SQS is now also testing software offshore

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New branch in Durban, South Africa

Cologne, 17 April 2007

SQS Software Quality Systems AG is now also conducting software tests offshore, with immediate effect. The team at the new branch in Durban, South Africa, is ready and waiting. The 40 test experts have already been working as quality assurance consultants for two years—until now mainly for British companies. In its previous offshore projects SQS was able to reduce the test costs for the British customers by an average of 30 per cent. By the end of the year, SQS AG intends to expand its presence to at least 70 employees, above all by recruiting German-speaking experts.

As a rule, the local SQS experts initially prepare the test jobs in the form of test cases on site with the customers. Once the preparations are complete, SQS sets up the appropriate test infrastructure in Durban (South Africa) and uses this for performing the tests and subsequent test evaluation. Test management is generally carried out on the customer’s premises. In that respect, SQS provides mixed onsite-offshore services. This can be important, for example, if some aspects of quality assurance and testing are not supposed to be performed outside the company for reasons of data protection.

“There are often communication problems involved in offshoring, but we largely eliminate those problems by employing German-speaking experts in South Africa”, say SQS CEO Rudolf van Megen. “The working culture and mentality in South Africa are also very similar to ours in Europe. Not only that, being in the same time zone makes working with them that much easier.”

The team in Durban covers the same range of tasks in software quality assurance and testing: from checking documents and performing functional and integrative tests right through to load and performance tests and security tests. The test experts have all completed training as qualified testers according to the standards of the Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB) or the International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB). Both of these ensure internationally standardised training as test practitioners. The South Africa SQS staff also have certification from the leading test tool vendors such as Hewlett Packard (formerly Mercury) or Compuware, as well as many years of experience in application of the tools.

Examples of the customers that SQS South Africa has served in the United Kingdom include Vodafone, Egg Bank and O2.

• SQS Software Quality Systems
  SQS is the leading independent provider of software quality management and testing services in Europe. Based in Cologne, Germany, SQS currently employs more than 850 people in its branches in Europe—including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Ireland—and South Africa. SQS also has a minor stake in an operation in Portugal and a cooperative agreement with a company in Spain.
  SQS is the first German company to have a primary listing on AIM (Alternative Investment Market) in London. SQS completed a secondary listing on the Entry Standard of the Deutsche Börse (German Stock Exchange) in Frankfurt am Main on 2 December 2005.
  With over 4,000 successfully completed projects behind it, SQS has a strong customer base including half of the DAX 30 companies and 30 per cent of the companies in the STOXX 50. They include names like Dresdner Bank, Barclays, Deutsche Telekom, BP, DaimlerChrysler and Airbus, and various other enterprises from all business sectors.