NRF Afterthoughts: Will the Desire to Implement SOA Finally Bring Everyone to the Standards Table?

By Bill Bittner, President, BWH Consulting

One of my favorite sayings is that an 80 percent solution fully implemented is better than a 100 percent solution that is ignored. For too long, companies have ignored standards because they thought there was something unique about their own requirements (the missing 20 percent) that eliminated the benefit of implementing the standard. The cost of this thinking has been the inability to interoperate across the supply chain and share data between stakeholders.

SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is the standard that connects business software running on various computers so it is able to exchange data seamlessly. It promises to eliminate the technical hurdles to collaboration, but this will only emphasize the remaining gaps in standards and business processes that prevent full implementation. Until industry organizations embrace common data definitions and business processes, there will always be companies without the right data or trying to send data to nonexistent processes.

ARTS (The Association for Retail Technology Standards) has long been the "Retail Data Maven," providing data models for the POS environment, store, and overall retail business. They have also developed standard RFPs that provide a starting point for retailers wanting to purchase new technology. Now they have standard XML messaging formats for the exchange of data between various business processes. And ARTS has just released updates to their RFP for workforce and task management.

VICS (Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions) has always been the "Business Process Maven." They were the first to advocate "Collaborative Planning and Forecasting" between manufacturers and distributors. Their business process model has expanded to cover strategy and planning, demand and supply management, execution, and analysis. Their trademark says it all, "Don't wait to be great ... Collaborate." VICS has developed the CPFR training program for quick emersion into the details of collaboration. They are working with the University of Arkansas to test and document the realities of item level RFID tagging.

Discussion Questions: With the technical hurdles eliminated, will the business organizations be able to compromise enough to make the vision of a Service Oriented Architecture a reality? Will all the supply chain players finally realize that by accepting a compromise, everyone can achieve greater benefit?
[Author's comment] My personal feeling is that both these efforts have been underutilized by the various stakeholders who should be demanding participation. Manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers need to get more involved so that their business organizations understand the benefits of collaboration and break down the walls in the old "We vs. Them" scenario. With the technical hurdles resolved, it is imperative that the business players understand the issues and can move the ball forward.

I have always believed that standards should not necessarily keep everyone marching in cadence, but at least keep us all going in the same direction. Both ARTS and VICS are working to make their definitions "extensible" so that specific partnership related exceptions can be supported but this still requires overall understanding. Maybe SOA and increased flexibility in the standards will make this the year that sees both ARTS and VICS blossom. Early adopters will certainly have the advantage.