The quality management services market is expanding rapidly. With the adoption of ISO 9001, small businesses are focused on receiving certification in order to win major contracts. Our quality management business plan writers have developed this business plan sample. Whether you are new in quality management, or an experienced quality management consultant, demand is growing in the private and public sectors.
Executive Summary
QualTech provides quality management services to small and medium-sized businesses. In today’s age there is heightened regulatory scrutiny, safety regulations, and internal quality assurance requirements for every enterprise. Organizations are managing growth, while navigating the aforementioned hurdles. QualTech – Quality Management Operating System (herein also referred to as “the company”) is a centralized quality management services business, which brings organizations together to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
With increased competition, market leaders stand out through the development of internal systems, processes and receiving recognition of ISO 9001 (the International Standards Organization – Quality Management System). It’s one thing for an enterprise to be awarded the ISO 9001 Certification, and it is another to maintain the accreditation overtime. QualTech has been developed around ISO 9001, helping companies receive and maintain this vital certification.
QualTech’s system provides consistent, real-time access to standard business modules including document management, training, events, reports, and user management. Additionally, there are fully customizable components available with regards to production and services. Once implemented, QualTech provides a large market value, and is easily adjustable to assure compliance with all ISO criteria.
The global Quality Management Software (QMS) Market was valued at USD $8.25 Billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7% to 2028. Throughout a series of industries there is growing importance for customer-centric production, frequent changes in regulations, as well as standards that demand recurring compliance. These trends increase the demand for businesses to have a functional QMS system, where cross departmental communication can take place with ease.
QualTech offers unique products differentiating it from competing products in a variety of ways. Most notably, the product was developed to serve the emerging small to medium-sized business (SMB) segment of the market. Users can customize the QualTech platform for any specific business case while adhering to the ISO framework. Our quality management services help SMBs reach new markets.
The company understands the trinity of people, process, and technology which are known to create successful software implementation products. QualTech will align its efforts with key stakeholder feedback, as well as the ability for the system to be implemented by at least one user immediately. With much of the target customer base turning to off the shelf QMS solutions from multinationals, the company recognizes an opportunity to penetrate a segment of the market with a more personalized system, QualTech .
With a distinguished management team of four proven executives, QualTech has the momentum and prowess to capture significant market share upon launch of the Alpha Platform in late 2022. This business plan outlines the company’s milestones, growth strategy, operational approach, marketing plan, market research analysis, personnel plan and financial forecasts.
Past success can largely be accredited to QualTech ‘ leadership’s relentless pursuit to move the platform ahead and consistently monitor the target customers’ requirements, ISO and competing technologies. With internal cash flow utilized for initial funding, the Alpha Platform will be developed and the proceeding marketing plan will be launched, moving QualTech directly into the heart of the quality management software arena.
Business Overview
Through an online platform integrating multiple company functions to carry out compliance-related tasks, QualTech provides a centralized quality management solution. Leveraging its proprietary technology, change management methodology, and integrations, QualTech is capable of serving a growing segment of the market, small to medium-sized businesses.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide leading quality management solutions in America, Europe and South Africa.
Vision Statement
Our vision is a network of businesses compliant with ISO 9001 and regularly developing SOPs.
Core Values
The QualTech team is guided by a set of core values that form the foundation of all business operations and decisions. These core values are as follows:
Operate with professionalism at all times.
QualTech provides a working environment which embodies and practices professional ethics. We provide continuous training, coaching, and feedback to ensure that our personnel have the tools to be professional at all times.
Deliver efficiency to our customers.
Delivering efficiencies in complying with ISO standards necessitates a certain level of skill. When a customer sees the end result of an engagement, with the positive efficiencies delivered, it puts them in a position to better serve their own market and customer base.
Be accurate and accountable for our decisions.
Compliance requires a certain “exacting nature”. We value accuracy and a commitment to stand accountable in situations where an objective has been derailed. We have quality standards, code reviews, training, and other mitigation strategies to avoid errors.
Guarantee the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
Our investment in customer satisfaction, and success is also exemplified by our offering of 24/7 support. As ISO compliance impacts a range of industries operating on different time zones this helps ensure maximum satisfaction. We take every opportunity to improve our platform.
Milestones
QualTech has achieved and is working towards several important milestones. The company is committed to set goals that are then tracked with progress metrics. These objectives are reviewed at regular cadence, as businesses which measure their results are known to realize greater outcomes.
Key Technologies
QualTech has developed a solution which holistically improves quality management adherence for ISO standards. It also integrates and functions with existing processes to ensure a smooth transition and change management process. The company is providing a future proof solution which has the potential to provide support for other international standards as well. Nonetheless, the core functionality is centered around this regulation as a way to distinguish the company from competitors, and best serve the target customer base.
Cloud-Hosted Solution
QualTech uses a cloud-hosted solution to provide customers with a seamless product without on-premise headaches such as managing resources, servers, or other equipment and IT assets. The hosted system is scalable, secure, and redundant to ensure that customers are provided with a 24/7 accessible solution for the most pressing needs. Smooth backup and scaling is important, so the company has partnered with Amazon’s AWS cloud deployment platform as the back-end technology which supports this cloud-first framework.
Quality Management Principles
The company embodies its eight quality management principles which are embedded into the QualTech platform. The features, interfaces, and other benefits derived from utilizing this solution are a function of the quality management principles central to the industry. QualTech puts these as a primary benefit to the system, because they are what drives compliance with ISO; therefore, the system sits at the top of great processes and central standards.
A Process Culture
A process culture has shaped the design approach for the company. Laying a foundation for what organizations actually need today is vital to the technology which QualTech will offer. By understanding specific business processes the technology is tailored to any respective organization. “Process before technology” is a key selling point to the target audience.
Engagement of People
The system enables collaboration of users through a variety of functionalities including file sharing, work orders, and project management. Working through a complex compliance initiative or project requires a matrixed approach and cross-disciplinary team. Therefore, integrating these core features into the technology adds critical value to the end user. Providing a means to work with one another as opposed to lost files from paper-based systems, or confusing meetings, offers a central repository for individuals to work together. Breaking down silos and barriers to reach ISO compliance is the key offering.
Goals and Objectives
The following short, medium and long-term goals have been established:
Market Analysis
The global quality management software market was valued at USD 8.25 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7% from 2021 to 2028. The growing importance of customer-centric production and frequent changes in regulations and standards that demand recurring compliances are driving the growth of the market. Registration to ISO 90001, ISO 14001, and other international standards has become imperative for organizations to run businesses worldwide as it enables them to meet market demands, competitive pricing, legislative requirements, and satisfy customer needs. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the manufacturing and transport and logistics industries. The suspension of production and trade of various goods and services is expected to affect the QMS market in the short term.
However, individuals across the globe have turned to the internet for online shopping, leading to the rapid growth of the business-to-consumer markets. The volumes of goods being shipped have increased, along with enhancements in the profiles of the goods. In response to this, logistics companies have started fast-tracking their development, quality and safety management standards, and growth strategies with significant investments in e-commerce, assets, and people. Such developments are likely to boost the growth of the quality management software market in the transport and logistics domain over the coming years.
Businesses across the globe are widely recognizing the need for an inclusive QMS to enhance business performance and gain a competitive advantage. They are proactively assessing and investing in QMS solutions to ensure that quality standards are maintained at every stage of the product life cycle. Technological advancements such as cloud computing, analytics, and big data have further enhanced the existing capabilities of QMS in terms of scalability, cost-efficiency, flexibility, and platform independence, among others. As a result, end-use industries such as life sciences, manufacturing, and IT and telecom are rapidly adopting QMS solutions.
QMS solution providers are focused on enhancing sustainability practices to help companies reduce wastes and their carbon footprint. Organizations deploy these solutions to align their processes with standards such as United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce carbon emissions. While QMS solutions offer several benefits to users, they also involve some challenges such as lack of collaboration, and misalignment with the existing IT infrastructure. While vendors have proactively been trying to tackle these issues, the widespread acceptance of cloud-based deployment of QMS is expected to prove beneficial in addressing these challenges across industries and verticals.
The stringent compliance of quality management standards and international technical specifications such as IATF 16949, AS9100 Rev.D, and ISO 9001is expected to increase the implementation of QMS across end-use industries. Moreover, the C-level executives across organizations are taking efforts to align quality management with strategic business objectives. Many organizations are taking advantage of quality management methodologies such as ISO standards and Six Sigma to improve process efficiency, productivity, and eventually customer satisfaction. As a result, quality process automation, supplier quality assurance, and compliance management are anticipated to become the prime focus areas of QMS end users over the coming years.
The complaint handling segment held the largest market share of over 15% in 2020. Effective management of complaints helps in proactively meeting customer expectations and enhancing brand equity. Businesses are adopting standard complaint handling tools and processes to handle customer complaints more effectively and efficiently. These factors are expected to act as fundamental drivers for boosting segment growth. Calibration management solution provides essential connections between related maintenance tasks and additional quality processes for regulated life science and high-tech environments. Such solutions help in increasing the life of machinery and saving the company’s revenue by reducing the number of recalled products. As per Beamex Inc.-a calibration software company-over 75% of companies carry out more than 2,000 calibrations annually in the highly regulated pharmaceuticals sector. QMS’s calibration management solutions can help organizations manage instrument calibration processes and associated documentation to make them more productive and efficient.
The on-premise segment held the largest market share of over 60% in 2020. Many large organizations are shifting from pen and paper-based systems to automated systems owing to the advent of digitalization, which has resulted in the increasing demand for on-premise QMS. Organizations are opting for on-premise QMS as it is more secure and allows easy customization of software as per the client’s business requirements. Hence, it is largely preferred by enterprises demanding high data security. Additionally, rising concerns regarding data theft and loss of sensitive business information over cloud-based platforms are also contributing to the demand for on-premise QMS.
The cloud segment is anticipated to emerge as the fastest-growing segment. Increased scalability and flexibility, security aspects, and control over the data center offered by the cloud technology are some of the prime factors anticipated to boost the cloud segment growth. On the security front, data encryption techniques are widely being adopted to prevent the leak of sensitive QMS data. These encryption techniques serve a great purpose during data transmission and are estimated to drive the growth of the cloud segment.
The large enterprise segment held the largest market share of over 60% in 2020. The reduction in expenses is the primary motivation behind the adoption of QMS among large enterprises. Many QMS vendors have different sets of software suites for large enterprises and small & medium enterprises. These suites are tailored to fit the exact requirements of the clients and, hence, play a vital role in the selection process. The mobility and flexibility offered by QMS are driving their demand among large enterprises, resulting in regular additions of new functionalities to the software. Organizations across the globe use a host of different software and systems and produce large volumes of data. With the ever-increasing data and growing demand for technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, QMS solutions are anticipated to cater to the growing needs of organizations for increasing efficiency and productivity in their operations.
The manufacturing segment held the largest market share of over 20% in 2020. This growth is attributed to the stringent regulations as well as the complex processes and integrated business systems. QMS solutions enable manufacturing industries to enhance quality through continuous improvements to prevent or respond quickly to situations such as product recalls and ensure certification compliance. Furthermore, they help in prioritizing process improvement efforts, comparing production line capability, and ensuring product conformity. Such factors are expected to act as fundamental drivers for segment growth.
QMS is increasingly gaining importance among companies to help meet critical objectives such as compliance with industry regulations, avoidance of potential product liability lawsuits, and customer retention. For instance, QMS helps telecom service providers to support their communication strategy by complying with the highest quality standards, including TL9000 requirements, in the telecommunications products and services. Moreover, vendors are taking into consideration the needs of Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications Forum (QuEST), which promotes continuous improvements in the quality and reliability of telecom products and services. North America dominated the global market with a share of over 40% in 2020. Asia Pacific is anticipated to emerge as the fastest growing regional market, which is driven by the growing awareness of standards and quality among emerging economies such as China and India. Moreover, ISO 9000 registration has become a prerequisite in the European Union, Asia Pacific, the U.S., and Canada for conducting trade with companies and government agencies.
Government Regulations
Regulation is at the forefront of quality management software. QualTech understands the regulatory pressures that companies face from ISO and other international standards. While these can be quite stringent, the company has created a solution for mitigating the effects of legislation. This is true both in client-facing solutions where the company helps guide toward compliance, and internally where QualTech abides by rules and regulations set forth by regulatory bodies. As a Canadian company, there are both provincial and federal requirements, as well as global regulations which QualTech must adhere to.
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
Organizations covered by PIPEDA must generally obtain an individual’s consent when they collect, use or disclose that individual’s personal information. People have the right to access their personal information held by an organization. They also have the right to challenge its accuracy. Personal information can only be used for the purposes for which it was collected. If an organization is going to use it for another purpose, they must obtain consent again. Personal information must be protected by appropriate safeguards. PIPEDA applies to private-sector organizations across Canada that collect, use or disclose personal information in the course of a commercial activity. The law defines a commercial activity as any particular transaction, act, or conduct, or any regular course of conduct that is of a commercial character. All businesses that operate in Canada and handle personal information that crosses provincial or national borders in the course of commercial activities are subject to PIPEDA, regardless of the province or territory in which they are based.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015
ISO 9001 is defined as the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS). Organizations use the standard to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. It is the most popular standard in the ISO 9000 series and the only standard in the series to which organizations can certify. ISO 9001 was first published in 1987 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an international agency composed of the national standards bodies of more than 160 countries.
Patient Protection and Accountable Care Act (PPACA)
In 2010, the PPACA was enacted in North America to provide quality healthcare facilities to comply with quality standards. In addition, in European countries, SaaS providers deploying solutions on cloud-based platforms need to comply with the European Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) and General Data Protection Regulation. Moreover, European Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) to replace the Medical Device Directive in 2020 requires medical companies to meet requirements such as device classification and their QMS.
Market Trends
There is a major opportunity to help companies reach and maintain ISO 9001 compliance through custom QMS systems. The company evaluates market trends to determine the right mix of marketing campaign tactics, relationships, and partnerships to allocate resources to. By understanding the market, and consequently the buyer, QualTech positions itself to develop the most relevant product-market fit.
North American and European Markets dominate the global stage
North America was the clear winner in the global market with a share of over 40% in 2020. The Patient Protection and Accountable Care Act (PPACA), 2010, was enacted in North America to require quality healthcare facilities and compliance with certain standards. Meanwhile, in Europe, SaaS companies developing solutions on cloud-based platforms must comply with the European Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The European Union’s Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR), has replaced the Medical Device Directive in 2020, requiring medical companies to meet requirements such as device classification and updating QMS.
Asian-Pacific Markets emerge with the fastest growth
The Asia Pacific (APAC) region is anticipated to become the fastest growing regional market, which is driven by the awareness of standards and quality among emerging economies, including China and India. Additionally, ISO 9000 registration has become a prerequisite in the European Union, Asia Pacific, the United States, and Canada for conducting trade with companies and government agencies. These factors are driving growth and investment into the APAC region for companies seeking to break ground into the QMS industry.
Strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) creates access
Mergers and acquisitions, as well as partnerships, are expected to be the most effective ways for market players to gain early access into emerging markets. For example, in December 2020, Honeywell International Inc., a provider of industry-specific solutions for aerospace and automotive products, agreed to acquire Sparta Systems Inc. to expand its software and life science capabilities. Through this acquisition, the company aimed to forge its competencies in digital transformation solutions, industrial automation, and enterprise performance management software.
Upgrades and differentiation create expansion opportunities
Furthermore, upgrades and product differentiation are anticipated to pave the way for the expansion of companies in the market. For instance, in August 2020, MasterControl, Inc. launched its new solution, MasterControl Manufacturing Excellence, to improve manufacturing operations by driving efficiencies and increased quality. The new solution would enable manufacturers to create dynamic connections among enterprise systems, processes, data sources, and people for a holistic view of production and quality data.
Competitive Analysis
This competitive analysis reviews the company’s primary and secondary competitors. The purpose is to align QualTech with the best players in the market while finding its niche, unique selling points, and value proposition. The QMS market is ripe for new offerings. Delivering quality management software requires a thorough understanding of current products, and the ever evolving needs of the target customer.
Primary Competitor 1: MasterControl
U.S.-based, MasterControl produces a digital quality management software which automates quality through the entire life cycle of the process. In 2021, the company reported $100 Million in annual recurring revenue making it a middle-market player. MasterControl focuses on streamlining processes as well as moving from paper-based to a digitized QMS system. With its middle-market stature, and industry focus in areas such as manufacturing and the clinical supply chain, MasterControl is positioned as a niche player. For QualTech , this presents an opportunity to continue focusing on the SMB segment of the market.
Primary Competitor 2: Sparta Systems
In December 2020, Honeywell announced that it had agreed to acquire Sparta Systems for $1.3 Billion in an all-cash transaction. This Honeywell deal demonstrates the value of the market and the potential for QualTech to achieve “Unicorn” status (a technology company with a $1 Billion+ valuation). In this case, Sparta focuses on the life sciences industry and the focus of the acquisition was to improve Honeywell’s industrial automation, digital transformation, and enterprise performance management capabilities. Sparta and Honeywell introduced integrated solutions beyond QMS, meanwhile leveraging Sparta IP and TrackWise Digital.
Secondary Competitor 1: Intellect
Los Angeles-based Intellect is another peer-level competitor with $11.4 Million in sales as of 2020. The firm touts a user-friendly, no-code development platform with several industry solutions. Their QMS provides businesses the power to grow and establish a culture of innovation, quality, and compliance with a more user-focused approach. While QMS naturally deals with complex topics and compliance areas, Intellect is seeking to disrupt the eQMS market with a solution that focuses on user experience. From a technology perspective, QualTech looks to Intellect as a peer-level company with a position to deliver value in a user-friendly manner.
Secondary Competitor 2: QT9
Illinois-based QT9 is another peer level competitor that generated $5 million in revenue during its past fiscal year. Currently, this competitor touts 100+ products, as well as 550 customers. One of its other areas of focus beyond ISO compliance is with the FDA, specifically 21 CFR. With a different customer base focus in “U.S. Food and Beverage”, and geographic area than QualTech , this is a peer-level company which will continue to be analyzed overtime.
Products and Services
QualTech is a cloud-based quality management system, which bridges compliance to ISO frameworks. As such, the product offers an alternative to traditional on-premise solutions, meanwhile offering the flexibility to scale with business growth. This is a customizable system for virtually any business, however the primary focus is on SMBs. Beginning with core modules that most businesses require, the software is customizable to meet both corporate and ISO requirements. These benefits, features, integrations, and interfaces were developed with specific consideration to ISO 9001. QualTech offers a new level to corporate process automation which has incorporated comprehensive procedures, training, and reporting functionalities. The result is a QMS system capable of scale and benefit from the growth of ISO 9001 certification.
Pricing Model
QualTech will be distributed with its core functionality available as a software as a service (SaaS) model. This is a key aspect to the company’s pricing model, as it enables businesses to use and test the software with low adoption efforts and minimal costs required. Flexibility and ease of adoption are major factors that will lead to increased user subscriptions, and as such SaaS has become popular throughout the QMS market.
Unique Selling Proposition
Our unique selling proposition is our focus on providing quality management services to startups and SMBs.
Key Success Factors
The QualTech approach to continuous improvement is rooted in defining a client’s specific needs and goals. The company understands that no two companies are the same. A customized approach enables clients to succeed more effectively, while an initial onboarding process for one user provides the necessary data to do so. Success in QMS is based on an unconditional commitment and focus on transforming business goals into market reality.
The QualTech Founders possess years of experience working closely with experts in the software industry, while the scale for the company’s product will continue to grow with opportunities to receive large volumes of contracts from corporations. These key success factors (KSFs) are a function of the goals and objectives QualTech has established. By naming these KSFs, it commits the company to a regular touchpoint for ensuring that it is delivering on its promise.
The company is dedicated to ensure:
- Customer satisfaction at 95%
- Implement guidelines for fast 24/7 response
- QualTech location is in an economically vibrant area where businesses are starting at a fast rate
- Building and maintaining a reputation for excellence within the industry
- Ensuring platform safety from cybercriminals
Sales and Marketing Plan
QualTech has developed a five year sales and marketing plan which incorporates three stages of growth; go-to-market, product adoption and market dominance. Included in this marketing strategy is a target customer analysis, key channels, sales funnel, key performance indicators, and a SWOT analysis. The sales and marketing plan is as follows.
Target Customers
QualTech will sell to two target customer groups. The following section describes each target customer, and their unique profiles:
Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs)
QualTech will sell directly to small and medium-sized businesses across Canada and the U.S.A. Through B2B marketing, the company will reach this target customer and utilize testimonials and product reviews from other small and medium-sized businesses.
- Industries: manufacturing, transportation, IT, healthcare, consumer goods, aerospace
- Employees: 1 – 500
- Gross revenue: $100K – $100M
- Location: Canada / U.S.A.
- Interests: becoming ISO 9001 certified and bidding on larger projects
- Experience: has either utilized a competing QMS previously or has done research on them
Key Performance Indicators
KPIs are how businesses measure success against goals, objectives, and key success factors. They provide both a numerical baseline and current performance to measure the variance toward achieving goals. This internal process is crucial to ensure the company is moving forward on fulfilling its mission and vision. In a highly regulated environment, it is imperative to stay goal-oriented and results-focused at all times.
The following KPIs will be utilized to track performance on a month-to-month basis:
- Customer Acquisition Costs
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Qualified Marketing Traffic
- Leads by Pipeline Stage
- Lead to Customer Ratio
- Customer Acquisition Cost to Lifetime Value Ratio
- Number of Months to Recover Customer Acquisition Cost
- Daily and Monthly Active Users
- Number of Referrals
- Retention Rate
- Free Trial to Paid Conversion
SWOT Analysis
Operational Plan
In the same way QualTech is delivering a product to help clients with their operations, the company also implements sound operational procedures. The company is focused in the software industry, therefore operationally it can be fairly lean without the need for a large amount of fixed assets or inventory. It consists of product, engineering, customer success, sales, marketing, and operations which is typical for a SaaS business model. Nonetheless, the main focus of the management team initially is to invest into the technology. Specifically, this involves 24/7 uptime, maintenance, availability to troubleshoot, and addressing issues that may arise given the nature of ISO compliance.
Customer Success
In any software business, customer success (CS) plays a central role in managing the relationship once the client has signed up for the solution. The CS team at QualTech will review feedback constantly, as well as work with customers on various payment options. Depending on the size of the organization, the company can offer various levels of support and discounts. Customer Success also facilitates the relationship with marketing and sales to ensure that QualTech is maximizing cross-sell or upsell opportunities. This operational role is essential to managing relationships and creating more lifetime value. CS teams will generally pass any issues onto the product team, as well as opportunities for new features. In turn, the product team will collaborate with engineering to fix issues or build further features, meanwhile partnering with sales and marketing to communicate the value to customers.
Accounting and Finance
While a software business may not have the level of complexity as other, say, manufacturing organizations, most follow a similar path in terms of funding. The finance team within QualTech will be focused on ensuring that the financial health of the organization is in check. This will involve partnering with the executive team on exploring financing options in terms of loans, lines of credit, venture capital, or acquisition. The company initially will use funds for executing operations, refining the product, and marketing.
Health & Safety
QualTech is a tech company focused on quality management software. As such, traditional robust health and safety measures associated with manufacturing organizations do not apply. Nonetheless, the company still takes measures to protect its employees and stakeholders. As this is a sensitive domain, with ISO certification and compliance to other standards, QualTech must focus on the safety measures that protect client data against intrusion or attack. This involves regular risk assessments on workstations, providing additional equipment, reviewing common threats (especially “zero day” attacks which are vulnerabilities previously unknown to cybersecurity professionals), and informing the community of any possible intrusions.
Additionally, the company will comply with health and safety related to COVID-19. Given that a majority of the customer base is in the manufacturing sector, as it is a primary user of the software, QualTech will likely have contact with such vendors. All team members will abide by the appropriate provincial and federal health and safety regulations.
Equipment & Inventory
QualTech is not in the manufacturing industry, therefore it will have limited inventory. Most SaaS firms seek to keep their balance sheet light to reinvest funds toward product development and talent acquisition. Nonetheless, for developing and maintaining the system there are some pieces of equipment and inventory which are required, and detailed further below.
Location
QualTech will be based in Chicago, Illinois. As a major economic hub, Chicago will provide ample resources to our growing team of quality management consultants.
Risk Analysis
QualTech understands the challenges related to implementing a quality management system. Software businesses face risks specific to the industry, furthermore the company has risks also specific to its chosen SMB niche. Nonetheless, QualTech has developed a risk management initiative to identify key risks, and respective mitigation strategies.
Management Team
Bob Barker
Chief Executive Officer
Bob has 10 years of experience in managing one of the largest IT companies in Texas. He brings with him his expertise in maximizing the value of the businesses. He will be tasked to lead the Management Team in all aspects to ensure achievement of company goals and objectives.
Pat Wimbley
Chief Operating Officer
Pat is a world-class operations consultant with specializations in resource management, financial modeling and dealing with employee resolutions. Pat will lead our quality management consultants at each and every turn.
John Walker
Chief Financial Officer
John is a Certified Public Accountant and has worked with small to medium size companies in establishing their financial models. John is one of the foremost Chief Financial Officers in the midwest of the United States.
Key Personnel
The company will have other key personnel in addition to the management team. As QualTech is a startup, it will fill these positions when it has the capital available. The management team will likely wear many hats to start, however once the key personnel positions are filled it will become easier to scale the platform. Listed below are the additional key personnel required:
Sales Manager
Expert knowledge about QualTech , its products, and services
Emphasize the benefits of QualTech , over features, and highlight how they solve problems
Identify prospects in the ideal client profile, and take them through the sales process
Follow up on leads and be responsible for improving conversion rates
Set weekly, monthly and quarterly forecast targets for the team
Project Manager
Lead project from the front and assign tasks to the team accordingly
Listen to clients requirements and feedback in order to align with goals
Ensure all internal and external stakeholders are satisfied throughout the process
Monitor project progress and set deadlines for the team
Evaluate schedule slips, risks, and work breakdown structures
Project Administrator
Track tasks of different projects to ensure all deadlines are met
Ensure project costs and schedules stay within the original scope
Schedule recurring and ad-hoc meetings with clients
Customer Support Representative
Provide product and service information, as well as resolve problems which may arise
Develop appropriate solutions for any client complaints
Perform follow-ups of solved complaints to ensure resources are allocated efficiently
Open customer accounts and record key account information
Prepare product or service reports by analyzing customer information
Marketing Coordinator
Craft and run marketing campaigns on social media channels
Compile and evaluate revenue estimates for marketing and advertising campaigns
Create marketing reports for senior management’s review
Monitor budgets by evaluating results in comparison to projections
Recruitment Plan
QualTech plans to follow a phased approach to hire essential staff on an employment basis. To facilitate this, the company will utilize online job boards including LinkedIn, Indeed and ZipRecruiter to post open positions and reach prospective staff members. In the post-pandemic economic climate, recruiting and retaining employees is becoming increasingly difficult. In addition, it’s required under Canadian law to have a discrimination-free hiring process. To help navigate employment law and the recruitment process, the company may elect to hire a professional recruitment firm to assist.
Financial Plan
The following financial plan was conservatively developed including a pro forma income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet.
Pro Forma Income Statement
Pro Forma Cash Flow Statement
Pro Forma Balance Sheet
