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Most recent distributions have lsb_release, or at least /etc/lsb-release, which you can use to get OS and VER.

I think uname to get ARCH is still the best way.

e.g.

OS=$(lsb_release -si)
ARCH=$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_//;s/i[3-6]86/32/')
VER=$(lsb_release -sr)

or

. /etc/lsb-release
OS=$DISTRIB_ID
ARCH=$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_//;s/i[3-6]86/32/')
VER=$DISTRIB_RELEASE

If you have to be compatible with older distributions, there is no single file you can rely on. Either fall back to the output from uname, e.g.

OS=$(uname -s)
ARCH=$(uname -m)
VER=$(uname -r)

or handle each distribution separately:

if [ -f /etc/debian_version ]; then
    OS=Debian
    VER=$(cat /etc/debian_version)
elif [ -f /etc/redhat-release ]; then
    # TODO add code for Red Hat and CentOS here

It's probably best to combine all this:

ARCH=$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_//;s/i[3-6]86/32/')

if type lsb_release >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    OS=$(lsb_release -si)
    VER=$(lsb_release -sr)
elif [ -f /etc/lsb-release ]; then
    . /etc/lsb-release
    OS=$DISTRIB_ID
    VER=$DISTRIB_RELEASE
elif [ -f /etc/debian_version ]; then
    OS=Debian
    VER=$(cat /etc/debian_version)
elif [ -f /etc/redhat-release ]; then
    # TODO add code for Red Hat and CentOS here
    ...
else
    OS=$(uname -s)
    VER=$(uname -r)
fi

Finally, your ARCH obviously only handles Intel systems. I'd either call it BITS like this:

case $(uname -m) in
x86_64)
    BITS=64
    ;;
i*86)
    BITS=32
    ;;
*)
    BITS=?
    ;;
esac

Or change ARCH to be the more common, yet unambiguous versions: x86 and x64 or similar:

case $(uname -m) in
x86_64)
    ARCH=x64  # or AMD64 or Intel64 or whatever
    ;;
i*86)
    ARCH=x86  # or IA32 or Intel32 or whatever
    ;;
*)
    # leave ARCH as-is
    ;;
esac

but of course that's up to you.