connection by at least five new devices: RFID Scanner, Belt, Gate, Item Dispensers and Lights. 

Developing the architecture to support RAPOS (Remote Access POS) requires that the methods, properties and events of the current specification be converted to XML.  XMLPOS, now ready for final review, will support remote access in a browser environment or via web services.  If you are interested in integrating your devices into an SOA environment, now is the time to get involved.

ARTS Developing New Standards for Foodservice and Grocery

ARTS continues to focus on support of foodservice and grocery by launching a Speed of Service (SOS) work team.  SOS measures the time required to service customers in your stores – one of the most valuable pieces of information in “fast” food.  The SOS work team will create an XML schema to help manage this information. 

ARTS is also launching a Fresh Management project to manage the inventory and price of perishable products in both the foodservice and grocery environments.  This project will leverage and tailor existing ARTS schemas to support fresh management.  As there are many components to Fresh Management, Scale Management has been selected as the first priority for schema development.  For more information, contact arts@nrf.com.

Help ARTS build these schemas by joining the team and attending the August meeting.

Support Available for Use of ARTS XML Schemas

Every day, developers and architects from all parts of the globe download ARTS-XML schemas, but we rarely receive questions or comments on them.  ARTS is pleased to answer your questions, either via the webboard or by email to Richard Halter, our chief architect.  Richard has played a major role in the development of each schema.  Want to know more?  Email Richard at Richard.Halter@cox.net

ARTS Presentation at RSPA

Frank May of Microsoft and Richard Mader, ARTS Executive Director, spoke recently at the annual convention of the Retail Solution Providers Association in Las Vegas.  Frank, who is spearheading the Web Services effort for the UnifiedPOS committee, gave an excellent look at the future direction of POS.  Review the presentation.

ARTS Standards Pavilion at the NRF Annual Convention

Planning for the 2008 ARTS Standards Pavilion is now underway.  This year we have a great new booth layout to better highlight the successes of the ARTS' four standards: XML, Data Model, UnifiedPOS and the Standard RFP Project.  Interested in showing your support for standards?  To be a part of the Pavilion, contact arts@nrf.com.

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