09 March, 2009 - Could an RFID Based Solution be the Lifeline for Gold Financing in the Current Crisis?
16 December, 2008 - TJS Appoint a Chief Technology Officer
05 November, 2008 - Handling RFID and Data Explosion
08 October, 2008 - TJS Repositioned as Technology-Based Solutions Provider
24 August, 2008 - TJS Strengthens Management
Could an RFID Based Solution be the Lifeline for Gold Financing in the Current Crisis?
Dubai, 09 March, 2009. Abstract - The gold jewellery industry is negatively affected by the current financial crisis on several levels. Largely depending on bank-financing for carrying high-value gold inventories, it suffers firstly from the overall difficulty of accessing loans, given the increasing risk aversion of financial institutions. Secondly, where lending is offered, costs are likely increased as many banks seek to price in appropriate returns on the perceived higher risk of corporate exposure. Lastly, the price of gold jewellery is being constantly aggravated by the ongoing volatility in gold markets.
This article gives the details of a revolutionary consignment model, created by TJS in collaboration with Standard Bank Plc, and how it managed to insulate the gold financing structure from price fluctuations and protect both retailer and banker from unnecessary exposure to the volatile gold prices using RFID technology. Full release
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TJS Appoint a Chief Technology Officer
Dubai, 16 December 2008- TJS (The Jewellery Store), a Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) company specializing in track-and-trace solutions for high-value items, using RFID technology, announced the appointment of Adrian Prezioso as Chief Technology Officer.
The appointment is part of TJS's restructuring and repositioning as a technology-based solutions provider and follows two other senior appointments announced recently - that of Gabriel Nasser as CEO and Johnny Hazboun as CMO. It also comes as part of TJS's expansion, reflecting the particular importance of the company's products and services in times of financial crisis.
Prezioso, who holds an M.A. in Computer Science from Boston University, comes with more than 10 years' experience in providing technical and management leadership for numerous companies in the architecture, design, and development of software from inception to production. As co-founder of Solvent Solutions Inc., he was the visionary and principal designer of its enterprise security management product.
Prior to joining TJS, Prezioso was Director of Research and Development for Preventive Medicine LLC, Bethesda MD, where he launched the IT organization, helped define product strategy, and oversaw the development of the company's flagship Health and Wellness product.
He also worked as Director of Engineering for Denali Solutions LLC, Columbia MD, where he led product development and the company's transition to next generation technologies, which enabled the doubling of the company's revenue growth.
Commenting on Prezioso's appointment, Gabriel Nasser, CEO of TJS said: "As a seasoned information technology executive and entrepreneur who is well versed in creating enterprise level software design, Mr. Prezioso will be instrumental in solidifying and expanding TJS's current and future products."
Prezioso's mandate is to apply his expertise and TJS's deployment record and know-how in developing next generation products that are focused on tracking and tracing high-value items throughout their life-cycle. TJS's platform will be an integrated approach to delivering security and traceability to industries with such clear needs.
TJS, which has been successfully deploying its track-and-trace solutions for high-value items since 2006, recently added six new deployments to its growing list - a 10% growth in less than three months. This further establishes firmly TJS's track and trace solution as the world's largest RFID deployment for jewellery, with over 2 million tagged jewellery items.
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Handling RFID and Data Explosion
TJS CEO Gabriel Nasser Speaks at Cartes 2008
Paris, 5 November 2008– How to manage the explosion of data in the recent years? How to control data while ensuring information maintains and increases value over time? How to turn the data overload into a competitive advantage instead of a strategic burden – these were some of the questions discussed by Gabriel Nasser in his presentation to Cartes 2008 in Paris yesterday.
Nasser, who speaks at the RFID world leading event for the second consecutive year, is the CEO of Dubai-based TJS, specialising in track-and-trace solutions for high-value items, using RFID technology. The company, who was a finalist in the 2006 RFID Breakthrough Awards, has realised the world’s largest RFID deployment for the jewellery industry, managing over 20 billion data records thus far.
Nasser describes RFID and sensor technologies as collection tools: they enable automatic collection of data and allow more and better data to be collected. RFID technologies provide information that gives companies better visibility of operations but, as Nasser stresses, the benefits reside in what we do with that information.
As an RFID deployment takes place in a company, data starts to flood IT departments resulting in data management issues, points out Nasser. Such issues maybe the reason for declining an RFID implementation or, if implemented, the company may not see the benefits and even consider it a burden.
At the launch of such projects, CTOs and CIOs need to have strategies in place that are ready to collect, sort and visualize this new flood of data and turn it into usable information. Then they have to be able to distribute it throughout the organization based on each department’s needs.
RFID deployments alone are not enough to bring benefits to the company, says Nasser. The real value is in the information that comes as a result of connecting operational processes to RFID systems which enable managers to make sense of their business and act upon it.
Nasser warns that large-scale RFID deployments can flood organisations with massive data volumes that can turn expected benefits into an unexpected crisis. The new sources of data bring along not only unprecedented volume but also increasingly new uses of data and infinite demand for new information.
As for managing large data volumes, Nasser recommends to start by devising a comprehensive archiving strategy and a robust replication model. Nasser also points out the importance of involving the stakeholders early and continuously while remaining flexible. The key is for information systems to remain user-driven rather than IT-enforced.
Other questions which need to be answered are: how will the data be used, what data to make available and when, how much pre-computation is required and how much can we afford. Nasser’s advice is to choose flexibility over performance to avoid bottlenecks during the early stages.
When deciding how to meet information needs, IT must solely focus on engaging requests that directly drive business strategy and support primary goals.
Nasser concludes with some rules of thumb, including:
• When unsure, use loss-less data aggregation
• Save all data now, analyse it more later
• Let the data speak, let the users decide
• Eliminate redundant data by emphasising master data records.
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TJS Repositioned as Technology-Based Solutions Provider
Dubai, 08 October 2008- Established in 2005 as The Jewellery Store to explore more efficient gold jewellery financing using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), TJS evolved into a provider of track-and-trace solutions for high-value items and is introducing its new brand identity under the name “TJS”.
According to Gabriel Nasser, CEO of TJS, the move is a natural progression to the technological aspect of the original TJS business. “Our own experience, as well as the market response, proved that delivering inventory monitoring solutions for jewellery and other high-value sectors is a business in its own right, with huge potential” said Nasser.
In its initial form The Jewellery Store operated a large vaulted showroom for gold jewellery wholesale where it successfully implemented its tracking solution as a part of a novel financing method.
“The original TJS shareholding has been restructured to allow us to concentrate on the development of our true competitive strengths,” Nasser said. “TJS will focus on track and trace solutions including RFID and move away from the wholesale jewellery business and the vault, which will be operated by Damas,” he explained.
TJS’s flagship product Ivory™ is a suite of RFID-based solutions that include software, hardware, and tags specifically designed with a tamper-evident feature. Ivory™ allows organisations to achieve complete inventory visibility of their products and assets with unprecedented ease and accuracy. It enables businesses and security companies to monitor their high-value items at multiple locations.
In 2005, TJS developed a proof-of-concept based on its RFID solution to address the inefficiencies of gold loans in jewellery trade. Early success prompted TJS to patent this model and start commercialising it in partnership with Standard Bank Plc, a leading gold lending institution, Brink’s Global Services, a market leader in risk management and secure logistics, and HID Global, a leading supplier of specialty RFID transponders.
The model, which was a finalist in the 2006 RFID Breakthrough Awards, a high recognition in the industry, is seen as a revolutionary improvement in the jewellery trade.
According to Johnny Hazboun, Chief Business & Marketing Officer of TJS, Ivory™ has been implemented successfully by more than 50 retail and wholesale gold jewellery outlets in the Middle East, North America and Turkey, and there is significant interest from Europe and Asia.
"The market is realising the benefits and importance of deeper control and monitoring over high-value inventory, which is increasing the demand for our products and services, especially with the current global credit climate”, said Hazboun.
TJS’s experts are recognised speakers at international conferences and forums including the Hong Kong Jewellery and Watch Fair, Fiera di Vicenza, RFID Eurasia, RFID Journal Live, Cartes Paris. Forthcoming speaking engagements include the Arab RFID 2008 Conference in Dubai and Cartes 2008 in Paris, the world leading event on digital security and smart technologies.
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Dubai, 24 August 2008- TJS (The Jewellery Store), a Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) company specializing in technology and services for monitoring high value inventories, announced the appointment of Gabriel Nasser as Chief Executive Officer. Nasser, who was previously holding the position of IT Director, is the technological expert behind TJS’s groundbreaking model for financing gold jewellery, based on using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The appointment is part of TJS’s restructuring and repositioning as a technology services provider. The company also appointed Johnny Hazboun as Chief Business and Marketing Officer whose brief will be to drive TJS’s repositioning and market expansion.
As one of TJS’s first executives, Gabriel Nasser helped launch the company in 2005. He was instrumental in transforming TJS from proof-of-concept to a viable business. Under his technological leadership, TJS has implemented the world’s largest RFID jewellery deployment thus far and has established an innovative financing model for gold jewellery, which minimizes exposure to the international gold price fluctuations, something seen as a major improvement in the industry.
Prior to TJS, Nasser worked at OATSystems, Inc., a pioneering RFID solutions provider, since its founding in 2001 in Boston, and was involved in several global rollouts in RFID including at The Gillette Company, Target Corporation, and Tesco Stores Ltd . He co-authored and co-developed EPCGlobal's initial EPC-IS reference implementation which is now the global standard for EPC data and communication. Gabriel Nasser holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Computer Science from Boston University and is an editor for The RFID Society.
Johnny Hazboun brings over 12 years of experience in strategic marketing and product deployment in the IT and Healthcare industries in both the Middle East and the United States. Before joining TJS, Hazboun served as head of marketing at Imperial College London Diabetes Centre (ICLDC) in Abu Dhabi, where he helped bring the centre from zero patients to full capacity. At ICLDC Hazboun conducted the largest diabetes awareness campaign in the UAE thus far, a campaign which was awarded for ‘Best use of Public Relations’ at the Gulf Marketing Review Effectiveness in Marketing Awards (GEMAS) 2008.
In early 2005, Hazboun was contracted by a US firm, on behalf of the Jordanian Army, to deploy the first WiMax based network in the region. Before moving to the Middle East, Johnny served as Director of Marketing at EnviroSystems, a bio-tech products manufacture in Silicon Valley, California where he successfully introduced three of its products throughout the United States. Johnny Hazboun holds a Bachelor of Science from San Francisco State University.
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