ARTS and NRF Announce Release of Business Intelligence Request for Proposal
For Immediate Release
Kathy Grannis (202)783-7971
grannisk@nrf.com
ARTS and NRF Announce Release of Business Intelligence Request for Proposal
Washington, DC, May 18, 2009 – The National Retail Federation and the Association for Retail Technology Standards today announced the release of the Standard Request for Proposal for Business Intelligence Applications, the eighth in a series of Standard RFPs. RFPs assist retailers in selecting the right software applications for their specific business processes.
NRF and ARTS Standard RFPs are available in a format that allows retailers to tailor them to their exact needs. Selecting and implementing a BI application using the NRF and ARTS BI RFP will guide retailers in leveraging available information for tactical and strategic analysis purposes, improve their information analysis capabilities and productivity while providing a roadmap for execution, and permit the organization to act quickly on the changing state of the business.
“Business Intelligence applications remain at the top of CIOs’ priority list, so the release of this new RFP is very timely. BI is the process of transforming raw data into useful information to improve decision-making and is absolutely essential for successful business operations,” said Richard Mader, Executive Director, ARTS.
"Retailers are amassing enormous stores of historical data, which can be both a challenge and an opportunity,” said Dean Sleeper, CEO of AccessVia and member of the ARTS Board of Directors. “The new ARTS Business Intelligence RFP provides retailers with a simplified document detailing all facets of the dominant Business Intelligence offerings. It will still allow vendors to differentiate themselves, but outline consistent responses that are critical for the retailer's evaluation.”
This RFP presents a comprehensive list of features and functions that retailers, based on experience, have found valuable in Business Intelligence solutions. The principal goal of the RFP is to help retailers develop a Conceptual BI Architecture that meets the immediate needs of the organization, but has the ability to expand into other business areas, as well as define the Implementation Roadmap that will address placing a BI Solution into production during the current fiscal year.
The Standard Business Intelligence RFP was developed by a committee of retailers, vendors and consultants from documents used by multiple retailers to select their business intelligence applications. The committee, chaired by Ann McCool, included members from: adidas, Canadian Tire, Epicor, Nike, Oracle, ProfitBase and Quantisense.
“The BI RFP offers retailers precise guidance in selecting the right tool based on the collective experience of ARTS members,” said Wilson Zorn, Enterprise Architect for adidas America, a contributor to both the RFP for Business Intelligence and the associated ARTS Data Warehouse Model. “The ARTS Warehouse Model provides an excellent guideline for constructing a flexible data repository that can give the business actionable information when integrated with a full-function BI analytic tool.”
NRF and ARTS RFPs are available free to members at www.nrf.com or www.nrf-arts.org. RFPs are available for purchase by non-members for $5,000.
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. ARTS has four standards: The Standard Relational Data Model, UnifiedPOS, IXRetail and the Standard Requests for Proposal. Membership is open to all members of the international technology community- retailers from all industry segments, application developers and hardware companies. www.nrf-arts.org.
The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2008 sales of $4.6 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.
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