Stag Runs Into Nippon

Japan is known for its commitment to quality, and companies that deal with

qualit. Well, this looks like a happy mix until you realize that software

quality in Japan is nothing to boast about. Also, testing companies from India

have always found the market a tough nut to crack. It remains an interesting

market nevertheless, and one testing player that has been persistent is Stag

Software.

It has recently invested 1 mn Yen in a Tokyo company, IV2, to get a foothold

into a market where having a good network is as important as having a good

solution. This independent verification and validation company has 35 years of

experience with Japanese companies.

The arrangement would work like this: People from both companies will chalk

out the initial strategy. A large part of the back-end testing would happen in

India and Stag would be the primary partner, its job being to provide them the

intellectual property (IP) called STEM (Stag Test Engineering Method). This

process can be used to IV2's marketing advantage and there will be a team

trained on STEM methods. Stag's people in Bangalore would focus on delivery

and automation.

The

STEM program, which Stag has devised, is in line with the company's new

positioning mantra of not just being a services player. Our intent is for a more

scientific way to test software. Towards that effect, over the last five years,

we have applied various methods for customers in various domains. We distilled

the whole thing into STEM," says Ashok T, founder of Stag.

It should be some time before we know if the penetrating arm, which IV2

offers, starts to rock or stagger Stag.

Goutam Das in

Bangalore