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For Immediate Release ARTS Launches Project
to Accelerate Retail SOA Adoption Austin,
Texas, May 1, 2007 -- The Association for Retail
Technology Standards announced at its quarterly XML Committee meeting today that
it has launched the SOA Blueprint for Retail project, a program that will
provide retail businesses with specific guidelines and best practices for
implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Retailers require SOA to
more easily link business operations across stores, the Web, suppliers and
merchandisers. Operating
as a work team of the ARTS XML Committee, which develops standard XML message
sets and schemas to facilitate application interoperability, the SOA
Blueprint project brings together more than 25 members from leading retail
businesses and technology providers including Kohl’s, Big Lots, CSK Auto, IBM,
Oracle, Cisco, SAP and Microsoft. Big Lots executive Greg Wilmer and Oracle
Retail’s David Dorf have been elected as co-chairman and will provide
leadership for the project. “Retailers
have been slow to adopt service-oriented architecture despite the tremendous
benefits it can bring to their businesses,” said Richard Mader, Executive
Director of ARTS. “The SOA Blueprint project is an important step towards
breaking down barriers to adoption and providing retailers with the education
and guidance they need to get started.” Taking a
vendor-neutral approach, the work team will provide guidance on what an ideal
SOA looks like for retail, what infrastructure and services are required, and
how ARTS XML documents should be used. The SOA Blueprint for Retail project will
also deliver use cases for how SOA works across multiple retail channels such as
in-store and on the Web. “Retail
organizations are paying particular attention to SOA because it addresses many
of their most significant information technology challenges,” said David Dorf,
Director of Technology Strategy, Oracle Retail and Co-Chair of the SOA Blueprint
for Retail project. “When properly implemented, SOA can help transform the
economics of retail businesses by changing the way they develop, integrate and
support their complex systems.” The ARTS
Board of Directors approved the formation of the SOA Blueprint project earlier
this year. The group’s preliminary recommendations and progress will be
discussed at the NRF 97th Annual Convention and Expo in New York City, January
13-16, 2008. Retailers
interested in participating in the SOA Blueprint for Retail project or finding
out more about it can do so by contacting Richard Mader at maderr@nrf.com.
The
Association for Retail Technology Standards of the National Retail Federation 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 four standards: The
Standard Relational Data Model, UnifiedPOS, IXRetail and the Standard RFPs (in
partnership with NRF). Membership is open to all members of the international
technology community-- retailers from all industry segments, application
developers and hardware companies. 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, independent
stores, chain restaurants and grocery 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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