Jewellery database helps to slash fraud

When jeweller Chris Stevens came up with an idea for cutting down on fraud he eventually found himself with that rare but very desirable thing - an idea that spawned a spin-off business which is becoming the industry standard.

The founder of Bath-based jewellery outlet, Christopher Milton Stevens, has been designing, manufacturing and selling jewellery for more than 25 years.

Early on, he noticed how many people came to him saying they had lost an item or had it stolen. And worse, there was often no way to prove exactly what was missing.

So while still running his retail business, Stevens started developing a system that he hoped could benefit retailers, customers and the insurance industry.

He sought the input of insurers and started developing his own software. By 1995 this venture was serious enough for him to team up with IBM. A joint venture was established with the goal of creating an industry standard.

Point of sale (PoS) software would be linked to a national database "e-register". That was the big idea. But there were problems.

Getting less-than-tech-savvy jewellers, many of whom had never even touched a PC, to use the software was tough. Even those who could see the point then found it hard to communicate with each other and to the central database. Stevens describes IBM's then global network as "not easy to use" and it came at a cost.

What changed? Besides general IT literacy levels rising, Stevens' gradual push coincided with the rise of the web - and later a new partner, in the shape of Microsoft.

Fast forward to the present day and there are about 750 jewellers using the valuation service and more than 400 insurance brokers using the www.insurer.e-register.net website, which Stevens describes as "welcomed and used by the industry".

Fellow jewellers, insurance companies and the police all see the benefits of an audit trail that will help keep fraud to a minimum.

The system is now developing links to Microsoft Retail Management Solution (RMS), as well as other Microsoft staples such as the .NET web services environment and SQL Server database technology.

Retailers connect from a PoS device, over the web, to register items. It doesn't have to be a new purchase - antiques are frequently brought in. Valuations jewellers then make records for all those in on the scheme to see. As well as value, details such as stone type and size as well as number of carats are recorded.

Stevens says that being part of it all means better customer service in shops but for retailers wanting something more tangible than that there's the fact that it's also a profit centre. They charge an average £89 for valuations.

Stevens' tech venture is now collaborating with Microsoft Business Solutions partner RSS for rollouts. "I wanted a company that shared the vision, working with a common technology," he says.

And while the PoS tech is kept as straightforward as possible for the retailers, police benefit from a 'lay search' wizard that requires little or no IT knowledge. After all, entering details for something like a watch - probably with a brand and model identifier - is quite different from a family heirloom pearl necklace.

And there is a lot of business still to be done. Stevens reckons about £550m of jewellery is registered on the database but each year sales top £3bn in the UK - and that is to say nothing of the billions of pounds of precious items already out there.

In 1992 Stevens raised VC funds for his vision from 3i and three years ago his tech business, e-register, was bought by Helphire Group.

The PoS plus national database idea has clearly proved a nice little earner but more importantly it is of benefit to his peer group, insurers and the police.

And he still has the day job he was doing a quarter of a century ago.