NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The National Retail Federation show drew the hottest names in technology, each offering its vision for the future of retailing.

Microsoft led by unveiling what it calls its Smarter Retailing Initiative, a technology framework based on .Net technology and XML that the developer said will make it easier for companies to connect their legacy applications in the retail arena with their stores, and through Web services, their customers.

According to an article in YahooDaily News, Microsoft hopes to make it easier for retailers to offer personalized shopping experiences to customers via devices such as cell phones, bring customer relationship management tools down to the level of the individual sales clerk, and jump-start wireless and RFID adoption in retail.

Nearly two-dozen companies joined Microsoft at the NRF expo to announce support for the Smarter Retailing Initiative with new or revamped products. Among them, Accenture rolled out a series of RFID-based tools that take advantage of other Microsoft software to boost retail management and let customers sidestep checkout lines, according to the article.

Accenture's Store Manager Workbench, for instance, leverages Microsoft Office and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to put employee schedules, store inventory, and sales data onto a Tablet PC or PDA so that store managers can stay atop developments when they're on the floor.

Another tool, called Shopping Cart Assistant, will let customers scan and pay for items as they're picked off the shelf, the article said. It relies on a Tablet PC using Windows XP Embedded, a version of the operating system that Microsoft's pushing at the retail IT market in a host of devices, including point-of-sale systems--so that they can walk by checkout.

IBM matched Microsoft's retail initiative with one of its own, dubbed IBM Store Integration Framework.

IBM's strategy is to give retailers open-standard tools that they can use to develop and deploy applications for such chores as linking point-of-sale systems to wireless Tablet PCs and PDAs, then connecting the POS devices to the rest of the store's IT infrastructure, according to the article.

Other goals include allowing retailers to link into multiple channels, including kiosks, Web sites, physical stores and call centers for a more integrated approach to selling, and the management of inventory and business operation.

Sun concentrated on RFID technologies. The vendor said it would open a RFID testing facility in Dallas to help companies reach compliance with Wal-Mart's tagging requirement, which the Arkansas-based discount giant wants to put into place within the next 12 months.

Hewlett-Packard, meanwhile, launched a migration service targeting retailers who want to leave behind proprietary point-of-sale systems for HP's open-standard rp5000.

The rp5000 platform, which takes advantage of Microsoft's .Net and Windows XP Embedded technologies, allows retailers to replace older POS systems with ones that can link to legacy applications through tools and software, which vendors will produce as part of Microsoft's Smarter Retailing Initiative.