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NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION |
For Immediate Release
Contact: Scott Krugman/Ellen Tolley (202) 783-7971
Email: krugmans@nrf.com or tolleye@nrf.com
Major Vendors Certified ARTS Compliant
New York, NY, January 17, 2005--The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation, is pleased to announce that four prestigious software vendors are in the process of becoming conformant, ensuring their customers lower cost of integration. CRS Retail Systems, Inc. and IBM have recently passed the conformance test verifying that their applications accurately generate the POSlog XML schema to easily integrate with the myriad of other applications that utilize POS data. 360 Commerce and Cornell Mayo are in the final stage of testing.
SAP, a leading provider of business software solutions, is in the process of testing to verify that their applications can integrate almost seamlessly with POS providers that generate POSlog. SAP has further committed to testing for conformance to the new Item and Price schemas as soon as they are added to the testing process.
"POSlog is the most widely adopted IXRetail schema," said Richard Mader, Executive Director of ARTS. "Since it was first published in 2003, more than 350 companies have downloaded it from our website. The hard work of the volunteers that develop ARTS standards is rewarded by these vendors seeking and achieving conformance."
POSlog organizes all the data captured at point-of-sale for use by POS data dependent applications such as delivery, sale reporting, credit authorization, fraud analysis, inventory tracking, etc. Applications that create and use POSlog XML schemas can be quickly integrated with other applications using the schemas, thereby reducing costs.
"Reebok is a firm believer in the value of standards," said Peter Burrows, SVP Information Systems and CIO of Reebok. "The ARTS conformance program verifying vendor systems accurately implement IXRetail schemas and will be a significant consideration in application purchase decisions."
"IBM's broad commitment to ARTS standards include logical conformance to the data model, UPOS drivers for all of our hardware, and our Data Integration Facility which provides IXRetail POSLog conformant XML access for our existing POS applications," said Hollis Posey, Chief Technical Officer for IBM Retail Store Solutions. "Use of POSLog via the Data Integration Facility provides a strong value proposition for retailers who want to integrate enterprise and back office applications to their existing IBM point of sale solutions."
In conjunction with earning POSlog conformance, CRS Retail has also been recognized by Microsoft as the first retail software provider to obtain its ".NET Connected for Smarter Retailing" certification. This designation is a way for retailers to identify applications that adhere to Web services, utilize the Microsoft .NET Framework and comply with IXRetail standard schemas. "CRS is pleased to be collaborating closely with both ARTS and Microsoft on these retailer-centric initiatives," said Kathy Frommer, CEO of CRS Retail Systems.
"Easier integration has been the goal of software providers and retailers for as long as I have been in this business," said Gene Cornell, President of Cornell-Mayo Associates. "Standard interfaces clearly make the job simpler. Nothing will ever just drop-in, but a common TLOG can reduce the effort considerably."
"The IXRetail POSlog standard complements our use of the ARTS data model, further simplifying the integration of our solutions into the retail enterprise," said Jerry Rightmer, Chief Technology Officer for 360Commerce. "360Commerce has proven the value of the IXRetail POSlog standard through numerous successful customer implementations over the past several years, reducing costs and time to market for our customers."
Conformance testing for POSlog and other IXRetail XML schemas and the Data Model is available through the ARTS website at www.arts-nrf.org.
"Our goal is to encourage vendors to take and pass the test there by offering retailers a wide selection of proven applications, which is why the costs were set at a very reasonable level," said Dave Hogan, Chief Information Officer of the National Retail Federation.
ARTS conformance vendors are posted on www.nrf-arts.org with detailed information on extent of testing and passing scores. Retailer are encouraged to review this site prior to purchasing application to ensure they are purchasing applications that will provide flexibility for the future and lower cost of integration.
The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) is an international membership organization dedicated to reducing the costs of technology through standards. Since 1993, ARTS has been delivering application standards exclusively to the retail industry. ARTS has three standards: The Standard Relational Data Model, UnifiedPOS and IXRetail. Membership is open to all members of the international technology community- retailers from all industry segments, application developers and hardware companies.
www.nrf-arts.org.
The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet and independent stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 23 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2004 sales of $4.1 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.
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