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-

Long Beach, CA, November 6, 2006 — Today at the International Foodservice Technology Exposition, the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) announced the development of new foodservice technical specifications for point-of-service (POS) and commercial kitchen equipment integration.

The new FS-POSLog Foodservice Technical Specification addresses a critical industry need for systems integration to enable better exchange of POS and inventory information. FS-POSLog 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, a division of the National Retail Federation, in collaboration with the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM). OFSC, a Japanese not for profit food service 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. 

“Microsoft’s Smarter Hospitality initiative was formed through industry feedback to help achieve business and restaurant efficiencies,” said Tom Litchford, industry solutions director for Microsoft’s Retail & Hospitality Industry Unit. “That’s why we strongly support ARTS and these new technical specifications. We truly believe open industry standards like XML and foodservice-specific standards provide a key to unlock the flow of information across a foodservice organization.” 

FS-POSlog 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.

Availability
The draft of the FS-POSLog foodservice technical specification will be available in January 2007 in time for software and products to be developed for unveiling when the International Foodservice Technology Exposition (FS/TEC) co-locates with The NAFEM Show, October 11-13, 2007 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta. 

The North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM) is a trade association of more than 625 foodservice equipment and supplies manufacturers that provide products for food preparation, cooking, storage and table service. NAFEM's biennial trade show attracts 19,000 foodservice professionals and features more than 600 North American manufacturers. For more information regarding The NAFEM Show, visit www.thenafemshow.org.  

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.
 

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