Quint hopes to expand business in India

Besides consulting, the company is also into education and training of companies and organizations in standards. Established, in 1992 in the Netherlands, the firm today has global customers in 49 countries and offices in 22 countries including India, Middle East, Asia, North America and Europe. Priya Padmanabhan of CyberMedia News met the company's CEO, Dr. Hans van Herwaarden, in Bangalore and discussed Quint's plans and trends in the standards arena.

Can you give a brief picture of Quint's area of business?

We act as the translator between business and IT. When people look at IT they look at hardware and software while business people look at how to serve customers. There is a communication gap between the roles that needs to be bridged. It is something that is not happening in many companies. If IT is down, business is affected, and vice-versa. Quint has experts who understand both the IT and business aspects.

We help companies define a strategy through two options - improving their efficiency by pushing their quality standards or advising them with outsourcing services. In both roles, we guide the customers and help them achieve their goals but don't take part in direct operational services. Our outsource consulting services help our customers select the right partners and ensure effective service management. We are into education, consulting and measurement. While some IT service companies offer consultancy services like we do, the fact that we are an independent firm makes a difference.

Do you have your own solutions and methodologies in the standards area?

Yes. For example, we help companies implement standards such as CMM, ISO, SOX and others by combining them in one effort. That way, the company can reduce common areas of redundancies among the different standards. So the implementation gets done faster and we can provide added value through our own methodology that is a registered trademark. For example, we have simple structured solutions to help customers manage outsourced service providers.

How important is the Indian market for your company?

We have been serving customers in India since 2000 from our office in Malaysia. In 2006, we opened our office in India. Today, we have offices in Pune, Mumbai, Noida and Bangalore. India is an important market for Quint. It is the second home market for us after the Netherlands. We would like to use our presence in India both to help European companies better understand how Indian companies work and help Indian companies get better business in Europe.

An advantage of being a global company is that we can share the best practices learnt in one region at other geographies. We advise a lot of Indian companies on managing their IT. Many businesses today like airlines are completely dependent on IT. We help them streamline their IT systems. Most of our customers in India are non-IT companies.

With standards becoming commoditized, are they still considered a differentiator?

Standards are not a differentiator these days. It is more a competitive necessity than a competitive advantage. For example, if a company wants to choose an outsourcing partner, they put down CMM or ISO as one of the eligibility criteria.

There are many Business Process Management (BPM) products available in the market. Are they as effective in management of services and processes?

BPM primarily looks at managing technology. These tools don't help companies in being better service providers. Technology is not the only answer for a company to run successfully. It is a balance of the organization, technology and processes. We help companies use tools and processes more efficiently. It helps companies improve customer relations, improve capacity and handle new projects. So it is a combination of many things.

Many service providers are focusing on vertical specific practices and solutions. Do you see standards emerging that are specific to verticals?

I see some movement in this area. But I discourage this trend. This will lead to a situation where you miss the forest for the trees. It is a disaster if this goes ahead. The aim of standards is to integrate different components and having them connected.