The Beauty of Collaboration

ARTS and Brussels-based EPASOrg have agreed in principal to collaborate in developing a global payments standard, helping to ensure that the business needs of the European and U.S. retail and financial sectors are satisfied by a single standard.

Payments are one of the most dynamic processes in retail. Payment types like contactless devices, gift cards and government benefits programs continue to be introduced and evolve, and the promise of payments via mobile phones looms on the horizon for much of the world. Meanwhile, PCI-DSS and chip-and-PIN/EMV regulations have been introduced in many countries, emphasizing the need for increased security in the software dealing with payments.

Finally, there is a huge variation in payment processes, technologies, protocols and practices among the different regions of the globe. One EPAS member petroleum company operating in 12 European countries is required to deal with 35 different payment terminals, 30 different protocols between payment terminal and POS register, and 10 different protocols between terminal and the card acquirer systems. The myriad variables within the payment process create maintenance and security problems and additional expense. All of these factors point to the need to separate payments from the other aspects of retail transaction processing systems (like POS) and develop a standard XML payment interface.

In 2008, ARTS established a work team to define an XML standard that would:
• Isolate payment business logic and technologies into separate and more focused subsystems, enabling retailers to minimize the flow of highly confidential data and therefore minimize the impact of supporting regulations like PCI-DSS. This would also allow retailers to purchase pre-certified PCI payment applications.

• Increase flexibility to permit rapid implementation of constantly evolving payments technologies and regulations.

At that time, ARTS was unaware that EPAS had begun a similar effort in 2006, one described in its mission statement as being designed “to foster interoperability in the world of card payments by defining a common interface between POS register and payment systems, thus facilitating the separation of payment from sales.”

While quite similar to the ARTS project definition, EPAS participants were largely financial institutions (Royal Bank of Scotland, Groupement de Cartes Bancaires, Visa and American Express) and payment-related suppliers (Hypercom, Ingenico and Wincor Nixdorf); the ARTS project was promoted by retailers and POS vendors. In addition to Wincor Nixdorf, ARTS partners included Epicor, Epson, NCR, SAP, Vertex and Sears Canada. Clearly, however, both sides of the payment process recognized the opportunity for improvement.

Representatives of ARTS and EPAS met in Amsterdam at the annual ARTS international meeting, reviewed respective project plans and specifications and immediately realized the projects needed to be consolidated and result in a single global standard. Independent work was discontinued, and a joint team formed to focus on merging the work in progress. Compromise was quickly reached to avoid delaying the release of this important payment standard. Highlights of the joint standard:
• ARTS standard data names and UnifiedPOS connections will be used in the payment standard, as both have wide global adoption.

• EPAS design will be used in Version 1, scheduled for release in the third quarter of this year.

• Subsequent releases will expand the standard to include all use cases defined by the ARTS work team.

• The global payment standard will be developed and maintained in a joint effort between ARTS and EPAS.

Collaboration is a beautiful thing, and a new global payment standard will be more comprehensive in scope — and released sooner, so everyone will be a winner. For more information on the payment standard visit the ARTS website or attend the ARTS Users’ Meeting, September 12-14 in Orlando.