ARTS Saves You Money

Once again, the ARTS Pavilion at this year’s NRF Annual Convention was a focal point for retailers and vendors looking for innovative ideas and techniques for lowering the cost of retail IT. When one visitor approached the Pavilion reception desk asking, “What is ARTS and why is it important?” Dan Hopping, CEO of Next Retail Group, answered before I could by saying, “ARTS can save you money.” It was a great line that I used again and again during the show.

Another retail IT veteran from the grocery sector, Bill Bittner, told visitors how well ARTS standards support the implementation of SOA. Exactly! Which is why I like to say ARTS and SOA go together like coffee and cream. SOA provides IT agility, enabling business change quickly and at less cost — so critical in tough times.

The traditional Sunday ARTS Update was a testimonial by retailers to the twin themes that “ARTS saves you money” and “ARTS facilitates SOA.” Francisca Vicente-Tamarin revealed how El Corte Inglés used the ARTS Data Model and XML schemas to globalize its POS system. Using the model and standard schemas was a key factor in project success.

Big tips from Big Lots
Greg Wilmer, vice president of IT for Big Lots and co-chair of the ARTS SOA Blueprint work team, discussed his company’s use of the ARTS standard RFPs to select a new POS application and confirmed that the RFP had saved Big Lots far more than the cost of its annual dues. He further described how the ARTS SOA Blueprint and Best Practices guided the company’s implementation of SOA in minimal time by helping it avoid common missteps.

Perry Kramer, vice president of sales operations, corporate and distributed services for BJ’s Wholesale Club, gave session attendees tips for achieving PCI compliance, introduced the NRF/ARTS PCI Best Practices documents and went on to describe how BJ’s has posted 6-ft. printouts of the ARTS Data Model in various offices to remind associates that it is their road map for development.

Cy Young, ARTS board chair and director of store systems for Burlington Coat Factory, moderated the session and revealed how his company had used ARTS standards for data transfer during recent software upgrades to support online returns management and online layaway management.

ARTS also sponsored the BIG Ideas session that presented the 6th Annual RIS and IHL Store Systems Study. This study is one of the principal benchmarks we use to determine if our standards align with what is important to retailers, and ARTS once again received high marks for being attuned to the industry.

Returns on investment
Key takeaways from the survey were that retailers remain very concerned about PCI compliance, integrating new applications with their POS, workforce management and implementing Business Intelligence strategies and applications. ARTS has Best Practices documents, standard XML schemas, RFPs and, for BI, the Standard Data Warehouse to facilitate all of these initiatives.

While IT investment in 2009 will almost certainly be lower than it was in 2008, many retailers are planning smaller projects that will offer quick wins. Retailers that have built agile IT environments on standards will get a greater return for their dollars and will find it easier and less expensive to make enhancements. This economic downturn will end but somewhere down the road there will be another. Add agility to your IT business support by using ARTS standards and SOA to keep your business growing in good times and bad.