QAI Charts Out Second Phase of Expansion Plans   Express Computer , June 25, 2001 Eight years into providing Consulting, Training, Assessment, Bench-marking and Certification services in the area of Software Engineering, Quality Assurance Institute (QAI) India, a joint venture between QAI (USA) and Intecos India, has drawn up its second phase of expansion plans. These include a foray into off-the shelf knowledge products, addition of new practice areas, geographical expansion and the launch of its software engineering e-school. The new practice areas will be in the field of HR Consulting, Knowledge Management as well as tools for process improvement and balanced analysis of companies. The geographical expansion will include setting up offices/subsidiaries in South-East Asia, A-PAC and the European region. As a first step in this regard, the company has already set up an office in Singapore. Says Navyug Mohnot, Executive Director, QAI (India), “After building our core foundation in terms of brand, network, customers and intellectual property in the area of software engineering—which was part of our first phase of expansion, our aim now is to build on that and move up to the next level.” The company plans to invest Rs 5 crore over the next eight months on these initiatives. To further drive this initiative, the company plans to go in for a second round of funding by the end of the year to raise Rs 20 crore. Commenting on the company’s plans Mohnot said that the focus for the company for its second phase of operations is to establish itself on a global platform and be recognized as a Trans-national company, hence, its initiative to enter into e-learning. As part of this plan the company will launch 20 short-term online courses over the next one year, with the first one on ‘Software Quality Management’ to be rolled out in the next three months. The courses will include those in the area of Software ‘Project’, ‘Risk’ and ‘Change’ Management’. Says Mohnot, “Our aim is to create a software engineering e-school. Hence, these various courses will focus only on the software engineering and management space.” Further scaling up its offerings the company will be adding new practice areas such as HR Consulting, Knowledge Management as well as tools for process improvement and balanced analysis to its already existing practice areas. According to Mohnot the company will be adding various products and services within these practice areas. Apart from this, the product offering—knowledge products in the form of CDs, software packages etc will be available both off-the-shelf and through the ASP model by hosting them on the Net. The products will be launched in the next 3-4 months. QAI (India) has been providing consultancy and IT benchmarking services in the area of software process improvement, software engineering and quality management for Indian software companies including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Satyam and HCL. In addition to providing Competency Maturity Model (CMM®) and People Competency Maturity Model (PCMM®) assessment and certification services, the company also conducts various training sessions for software professionals in the country. Back