A major effort began almost 12 years ago in the retail industry and for the past 5 years has been a division of the National Retail Federation. Although the effort involves technology standards and is per se a technological topic, the following facts are not only to information systems executives but rather to all top-level executive officers. Top-level executive officers need to be aware of this effort because, although dealing with technology standards, the effects will be significant to the industry and strategic in scope. Fundamentally, this is a business issue, not a technology issue.

This effort is called the Association for Retail Technology Standards, ARTS. ARTS is attempting to address problems that have plagued the retail industry since computers were first introduced as store systems. The chronic problems ARTS is addressing is related to the extreme difficulties encountered when new software is introduced into your stores.

As new software applications-time & attendance, labor scheduling, and POS transactions, just to mention a few-are introduced into the store environment, it takes a disproportionate amount of time and effort to integrate them with existing store applications. These integration projects can add up to 50 percent to the time needed to implement a new software application and contribute significantly to the cost of the overall project, particularly if a systems integrator is called in. This has been the reality that all retailers have had to live with over the last two decades. The effect of the environment has not only been to increase costs, but also to limit retailers' ability to implement change and speed with which it does so.

This is why ARTS is so important at this time. ARTS' vision of the future is one in which retailers will be able to purchase the best software available on the market and to be able to plug it into their store systems environment without fear of incompatibility or delay.  The key to addressing these chronic problems of incompatibility is through the development of a standard retail data model.