STORES Magazine - December 2008 - (Page 80)

CONSIDER THIS / ARTS UPDATE Global Growth of ARTS Standards BY RICHARD MADER ARTS standards dominated discussion at the recent Retail Technology Summit in Berlin. From the opening keynote address to the closing panel, the use and relevance of ARTS standards was a consistent theme. In his keynote, Karsten Schütt, managing director of Heinrich Deichmann Schuhe, discussed his company’s use of the ARTS standards. With more than 2,200 stores operating in 18 countries, it uses the ARTS Data Model within its POS application and UnifiedPOS to provide flexibility in dealing with the different legal and cultural requirements it faces in each market. Schütt called for an expansion of existing standards to smoothly process the myriad fiscal reporting and receipt requirements of European countries (UnifiedPOS does include fiscal printer rules for Germany and Sweden). ARTS supports the creation of a global POS functional technical document to identify the legal retail sales requirements of all countries and assist retailers and vendors in global expansion. El Corte Inglés, Spain’s largest retailer, is implementing a new POS application developed on the ARTS Data Model and XML schemas. In a session on its development of a global POS system, store systems director Enrique José Garcia Casas stated that “a combination of standards plus services plus technology make a POS application global.” Garcia described how the central Data Model communicated item and price information to all locations — and at one point used a chart from the ARTS Data Model documentation to show how the company incorporated multiple language capabilities. In doing so, El Corte Inglés proved what ARTS has been saying for years — standards offer flexibility and reduce implementation costs. GK Software and Wincor Nixdorf, two of the leading retail IT application providers in Europe, related how ARTS standards provide the flexibility and ease of integration to enable them to satisfy the needs of multinational customers like Parfumerie Douglas and Galeria Kaufhof. GK Software’s presentation focused on the use of the Data Model, while Wincor Nixdorf emphasized the use of standard XML schemas to enable quick integration with existing applications to reduce total project cost. umented in the recently released ARTS-XML schema for video analytics, including loss prevention, targeted promotions and staff allocations. The DB implementation includes linking the video network to digital displays throughout the store to run targeted promotions and provide specific product information based on customer dwell time. Looking for a way to justify a video network? DB did so in a large part by selling advertising on the digital displays and achieving a higher per-ad Richard Mader is executive rate by demonstrating the indirector of ARTS. crease in ad effectiveness of video analytics. ARTS will incorporate many ideas from this presentation into the next version of the Video Analytics XML specification. An all-star panel assembled by the GSM Association spoke on the use of mobile phones for payments, coupons, loyalty programs and product inquiries. GSMA is developing a secure chip to process these multiple applications with mobile phones and is employing standards to ensure global accessibility. Video analytics Deutsche Bahn (DB), the German railway company, gave an excellent presentation on the use of video analytics to increase sales and customer service in its stores. DB has implemented many of the business processes that are doc80 STORES / DECEMBER 2008 Preparing for mobile ARTS is engaged with several groups and associations developing products and processes for mobile transactions, to offer knowledge of the retail industry and to encourage use of applicable standards like digital receipt, stored value, POSlog and UnifiedPOS. Our goal is to encourage the introduction of mobile in retail conformant to existing processes, and to be prepared with new or modified standards, if necessary, to aid the adoption of this new technology. To review presentations from the summit, please visit http://events.nrf.com/it08/Public/Content.aspx?ID=4389. If you are interested in participating in any of the initiatives mentioned here, from Global POS standards to Video Analytics, please send me an e-mail at maderr@nrf.com. WWW.STORES.ORG http://events.nrf.com/it08/Public/Content.aspx?ID=4389 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - December 2008

STORES Magazine - December 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Wrap Rage Unraveled What Shoppers Think Courting a Comeback 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Navigating the Road Ahead Website Strategy Concept2Watch Online Customer Service International Marketing Green Retailing Online Merchandising Signage Operations Online Strategies Pricing Strategy Kiosks RFID Human Resources Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - December 2008

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