Fifteen years after foundation, iQuest grows focus on local development

Software solutions developer iQuest, which this year marks 15 years since foundation, announced that after having consolidated its presence on the international market, it will place higher focus on the Romanian market from now on.

For this year, iQuest estimates that its turnover will total EUR 25 million, with revenues from the local market representing 15 percent.

“The business on the local market goes in two directions: the private sector, where the development is constant, with a moderately growth trend, and the public sector, where iQuest has been more and more present since 2012. The value of the local business in the iQuest turnover is continually growing, and for this year we are estimating a 15 percent growth,” said Horia Cerchez, site manager at iQuest Bucharest.

iQuest estimates it will grow faster in Romania than on the external market, and is waiting for a re-launch of investments in IT, especially in the private sector.

Company officials believe the growth on the local market will be supported by Romania’s commitment towards the Europe Digital Agenda 2020.

Read more about

Stolen EUR 2 million painting from Oxford recovered in Romania after four years

read more

“We aim to expand on all markets where we are already present such as Germany, Switzerland and the United States, and eventually enter new ones. Locally, we are not only after projects in the public administration but also those in the private sector, on verticals where we already have serious background such as telecom, life sciences, financial services, energy, high tech, logistics and production,” said Cornelius Brody, CEO and founder of iQuest (in picture).

Previously, iQuest focused mainly on the international market, developing projects for clients such as Roche, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Financial Times, Vodafone and Ikea. To fuel this expansion, iQuest recruited at the beginning of this year executives from Microsoft, SAP or Nestlé.

Recently, the company signed a partnership with e-commerce solutions supplier hybris software. “This partnership makes us the only supplier of solutions in the region with background in integrating the platforms of two e-commerce world leaders: hybris and Oracle ATG Web-Commerce,” said Gabriel Sobolu, head of Java Solutions in iQuest.

Currently, iQuest counts more than 500 IT specialists in ten centers in Romania- in Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, Sibiu, Craiova and Bucharest- in Germany (at Frankfurt),  in Sweden (at Gotheburg), in Switzerland (at Zürich), in Hungary (at Budapest) and in The United States (at Palo Alto).

Next year, iQuest plans to boost its team by 20 percent. “The evolution in the number of employees has been linear and consistent. We will continue to work along the same lines, that the evolution of the business dictates the personnel growth, and not vice-versa,” said Brody.

 Otilia Haraga