Association for Retail Technology Standards Unveils New Foodservice Standard Set

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kathy Grannis or
Ellen Davis
(202) 783-7971
Email: grannisk@nrf.com or
davise@nrf.com  

Association for Retail Technology Standards Unveils New Foodservice Standard Set
Standard to Lower Restaurants’ IT Costs and Improve Safety 

New York, NY, January 14, 2007 — A new standard that addresses the specialized needs of restaurants will lower companies’ IT costs and improve food safety. The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) will announce the development of new foodservice technical specifications for point-of-service (POS) and commercial kitchen equipment integration today during NRF’s Big Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. 

ARTS, in partnership with member companies from the National Council of Chain Restaurants, has been working to develop the POSLog for FS since November 2005. Several leading chain restaurant companies, including Yum! Brands, assisted in the production of the foodservice standard. 

“As restaurants continue to diversify and expand their menus, it becomes more difficult for managers to keep track of information,” said Jack Whipple, President of the National Council of Chain Restaurants. “This new standard targets the specialized needs of restaurants, helping managers keep track of their inventories while reducing information technology costs.” 

The new POSLog for Foodservice Technical Specification addresses a critical industry need for systems integration to enable better exchange of POS and inventory information. POSLog for FS provides a set of consistent data messaging standards that enables POS data to easily flow to back-end financial systems for better sales reporting and inventory management. The standards also incorporate commercial kitchen equipment standards that monitor proper operations, maintenance and up-time, as well as food safety protocols. 

“The new standard will help foodservice operators get the data and information they need to make well-informed business decisions despite an environment of specialized equipment, different operating systems and unique applications,” said Richard Mader, Executive Director of ARTS. “The results will lead to improved business support and lowered information technology costs within the foodservice environment.” 

The new technical specifications’ development is being managed by ARTS in collaboration with the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM). OFSC, a Japanese not for profit foodservice support corporation, is helping ensure international compliance. The specifications are supported by technology leaders and strong advocates of driving XML and Web services industry standards adoption including Accuvia, Par Technology Corporation and Microsoft. 

POSLog for FS is the foodservice version of POSlog, the widely adopted ARTS XML schema for the retail industry. It establishes the data scheme for management decision making and planning. A related component, Protocol Converter (ProCon), incorporates the SNMP-based NAFEM Data Protocol, a set of standard rules and message formats that allows commercial kitchen equipment to communicate with a foodservice manager’s or service technician’s computer.  

The POSLog for FS is available free on www.NRF-ARTS.org. Companies that wish to contribute to the expansion of standards for Foodservices are invited to join ARTS. 

POSLog for foodservice is the first standard released by ARTS to support retail industry verticals, in development is a XML schema for scale management for grocery that will overtime be expanded to a full complement of support for Fresh Management. 

The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) is an international membership organization dedicated to reducing the costs of technology through standards. Since 1993, ARTS has been delivering application standards exclusively to the retail industry. For more information regarding ARTS and the FS-POSlog, visit arts@nrf.com.  

The National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) is the leading trade association exclusively representing chain restaurant companies. For more than 40 years, NCCR has worked to advance sound public policy that best serves the interests of both chain restaurants and the millions of people they employ. NCCR members include some of the country’s largest and well respected quick-serve and casual dining companies. The National Council of Chain Restaurants is a division of the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade group. www.nccr.net

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