For the last several years, retailers have struggled to find a system that could help them control their "digital assets," which include photographs, logos, and graphics. In fact, AMR Research estimates that most retail companies are spending in excess of $350 per SKU to acquire content, photograph and measure products, enter appropriate attributes, manipulate the data or images, and store and maintain the data. Many times, a variety of departments within one company would need access to digital assets-sales, advertising, claims, and merchandising.
Last year, the CIO Council of the National Retail Federation expressed strong support of an effort to standardize digital assets. The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) announced today that a Digital Asset Management program has been established to assist retailers in acquiring, storing, and maintaining their data.
"The creation of a Digital Asset Management Standard will be invaluable to retailers who now spend millions of dollars per year circulating their images between departments," said Richard Mader, Executive Director of ARTS. "Ultimately, it is our hope that this new Standard will save retailers countless amounts of money and time."
The ARTS Digital Asset Management Standard is an XML schema that allows retailers to request specific images from suppliers for communicating them in a standard format with associated classification information. By using the Standard, retailers can reduce their need to create images and provide central storage for all departments to easily access a single copy. The Standard was created to easily interface with Digital Management Systems used by many retailers and to permit use of existing image standards including MPEG-7 and DIG35.
"This first release of the Digital Asset Management Standard is just the beginning of leveraging a common standard for industry-wide cost savings," said Jay Heavilon, Partner of MARS Interactive. "As a third party service provider, the standard will save our clients money in terms of efficiency with the added benefits of reducing duplication of effort and decreasing time to market for merchandising of products with correct images."
The Standards were developed by a team of experts including representatives from: AccessVia, Blue Martini, El Corte Ingles, Interwoven, MARS Interactive, Reebok, Sears and QRS.
The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation, is a retailer-driven membership organization dedicated to creating an international, barrier-free technology environment for retailers. ARTS was established in 1993 to ensure that technology works to enhance a retailer's ability to develop store level business solutions and avoid situations that limit a retailers' ability to implement change while providing industry standards designed to provide greater value at lower costs.
For more information, visit www.nrf-arts.org/
