Specsavers Selects SQS to Provide a Three Year Managed Testing Services Contract Worth in Excess of GBP5m

LONDON, January 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Contract for Managed Testing Services, Valid Until 2013

Specsavers, the world's largest privately owned optical group, has selected SQS (http://www.sqs-uk.com/) Software Quality Systems (AIM:SQS.L), Europe's largest provider of independent software testing and quality management services, to provide on- and offshore testing in a three year managed testing services contract worth in excess of GBP5 million.

The SQS team will deliver end-to-end testing of Specsavers business applications, from performance through to automated regression testing, with focus on raising quality, reducing risk and increasing the throughput of change.

John Lister, Chief Information Officer Specsavers, commented: "With over 1,500 stores and 26,000 staff, Specsavers is a fast growing business that is dependent on robust and effective technology to enable us to provide great service to our customers. It's therefore critical that we have a software testing and QA process that helps us to deliver quality software solutions that are great value for money, quickly and efficiently.

"We decided that we needed a testing partner with the focus and offshore capability to match our growth plans, which can provide us with innovative solutions through the lifecycle of the contract and can help us ensure effective governance and independence of testing. SQS meets all those requirements and we're very pleased to have them onboard."

David Cotterell, SQS Executive Main Board Director, added: "We're delighted that when selecting a partner with proven offshore and onshore presence, Specsavers put so much value on exceeding customer expectations and pure-play testing independence. It's fair to say that this is probably one of the largest pure-play managed testing service contracts to be awarded in the retail sector, and the service will be provided from SQS' state-of-the-art offshore facility in Pune, India, ably supported by our onshore consultancy presence."

About SQS Software Quality Systems

SQS is the largest independent provider of software quality management, quality assurance and testing services in Europe. Founded in Cologne in 1982, SQS employs 1,800 staff. Along with a strong presence in Germany and the UK, SQS has further subsidiaries in Egypt, Finland, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa and the US. In addition, SQS maintains a minority stake in a company in Portugal and a cooperative venture in Spain. In 2009, SQS generated sales of 134.3 million Euros.

SQS is the first German company to have a primary listing on the AIM (Alternative Investment Market) in London. In addition, SQS has a dual listing on the open market of the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt am Main.

With over 5,000 completed projects under its belt, SQS has a strong client base, including half of the DAX 30, nearly a third of the STOXX 50 and 20 of the FTSE 100 companies. These include, among others, Allianz, Beazley, BP, Centrica, Daimler, Deutsche Post, Generali, JP Morgan, Meteor, Reuters and Volkswagen as well as companies from every other conceivable sector.

For more information, see: http://www.sqs-uk.com and http://www.sqs-group.com