Landsteinar, the retail systems provider, announced that it will work with Microsoft Business Solutions, to supply a comprehensive solution - including gold and jewellery accounting, store operations and head office management - for Damas, one of the Middle East's leading jewellery companies.
The solution, based upon Navision applications from Microsoft Business Solutions, provides Damas with a solution which interlinks all back office operations to their global network of shops. Damas is a UAE-based company founded in 1907, with more than 130 retail outlets.
In 2003
'We're a global business and our stores need to have up-to-the minute product and sales information, in a highly competitive jewellery market to provide our customers with the exclusive service that they have come to expect,' says Tawfique Abdullah, chairman of Damas Jewellery.
'In our discussions with Landsteinar and Microsoft Business Solutions, we came up with a solution and helps us to track stock levels effectively, factor price changes into our sales plans, and ensure our managers are fully up-to-date with all the relevant information,' adds Tawfique.
When the implementation is complete, users will be able to access sales and operational information at any store in the Damas chain. Initially, the solution will be implemented at a number of key stores in the UAE, before being rolled-out internationally.
'We will work with Damas over the coming months, helping to train shop assistants and managers to use the system, to ensure that they reap full benefit from their new investment,' says Ole Milan, managing director, Landsteinar GCC.
In 2005 Damas announced the trialing of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in its stores in the UAE, prior to a global rollout. The jeweller is using RFID tags to cut inventory costs and make it easier to guard against theft.
Dubai-based company The Jewellery Store (TJS), which was set up this year by Damas and three other firms, has
created the tags.
Each tag contains a unique identification number which, when scanned by a reader, is transmitted to an inventory database which runs on a standard PC in the store.
The database contains detailed information on each piece of jewellery and by passing the reader over any number of items a stock check is carried out in minutes.
The RFID tags are being initially deployed in Damas stores in Dubai and Sharjah before the technology is rolled out to all the Damas stores worldwide.
Dinesh Dhanak, group general manager at Damas LLC said the tags will revolutionise the way stock checks are carried out by the company.
“This new technology means that we can count the jewellery twice a day if we want to and it does not have to be handled,” he said. Without the technology a full stock count requires a store to be closed for half a day, with consequent loss of business, plus the additional costs of paying back office staff to do the counting, he explained.
The tags also take a lot of the guess work out of replenishing stock levels, Dhanak added.
“Because it gives you quick access to a detailed inventory with information about which items are selling best you
can see easily which stock needs to be replenished,” he said. Detecting and eradicating theft — by customers and staff — is also a major motivation behind Damas’s adoption of RFID technology.
“Because jewellers only carry out a count around once a month it means that if they are say 100 grammes short — it
is far harder to trace what has gone missing and how,” said Dhanak.
“This will become much easier if a stock check can be carried out once a day,” he added. Furthermore the tags are tamper evident, as Gabriel Nasser, IT director at TJS explained.
“The tampering with jewellery items is a big problem in Dubai but the RFID tags can help to overcome this,” he said.
A wire is attached to each tag which acts as a connector to close the circuit, once the wire has been removed or the tag tampered with it no longer works.
”So, if somebody tries to remove a tag from a cheaper product then attach it to a more expensive product we will see
it has been tampered with,” Nasser said.
Nowadays most of damas jewellery stores use this RFID system efficiently.
