and NRF, will include an extended program focused on new, innovative applications supporting retail operations and the implementation of ARTS standards.

Attendee feedback from last year’s event in Brussels demonstrated a keen demand for more business case studies and additional time for networking. Participating companies listed the ability to maximize support of their business through the use of standards, as well as in-depth education on the ARTS Data Model, XML Schemas and support for Service Oriented Architecture, as the Summit’s greatest benefits.

This year’s theme, “Maximizing Strategic IT Investments and Standards in Global Retailing,” seeks to examine how leading retailers are leveraging IT to not only survive but thrive in the current global economic climate. Retailers, irrespective of size, segment or region, consistently look to new business strategies for sustainable growth.

Most important, these multi-national retailers are faced with reduced expense budgets which demand flexible IT architectures that accommodate agility and application modification in support of these strategies.

While IT has become pervasive in supporting and enabling complex retail processes, the appropriate leverage of advanced technology (as outlined, for example, in ARTS’ SOA Blueprint), aligned with business strategy, sets retail leaders ahead of the rest. In support of this, the Summit will feature a range of deep-dive discussions on leading topics, such as a global POS, business intelligence (BI), video analytics, pervasive customer service, data warehouse optimization and SOA.

Practitioners scheduled to present on recent application implementations and their associated business impact include Groupe Casino and El Corte Ingles; the latter will detail how it leverages ARTS standards for its global POS platform. Furthermore, Forrester Research will provide a look at recent findings illustrating the importance and positive financial impact of IT alignment with business strategy, as well as future IT trends in global retailing.

Business and technology tracks
The Retail Technology Summit will feature two tracks (business and technology) in support of plenary general sessions throughout the event. The business track focuses on the impact that enabling retail applications has on the bottom line. Alternatively, the technology track instructs attendees on how to implement business-support applications in the most rapid and cost-efficient manner.

ARTS has also added an optional educational program on the afternoon of the 16th. Attendees may elect to attend a four-hour training class on either Data Model, XML Schemas or ARTS SOA support; the two generating the highest demand will be selected, and those classes will be taught by the experts that created the standards. If you are considering using ARTS standards to create a flexible infrastructure that can easily accommodate change, these classes will get you started in the right direction.

Members only
In the two days prior to the Summit, ARTS will hold its annual technical committee meeting, hosted this year by Wincor-Nixdorf. This meeting brings together retail application experts who are implementing or have implemented ARTS standards and is open to members only.

However, if you are considering joining the 48 percent of ARTS membership that is based outside the United States, e-mail me (maderr@nrf.com) for a guest pass. This is the golden opportunity to learn from others about how to maximize benefits from the deployment and use of standards, avoid start-up errors and share your ideas to create better standards for the global retail industry. Many of these experts will also attend the Summit to facilitate sessions and answer questions during networking refreshment breaks.

For more information on attending the Retail Technology Summit, visit www.nrf.com/ITsummit. To hear more about how ARTS can benefit your organization, visit www.nrf-arts.org. We look forward to seeing you this fall in Berlin.