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SIRIT Inc. is a leading
designer, developer, and manufacturer of RFID reader technology, products, and solutions
that support a broad range of RFID tags
Technology
RFID
(SI-TSX)
SIRIT INC.
Suite 250, 33 City Centre Drive
Mississauga ON Canada L5B 2N5
Phone: 905-949-4404
Norbert Dawalibi
President and CEO
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFOinterviews.com
September 8, 2005
BIO:
Most recently, Mr. Dawalibi was President and CEO of Psion Teklogix, a $300 million
company and global provider of solutions for mobile computing, wireless data collection
and RFID. In addition to his deep understanding of the RFID technology and markets, Mr.
Dawalibi is a proven and skilled manager with a solid background in sales and marketing
resulting from his 24 years at IBM where he progressed through ncreasingly executive roles
in Canada and the U.S., including managing marketing for IBM Systems in the Americas and
leading sales operations generating in excess of $1 billion in revenue.
Company Profile:
SIRIT Inc. designs, develops, manufactures and sells Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) technology. Targeted at a diverse set of markets RFID technology has become a core
technology for applications including: electronic toll collection, access control,
cashless payment systems, product identification, and supply chain management applications
including logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, and asset management.
CEOCFO: Mr. Dawalibi,
what attracted you to Sirit?
Mr. Dawalibi: “In my previous job as CEO and president
of Psion Teklogix, I used to work with Sirit because it was one of the suppliers of the
technology to Psion Teklogix. After I left Psion Teklogix, I kept contact with Bill
Staudt, who was the previous CEO for Sirit and is still the Chairman of the Board. I
believe that RFID is a fantastic opportunity in terms of an industry and in terms of the
benefits that it can provide the companies that will be using that technology. I worked
with Bill Staudt for a couple of months in a consulting role, specifically focusing on
sales and marketing areas. He asked me to join the Board of Sirit, which is exactly what I
did in April. From one thing to another, Bill asked me to step into the role of CEO
because he believes Sirit is poised to move into the next stage in terms of its
development as a business. Bill has done a terrific job of putting the company on a solid
financial footing. He thinks it is the right time to focus on the sales and marketing
side.”
CEOCFO: How will you
foster sales and why is it the right time for a change?
Mr. Dawalibi: “Sirit is into building RFID technology.
RFID refers to ‘radio frequency identification’. The concept behind the
technology is to be able to tag goods that are going through the supply chain, and to be
able to identify those goods as they are processed. This is where big companies such as
Wal-Mart or The Department of Defense have a huge interest in terms of being able to
control their supply chain, knowing where the goods are, or what is happening to them. Up
to now, they have been using bar codes, which have been extremely successful as a
technology, but there is a need to have a lot more information across the supply chain and
to be able to manage it better. The benefits could be tremendous for most organizations in
terms of using that technology. Sirit is in the business of developing that technology.
Clearly, when we look at the market, we believe the market is going to be tremendous in
terms of the future. We are working with partners out there to help customers implement
that technology and get the benefits from that technology.”
CEOCFO: Are people using
Sirit technology today?
Mr. Dawalibi: “We are using that technology in a number
of places. A simple one that people do not think of as being an RFID technology would be
the toll business. If you are in California on the highway, you are using that technology
when you have a transponder in your car and those readers across the tolls, which are
recording every time you go through the toll. Sirit has installed over 200,000 RFID
readers around the world. In terms of supply chains, we are in the process with a number
of customers using the technology to figure out where the goods are in the supply chain.
We have hundreds of thousands of readers out there and millions of tags that are used day
in and day out.”
CEOCFO: Will you tell us
about the revenue model?
Mr. Dawalibi: “The revenue model is different depending
on the vertical. For example with toll applications, we provide the complete
infrastructure including the tags. In the supply chain, there are very large
semi-conductor companies that are in the business of manufacturing the tags. We are
focusing on the reader side; being able to read all the tags in the supply chain.”
CEOCFO: What is the
competitive landscape like?
Mr. Dawalibi: “The landscape is diverse because many
companies are interested in this technology. It goes from the silicon providers who want
to build a basic building block, to people like Sirit who are building further up in the
chain, to application providers, to system application providers and integrators. In order
to be able to take advantage of the technology, most companies are going to have to look
at their supply chain and understand what it is that they need to optimize. There is a
whole spectrum of companies that are involved in that environment; some we compete with
and some we partner with. The market is huge, and it is important at this point to see the
market evolving and there is plenty of room for competition.”
CEOCFO: What are your
plans to move forward and how are you reaching your potential customers and partners?
Mr. Dawalibi: “We have done a terrific job in developing
technology and coming up with exciting new products. My focus will be to look at the
market, make sure we know where we can use the technology, and what partners we need to
look at to make sure this technology is implemented. There is a lot of interest in the
market today. We have not seen the major deployments as of yet. It is a complex
environment and the benefits are very big, but it takes a lot of work to get it there. We
will be focusing on working with those partners and finding the right partners. We pride
ourselves on the quality and performance of our products, and the fact that they work in
real environments and not just the labs. We will take that story out and make sure that
customers see the real benefits.”
CEOCFO: Where will you
focus?
Mr. Dawalibi: “We will focus on supply chain and
specific verticals where there is a specific application that needs to be done where RFID
is a good fit, such as the toll or parking access business.”
CEOCFO: Will you tell us
about the financial position of the company?
Mr. Dawalibi: “Sirit is in good financial condition. It
has a strong balance sheet and no debt. There is cash in the bank. There is real business
that provides real returns such as the toll business. We are investing in new areas like
supply chains. It is a solid business.”
CEOCFO: Will you need to
add personnel?
Mr. Dawalibi: “We will be looking at it in terms of what
opportunity we have. I am not foreseeing adding personnel in a major way, but when we see
our customers getting into larger deployments, we will need people to support them. Short
term, we will be looking at our sales and marketing area and making sure we strengthen
that area. We will be prudent in our approach and make sure that we match what we are
doing with what the market is doing and what our customers are doing.”
CEOCFO: Why should
potential investors be interested now?
Mr. Dawalibi: “From my perspective, we should start with
the market and decide if there is a real market out there, and what is the potential of
that market. As a technology, RFID is exciting because there is tremendous potential for
most companies around the world in terms of using the technology. It gives you a level of
access and control over the assets that the company has. This is why leading companies
such as Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense have insisted to push the usage of the
technology, because they believe in the benefits across the board. If I am an investor, I
want to make sure that there is a market share and that the market is developing.
Eventually it could become as ubiquitous as barcodes are today and that is the plan.
Today, anything that is manufactured has a barcode. In the future, the same thing is going
to happen with RFID. From that perspective there is a real market, it will take time to
develop. Sirit is in a position to take advantage of that developing market. It has strong
assets in terms of its technology, what it delivers to the marketplace. It will be a big
market and from an investor standpoint, this is the kind of thing I will be looking for;
how the market is doing, the strength of the company and the prospects of that company in
that market.”
CEOCFO: Has the
investment community recognized the potential?
Mr. Dawalibi: “Absolutely! Sirit is a public company.
The evidence by what has been happening in terms of investors putting their money in the
company. If you follow the company, you will see that there have been some substantial
investments in the company. There is the belief that Sirit will be successful. That being
said, as the technology continues to be adopted, we expect that there will be strong
quarters and weak quarters depending on the spending commitments of early adopters and the
time required for them to prove the ROI on their investment and then commit to recurring
sales.”
CEOCFO: In closing, you
have made a personal commitment to Sirit; please tell us about that.
Mr. Dawalibi: “Bill has invested quite a bit of his own
money in the company. He wanted to make sure that the next CEO would have a good part of
his money invested in the company because his perspective is that if you manage the
company as though you own it, you will always do a better job. The same way he invested in
the company, he felt strongly that it was something I should do. After looking at the
company, I agreed with him and I have decided to make that investment also.”
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