Our mission: software quality
For many years now, software quality management and testing has been an everyday task, just like software programming or project management. SQS must take its share of the credit for this development. Software quality has always been our Company’s mission. This includes detecting software errors as early as possible. Detecting errors at an early stage costs just a fraction of the amount incurred when, in the worst-case scenario, errors are only discovered once the software is in operation.
Sustainability
SQS believes in sustainability. Its software quality management and testing methods are designed to bring companies long-term benefits, so that software systems do not always have to undergo rushed preparation procedures before becoming operational.
The best-in-class method for this sustainable procedure is SQS PractiQ®. Based on established norms and the Company's many years of experience, SQS PractiQ® is a model procedure for all software quality assurance activities that form the basis for all SQS services and software solutions. SQS PractiQ® covers SQS’s entire scope of activity: from business projects to various phases of the overall software development process, from the launch of a development project, planning, implementation and monitoring to completion and, finally, ongoing operation or further development. Benefits include reduced risks, costs and time expenditure together with increased quality levels, which has often been described as ‘squaring the circle’.
Lowering costs through managed testing services
SQS also helps its customers make further cost savings through the use of managed testing services which feature performance-based payment under defined service level agreements. SQS offers managed testing services contracts lasting one to five years. A combination of on-site and offsite services is usually provided under these agreements. To do this, SQS has recently established offshore test centres in Durban (South Africa), Cairo (Egypt) and Pune (India), which have expanded significantly since they were set up.
Services and software from a single supplier
As well as providing advice, SQS is also an expert in the necessary software products: because SQS has in-depth knowledge of all major quality management and testing tools and also has its own product, SQS-TEST®/Professional. Customers can receive both services and software from a single source. On top of that, SQS always accompanies software with support and advice to ensure that the tools are deployed as effectively and efficiently as possible by the end-user.
Conferences and seminars hosted by the market leader
SQS has been the leading organiser of conferences and seminars on software quality for many years, using its extensive industrial and technical knowledge to provide advanced training and networking. As well as a comprehensive seminar programme incorporating over 100 different training sessions, this includes the ‘iqnite’ conferences. In 2009, the former ‘Software and Systems Quality Conferences’ entered their fourteenth year and today are one of the largest software quality management and testing conference events in the world.
Through its training courses, provided as both public and in-house sessions, SQS is also contributing to the international standardisation of quality management, quality assurance and testing, for example through the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB®) guidelines, under which 100,000 software testers around the world are already qualified
Established
24 March 1982 by Heinz Bons and Rudolf van Megen,
entry in the company register on 30 April1982 as SQS Gesellschaft für Software Qualitätssicherung mbH;
transformed to SQS Software Quality Systems AG on 17 March 2000,
entry in the company register on 31 March 2000
Founded and incorporated
In Germany
Company headquarters
Software Quality Systems AG (parent company)
Stollwerckstraße 11
51149 Cologne
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 2203 / 91 54-0
Fax: +49 (0) 2203 / 91 54-15
Email:
Main country of operations
Germany
Locations
Austria (Vienna)
Egypt (Cairo)
Finland (Helsinki)
France (Paris)
Germany (Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, Görlitz)
India (Pune)
Ireland (Dublin)
Netherlands (Houten)
Norway (Oslo, Stavanger)
Portugal (Lisbon)
South Africa (Johannesburg, Westville)
Sweden (Stockholm, Gothenburg)
Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich)
UK (Belfast, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Woking)
USA (Naperville)
Spain (commercial partnership)
Management Board
Rudolf van Megen, Chief Executive Officer
Strategy, services, sales, marketing, products and conferences
René Gawron, Chief Financial Officer
Administration, accounting, finance, mergers and acquisitions, IT, human resources and investor relations
Diederik Vos, Chief Operating Officer
Company growth, operational excellence, managed services, sales & delivery
Supervisory Board
Prof. Dr. Werner Mellis, Chairman
Professor of IT at the University of Cologne
Matthias Baunach
Principal Consultant at SQS
Jeremy Hamer,
Independent management consultant, formerly
Managing Director of Renshaw
Number of employees
about 2,100
Business purpose
Services and products for software quality assurance, software quality management and software testing, seminars and conferences
Industry sectors
Aerospace, Railway & Automotive
Banking, financial markets
Defence
Electronics & Equipment
Energy & utilities
Government & Public
Healthcare, Pharma, Medical, Food
Insurance
Media & entertainment
Online gambling & video games
Petroleum
Retail, transportation & logistics
Telecommunications
Accounting Standard
IFRS
Business Year
1 January to 31 December
