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For Immediate Release Association for Retail
Technology Standards Unveils New Foodservice Standard Set Standard to Lower
Restaurants’ IT Costs and Improve Safety New York, NY, January 14,
2007 — A new standard that addresses the specialized needs of restaurants will
lower companies’ IT costs and improve food safety. The Association for Retail
Technology Standards (ARTS) will announce the development of new foodservice
technical specifications for point-of-service (POS) and commercial kitchen
equipment integration today during NRF’s Big Show at the Jacob K. Javits
Convention Center in New York City. ARTS, in partnership with
member companies from the National Council of Chain Restaurants, has been
working to develop the POSLog for FS since November 2005. Several leading chain
restaurant companies assisted in the production of the foodservice standard. “As restaurants continue
to diversify and expand their menus, it becomes more difficult for managers to
keep track of information,” said Jack Whipple, President of the National
Council of Chain Restaurants. “This new standard targets the specialized needs
of restaurants, helping managers keep track of their inventories while reducing
information technology costs.” The new POSLog for
Foodservice Technical Specification addresses a critical industry need for
systems integration to enable better exchange of POS and inventory information.
POSLog for FS provides a set of consistent data messaging standards that enables
POS data to easily flow to back-end financial systems for better sales reporting
and inventory management. The standards also incorporate commercial kitchen
equipment standards that monitor proper operations, maintenance and up-time, as
well as food safety protocols. “The new standard will
help foodservice operators get the data and information they need to make
well-informed business decisions despite an environment of specialized
equipment, different operating systems and unique applications,” said Richard
Mader, Executive Director of ARTS. ”The results will lead to improved business
support and lowered information technology costs within the foodservice
environment.” The new technical
specifications’ development is being managed by ARTS in collaboration with the
North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM). OFSC, a
Japanese not for profit foodservice support corporation, is helping ensure
international compliance. The specifications are supported by technology leaders
and strong advocates of driving XML and Web services industry standards adoption
including Accuvia, Par Technology Corporation and Microsoft. POSLog for FS is the
foodservice version of POSlog, the widely adopted ARTS XML schema for the retail
industry. It establishes the data scheme for management decision making and
planning. A related component, Protocol Converter (ProCon), incorporates the
SNMP-based NAFEM Data Protocol, a set of standard rules and message formats that
allows commercial kitchen equipment to communicate with a foodservice
manager’s or service technician’s computer. The POSLog for FS is
available free on www.NRF-ARTS.org.
Companies that wish to contribute to the expansion of standards for Foodservices
are invited to join ARTS. POSLog for foodservice is
the first standard released by ARTS to support retail industry verticals, in
development is a XML schema for scale management for grocery that will overtime
be expanded to a full complement of support for Fresh Management. 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. For more information regarding
ARTS and the FS-POSlog, visit arts@nrf.com. The National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) is the leading trade
association exclusively representing chain restaurant companies. For more than
40 years, NCCR has worked to advance sound public policy that best serves the
interests of both chain restaurants and the millions of people they employ. NCCR
members include some of the country’s largest and well respected quick-serve
and casual dining companies. The National Council of Chain Restaurants is a
division of the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade
group. www.nccr.net
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