Fellow Technologists,

Why are standards so important in Information Technology?  Standards enable interoperability between complex systems.  Many enterprises look to products that use these standards for easy integration between their existing and new systems, as well as lowering design, development, and production costs.  Further, standards allow innovation, enabling new solutions that solve business problems.

Cisco has been a member of the Association of Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) since 2006 and has contributed to many white papers and standards over the years, including Cloud, SOA, Mobile, and Social Blueprints.  Many of the standards created by ARTS focus on the messaging syntax used between systems that enable products from a diverse set of vendors to interoperate and communicate with one another-complexity made simple.

ARTS is the IT standards division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), and is comprised of over 200 international vendors and retailers 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 disciplines: the Standard Relational Data Model, Unified POS, XML, and Standard RFPs. The National Retail Federation (NRF) will be having its next Big Show in January at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.  ARTS is targeting to release several new publications at this show and Cisco will be there sharing our latest solutions developed with our technology partners.Upcoming ARTS publications include:
Customer/Social Analytics-Taking advantage of the Big Data generated by Social Networks
Payments White Paper-Keeping up with new payment opportunities
Compliance Audit Interchange-A collaboration exchange for Global Factory Audits

If you are looking to integrate mobility, social networking or the cloud into your business you should first look to what ARTS  and Cisco can offer. Cisco will also be highlighting out latest Compliance Solution for PCI DSS 2.0 Addendum scheduled for release in December. The Cisco PCI solution addresses top customer business challenges such as Cloud Security and Compliance Monitoring and Reporting - while helping  organizations secure cardholder data, customer privacy, and business assets at every point: from the data center, to branches, and across e-commerce sites and payment processors. The Cisco PCI Solution 2.0 is built on network security best practices, proven Cisco products, Cisco Services, and partner solutions that are validated for compatibility with Cisco PCI Solution architectures. See www.cisco.com/go/pci  to learn more about the Cisco PCI Solution 2.0 and to download the latest Design and Implementation Guide. Visit the ARTS Pavilion (Booth 2253) at the NRF Annual Convention & EXPO in New York, January 13-16, 2013 and join us for some engaging conversation.

See you in NYC!