We take SMEs to higher levels of competencies, assuring 5 times ROI

Ravi Sundaram Director AQS

Ravi Sundaram is the Director of Anugrahaa Qualitech Services Private Limited (AQS), which is into consulting, implementation and training services in Lean, Six Sigma, BS 7799, ISO 9000, software process improvements, modeling for decision support and health care outsourced services. He is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, a COPC registered Coordinator, ISO 9000 Auditor and BS 7799 Implementer. Sundaram is also a SAP certified BASIS consultant and has worked in software companies such as Sathyam in various senior positions. In an interview to this special, he talks about AQS's service line and future plans. Excerpts:

When did you start AQS and with what objectives? How has been the progress so far?

We started AQS in 2003 to introduce international quality standards especially to small and medium enterprises in manufacturing and services sector. We cater to the quality needs of manufacturing and service industries including call centres, BPOs and software companies. Currently we are a 7-member team comprising quality professionals with Ph.D, M Phil and MBA qualifications. Apart from our consulting, implementation and training services, we have also launched a Quality School to provide training to managers. Today, we have around 45 clients in India and abroad who represent a wide spectrum of industries. The clients range from Cadensworth, a Redignton company to Standard Press of Sivakasi. We are in the process of expanding our Quality School on a franchisee model to various cities in India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other Asian and African countries. We have the investment backing from individual investors including Mr K Pandiarajan, Managing Director of Ma Foi Management Consultants, India's largest HR service provider and R.Parthasarathy, Executive Director, CADD Centre. We are roping in such eminent entrepreneurs as micro investors. Next year, we will be entering into Knowledge Process Outsourcing for the Statistical Date Analysis and BPO with a focus on software testing.

Your service portfolio and the clients base seem to be very wide. Even the team members have different professional backgrounds. How does such diversity benefits your customers?

Our focus is to effect quality improvements in small and medium enterprises, irrespective of the industrial segments they represent. Though our team members come from finance, manufacturing and academic fields, we all have strong statistical and analytical backgrounds. Our diverse background is exactly our unique selling proposition because we can introduce good practices across sectors wherever that make sense. For instance, we had successfully introduced Kanban - signals using colour - to a BPO practice. However, our important USP is our range of services and the engagement models. We can take our clients along the quality value chain from ISO to Six Sigma. In fact, right after assessing the current capabilities, we give a roadmap to the clients as to where they can be in one or two years down the line. As far as our engagement models are concerned, we offer our customers customized packages that define the deliverables clearly. This means, the clients do not have to go to different teams for their different quality and accreditation needs, whenever they occur. Whether it is ISO or BS15000, we can implement. Importantly, with our packages approach, they are going to pay a fixed price. Also, most of our long term engagements are based on a retainee model, wherein the customers pay the service charges on a monthly basis. I would say that our ability to equip the client for all levels of competencies and our cost-effective packages are the two important reasons for our success in the market. With just four delivery staffs, we could achieve a turnover of around a crore in the second year of our operations.

What are the business benefits your customers have realised?

We could reduce the defect rates, cycle time and cost, and increase the quality of products and services. On an average, we could effect reduction of 20-25% defects, 10% cycle time and 10-15% cost. Thanks to the quality improvements in the processes, the employee satisfaction index had gone up by a minimum of 10% across the sectors. I can say that all my customers have realised a return on investment on our services over five times.