Transcript RelQ Software

Best in France Case Study
25 December 2003
By: Carl Chevillon, Benjamin Hughes,
Charles Monteux and Roberto Simpson
What’s is RelQ business?
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RelQ is an Independent Software Testing, Validation & Verification (V&V), and Quality
Assurance (QA) services company.
It is an IT consultancy group.
Revenues of RelQ Europe is of approximately USD1 million monthly (almost 60% of total
revenues of RelQ), of which International Testing currently represents between 10% to
15%.
The company currently has more than 550 engineers in USA, UK, France, Japan and India.
RelQ has successfully setup Dedicated Offshore Test Labs at Bangalore for various
Clients. These Test Labs are physically secured and equipped with state-of-the-art
Infrastructure.
RelQ has experience in testing applications in:
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Enterprise & e-biz applications
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VLSI / ASIC verification
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Banking, Finance & Insurance Software Games
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Real Time, Embedded system, DSP applications
related to Automotives, Railways, Medical electronics.
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Aerospace & Safety Critical
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Test Automation
What’s is RelQ business?
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RelQ's V&V Professionals bring in strong Domain Expertise, Project
Management and Test Strategizing skills to ensure quality of development and
timely roll-outs of applications. Technology expertise include several software
such as Microsoft and SUN Technologies, XML and Oracle, in various
Operating Environments like Windows, Unix, HP-UX, AIX and Linux.
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The company also offers test automation services such as
– Functionality Testing (Automation of regression test suite),
– Performance Testing (Load testing, Stress testing, Volume testing,
Reliability & Scalability testing),
– Security Testing (Installation testing, Vulnerability testing, Security
implementation assessments, Designing security policy, Intrusion detection
/ authentication, Secure web servers / firewalls / VPNs, Anti hacking / antivirus and Security policies / e-mail policies),
– Test Management (Design & management of Test plan, Test scenarios,
Test cases, Test execution & Defect reporting).
RelQ’s business
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RelQ has expertise in testing a wide variety of Games. For example, Sport
Games, Racing Games, Action Games, Adventure Games, Arcade Games,
Strategic Games and Role Playing Games.
Console Games (Sony PS1, PS2, Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's Game Boy
Advance and Game Cube): PC Games, PDA Games, Internet Games, Mobile
Phones Games
RelQ's Game Testing Centres are equipped with a full range of the latest debug
units from the leading consoles manufacturers such as Microsoft's Xbox;
Sony's PSOne and PS2; Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and Game Cube.
The services offered for Games Testing by RelQ are:
– Compatibility Testing
– Functional Testing
– Gameplay Testing
– Localisation Testing
– Submission Testing
RelQ’s business model
Why RelQ?
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We decided to target RelQ since they are a small company, pushing to
become a really international enterprise.
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Due to its business model, RelQ has to naturally cope with several
cultures, different commercial relationships and different legal
frameworks or environments, which is forcing the company to adapt
their HR practices.
Why the company came to France
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RelQ bought International Testing in France in 2002, to tackle new markets and
businesses.
The acquisition of International Testing was the “Ticket de Entrée” to French market, as
advised by its Managing Director.
Complement their business in Europe and take advantages of their synergies.
It is a natural extension of their business, especially having labs in India to support their
operations.
As stated by the Managing Director of RelQ Europe, the move is aimed at attaining
permanent presence in France and thus achieve a stable flow of revenues in Europe.
The reason behind this acquisition is to explore and open further the market in France and
grow easier by this way.
The company is looking forward to expand its operation in Europe, due to its size, strategic
location and technological environment.
RelQ also considers expanding to other locations within Europe. Indeed the company had
operations also in Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland.
At present, the company withdrew from Belgium and the Netherlands due to the world’s
economic environment.
RelQ’s values
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Since RelQ was founded in 1998, it has not yet developed to many
values for the corporation worldwide, that could export from one
country to another.
However, one of the core values of RelQ, is related to their business
practices: they want to deliver professionalism (speed and efficiency)
to all their work.
Non-formal value revealed by its managers is the ability to manage
with different cultures in order to implement a project, i.e. testing labs
are actually located in India, while the customer is somewhere else.
Additionally RelQ has focused on the Transfer of Information from / to
each client (project requirements) to/ from its Testing labs in India.
RelQ has been able to develop a single business model, based on a
single language (English).
The company has trained its employee to become very specialized in
what they do.
RelQ’s values
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The French subsidiary has been able to apply the business model of
RelQ with its French customers. (i.e. have Testing labs in India).
International Testing has specialized its staff to become more Testing
Engineers than IT Engineers only (it has different skill requirements
and training).
It has not been possible to adopt English as a formal language to work
with French customers.
Moreover, this is one of the main barriers to do business in France.
Cultural knowledge of doing business in France is required.
Technical skills for project management and relationship management
are better in France (compared to India for instance).
Services in France
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RelQ, through International Testing, mainly provides “testing” services.
International Testing used to have multimedia and internet software
testing, nevertheless due to economic environment (specially in the IT
and the crash in the Internet sector) the company decided to stay
mainly in businesses where they have clear strengths / efficiencies.
As a result of the above, the company in France shrink its size from
almost 13 employees to only 6 employees.
In line with economic recovery, the French subsidiary expects to
increase the numbers of employees soon.
The objective of this subsidiary is to have a local representation in
France to ease relationship and improve their contact with local
customers.
International Testing has been able to turn around results from the
acquisition and increase revenues in 50% as compared to previous
period.
Company's clients
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RelQ has global clients worldwide in many different areas (Banking industry, IT
providers, etc.) Some well known clients are:
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Citigroup
Vodaphone
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
HP
Palm
In France, International Testing has a long list of clients of which can mention
the following:
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Atari (electronic games developer),
Credit Agricole
Minescape
France Telecom
ADPGFI
Vivendi Education
Constraints in France
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The main constraint was the language (English versus French).
Other differences have been met since the acquisition of International
Testing:
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Higher labor barriers (35 hours versus 38 hours in other countries)
Flexibility to lay off people and rehire them on booming periods
Although not excessive as compared to other European countries, France
has higher wages.
“Licencement Economic” (firing process with a pre-advice period of 3
months at least)
Having compared France with the rest of Europe, according to Mr.
Hughes, it is not the worst country to work in, although it is a difficult
one, mainly in terms of legal framework.
As compared to India, in general Europe is by all means less flexible in
terms of labor (salaries, benefits, vacations, etc).
Adaptation to France
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First, the company reduced the number of employees (due to a
withdrawal of a business not wanted).
Secondly, specialization of job functions (in France, IT engineers are
less engaged in IT testing as opposed to other countries such as the
UK).
Business model was adapted: before all testing and developments
were done in France, whereas after the acquisition all testing are done
in its majority in India but leaded by French project managers (team
leaders located in the customer’s country).
Depending on the client, International Testing bring Indian employees
to know the customer and get acquainted of its necessities.
Key Constraint Costs
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As advised, comparing France to other locations in Europe, they have
found similar constraints in terms of costs.
Dismissing is relatively more expensive in France than UK or Belgium.
Higher amount of days of advice.
Comparing France with India, labor cost is much higher. For instance,
the relative cost of an employee in India is 20% of that of a French
employee (engineer).
Reduced working hours (35 versus 38 in other European countries).
Key Benefit of being in France
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Close contact with the final client and the project management.
French culture tents to be somehow different from other European cultures,
therefore you have to have French managers to develop a strong relationship
with the customer.
Although testing labs are located in India, French engineers have higher skills
and better management skills, even than those in UK sometimes.
Management of project is better performed by its local representatives than
from a remote location.
Higher visibility of the company in France and higher speed of reaction for their
customers.
Higher satisfaction of their clients: permanent contact with local
representatives.
Despite less working hours (35 hours), Mr. Fournier advised that French
workers are becoming more productive (has reduced inefficiencies at work
place) as compared to the rest of Europe.
Employees are becoming more flexible in the working journeys.
Essential Advice
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According to both, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Fournier, French culture is
different than that of other European countries. Thus it has to be
treated / attended accordingly by local expertise who is capable of
understanding this differences.
France wants to be different. They want to be leaders and creative at
the same time, so they compete with other European countries (such
as UK).
There is certain rivalry with other English speaking countries (UK for
instance) and thus it is very difficult to sell from abroad without
encountering natural barriers by French clients.
We Thank
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Mr. Guillaume Fournier, Head of France Operation,
INTERNATIONAL TESTING
115, rue d'Aboukir
PARIS 75002
Tel: + 33 (1) 40 13 81 82
Fax: + 33 (1) 40 13 82
Mr. David Hughes, Managing Director of RelQ Europe and RelQ India,
Salisbury, UK
RelQ Europe Ltd.
Units 24-25,
Barnack Business Centre
Blakey Road, Salisbury
Wiltshire SP1 2LP
United Kingdom
Tel : +44-(0)1722-341 168
Fax : +44-(0)1722-421 475
Bibliography
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www.relq.com
Our Team
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Carl Chevillon, 48 rue de Meudon, Boulogne, 92100 France
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Benjamin Hughes, Residence Expansiel, 1, Rue de la Liberation,
Jouy-en-Josas, 78350 France
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Charles Monteux, Residence Expansiel, 1, Rue de la Liberation, Jouyen-Josas, 78350 France
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Roberto Simpson, 24 Rue du Vieux Versailles, 78000 Versailles,
France