The Certification Committee's mission is to set guidelines for promoting and ensuring conformity to PCATS-NAXML standards. Chaired by Gregg Peele, and vice-chaired by Richard Forester, the Certification Committee works with the technical committees to provide appropriate mechanisms for validating applications and for producing documents consistent with the specific requirements defined by PCATS standards.
The committee has implemented a certification process for point-of-sale and back office system providers. This process utilizes a web-based testing tool for validating documents produced by POS and back office applications against PCATS standards. At present, nine providers have now certified using this tool.
The committee's goal is to expand this certification program to include retail business-to-business transactions in the near future. The committee also plans to enhance the current certification process to include validation of both the data produced by the sending application, as well as validation of the receiving application's ability to consume the data.
Verifying proper implementation of standards reduces the cost associated with implementation of technology between two vendors. The goal of certification is ultimately to provide assurance to retailers that POS and back office application vendors have proven that their systems can operate together to support their businesses. While certification does not currently guarantee interoperability, it does ensure that both partners use the same "language" as they communicate together.
In order to facilitate the clear definition of standards needed to do interoperability, the committee has set its mission to:
"Establish a framework which can be used to certify that partners conform to PCATS standards."
To achieve this framework, the committee will assist technical committees in the definition, documentation, and clarification of standards to facilitate their consistent use.
Therefore, the Certification Committee works hand in hand with the technical committees to ensure that the documentation produced for certification accurately reflects the business use of the particular standard. The committee sees certification as another way to ensure meaningful implementation of the standards.
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