IHL Consulting Group Announces Key Agreement With Association of Retail Technology Standards; ARTS Endorses IHL's POS Market Reports

Business Wire, Jan 23, 2001

Business Editors

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 23, 2001

The Association of Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) is pleased to announce a marketing relationship with IHL Consulting Group for their Point-of-Sale Market Reports.

Covering the POS Markets in North America and Europe, IHL's reports cover POS Terminals and Printers, providing market ship share and installed base figures as well as discussion of trends, standards, and barriers to entry for key market segments.

"ARTS is often considered a POS standards association and we continually receive inquiries concerning market trends," said Richard Mader, Executive Director of ARTS. "What POS technologies are gaining the majority market share, is there a trend to one particular operating system, have ink jet printers become accepted at POS, do systems vary by industry segment, what new technology will change the future of POS? Answers to these questions guide not only vendor marketing plans, but also retailer selection and purchase. To provide researched answers to these questions ARTS is pleased to recommend IHL's excellent reports."

Currently the agreement covers three reports:
1)       North American POS Terminal Report
2)       North American POS Printer Report
3)       Europe/Middle East/Africa POS Report

"We are very excited about working with ARTS and its members, said Greg Buzek, President of IHL Consulting Group. "Through their thought leadership in developing standards for the retail industry, ARTS has helped its members greatly reduce their development costs for POS technologies. The reports we provide at IHL Consulting Group are designed to help companies take advantage of such standards and target those retailers most likely to buy their products. The endorsement and critique of ARTS and its members is greatly welcomed and will only make this research better going further."

As part of the agreement, ARTS members will receive a 10% discount on the IHL reports. These three reports are the first of several new initiatives the two organizations plan to introduce this year.

ABOUT ARTS

The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) 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 the website at http://www.nrf-arts.org.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet and independent stores. NRF members represent an industry that encompasses more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, employs more than 20 million people -- about 1 in 5 American workers -- and registered 1999 sales of $3 trillion. NRF's international members operate stores in more than 50 nations. In its role as the retail industry's umbrella group, NRF also represents 32 national and 50 state associations in the U.S. as well as 36 international associations representing retailers abroad. For more information about NRF, visit our Website at http://www.nrf.com.

ABOUT IHL CONSULTING GROUP

IHL Consulting Group is an independent business-consulting firm headquartered in Boynton Beach, Florida that provides market analysis and business consulting services for information technology companies that focus on the retail industry.

For more information, visit the company's web site at http://www.ihlservices.com.