Just Systems announced that it has successfully completed testing of xfy (pronounced ‘x-fye’), its document-based composite application for the IBM Retail Integration Framework. xfy serves as a management interface, providing retailers optimal management and decision support through real-time views of data in underlying applications and repositories.

“Today, retailers need real-time information at their fingertips to make faster, better decisions,” said Jake Sorofman, senior vice president of marketing and business development for JustSystems. “At the same time, they expect to work in an environment that is familiar, flexible and easy to understand. JustSystems’ xfy achieving Ready for IBM Retail Integration Framework status reflects the power of xfy as an information visualization component to deliver up-to-date views of constantly changing data from multiple sources and present that data as context relevant information that can be interacted with and shared as necessary.”

“In today’s marketplace, retailers need an intimate understanding of their customers to quickly and cost-effectively respond to changing demand patterns across sales channels,” said Patrick Gibney, director, distribution sector solutions, IBM Software Group. “The Retail Integration Framework creates a technology foundation for solutions that combine the real-time data access capabilities of xfy to help retailers utilize an SOA environment. This helps them respond dynamically to customer and employee needs, aligning evolving customer requirements with business imperatives.”

xfy Helps IBM Deliver Real-Time Visualization of SOA
IBM Retail Integration Framework utilizes open standards — including Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), Open Application Group Integration (OAGIS) and Global Standards (GS1) — to unlock communications between services, information sources, and business processes, making the store and the retail enterprise one seamless landscape rather than disconnected islands. xfy, among the first solutions to take advantage of IBM’s DB2 pureXML innovation, unifies and processes data from multiple sources within a simple and intuitive dynamic document interface.

The Retail Integration Framework initiative brings together platform-independent software vendors that deliver proven solutions designed and built for the retail industry. Through this initiative, IBM works with select IBM Business Partners to validate solutions that meet a rigorous assessment of next-generation, open-standards-based store environments.

xfy provides an end-user interface that unifies and processes data from multiple sources into a clear, contextually-rich dynamic document interface. xfy connects directly to the native information sources that drive the retail environment, allowing the data processing to be done within the dynamic document itself and providing a truly real-time view of information.

Continued JustSystems’ Sorofman, “In retail, xfy dynamic documents are a novel supplement to traditional business intelligence tools, which provide sophisticated analytics at the expense of timeliness. We’re giving users a true, real-time view of information, and we’re giving it to them in a familiar format — the document — that promotes fast, informed decisions on inventory control, demand forecasting, process performance, and other business activities.”