The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) has developed a retail data model. In doing so, it has made a major contribution to the possibility of mixing software from different vendors in retail. ARTS is spearheading an initiative to develop new architectural specifications and standards. These would be adopted uniformly by software developers and hardware vendors for technologies deployed in stores. Top retailers in the US who are council members of ARTS have contributed to the evolving the retail data model.

To achieve the objective of fully integrating the retail applications of both the retailers and their partners, ARTS has come up with a new initiative called the ARTS Retail Enterprise Data model in XML. The data model will identify the entities in the retail enterprise and specify data associated with each. The retail enterprise data model in XML is concerned with identifying the key business processes, their supporting systems and specifying the messages that pass between these systems. Thus, XML messaging has the potential to reduce retailer technology costs, help rapid application development and achieve fully-effective interworking between heterogeneous software components in a retail enterprise.

Internet messages

XML messaging has a huge potential and the initiative by ARTS has attracted volunteers from some of the best-known retailers in the US. With this level of support, retail enterprise data model in XML is well on way to having initial messages in two areas. "Pricing", in cooperation with Microsoft’s ActiveStore, will help ensure that retail systems can provide the accurate price for all items across multiple channels. "Customer" will help ensure that consistent data is provided at each customer interaction, and that a single customer profile is available for all sales channels.

Once the standard XML messages for these areas are available, retailers will be able to reduce cost as they move towards a customer-driven retailing model. The retail enterprise data model in XML is intended to provide these messages as rapidly as possible. As software developers adopt these messages, B2B exchanges and ASPs, retailers will be able to communicate effectively.

XML development process

The ARTS data model committee will be working to present the data definitions in XML format. The major tasks involved in development of a process for uniform XML messaging are:

• Identify and describe major retail systems. The aim here will be to classify the business functions in the way that is most practically helpful. It must relate to the understanding of retailers, and map conveniently to actual and potential software packages

• Identify and define the cases that illustrate how the systems play together

• Define the messages within the use cases

• Define the business rules for message orientation and sequencing

• Specify the precise message contents using XML and the ARTS data model dictionary.

The XML strategy will be:

• To move from a transaction process to a process focus

• To establish a foundation that will let users conduct trade using platform-independent standards and quickly take advantage of emerging technologies

• To make it transparent for users of current EDI to conduct trade.

EDI and XML

XML should not be viewed as a replacement for electronic data interchange (EDI) but should be considered as a technology that will supplement the usage of e-commerce. Many retail organizations have implemented EDI infrastructure and their investments will be protected. The EDI volume may not be increasing at a rate of 30% per year as it did in the 1990s but it is rising at a healthy 50%. EDI has met most of its goals in e-commerce applications, helping organizations share and exchange information. However, it has some challenges as industries have moved to the integration of supply chain with thousands of hub-and-spoke participants, and away from the current smaller hub-specific implementations.

The main challenges for EDI are as follows:

• Complex mapping is required when a legacy application that does not support EDI is tied to an EDI translator software. There are often hundreds of data element meanings that must be mapped between the EDI and legacy application, formed into records, which are then packaged into a transaction

• EDI is built on technologies of the 1970s. Data exchange protocols and batch-oriented legacy systems that do not support real-time exchange of data

• Lack of penetration into SMEs.

The next wave of e-commerce will require massive amounts of application integration across multiple organizations, as trading partners turn to the Internet to automate supply chains, forecasting systems and new types of business interchanges.

Bala Subramaniam
is business development manager with Wipro Technologies, Santa Clara, USA