ITQ Audits Promise Business Growth

Charmaine Fernz - Mumbai

Raja Natesan

Having recently set up their Mumbai office, InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ) has already received 600 entries for their audit and a demand to extend its entry deadline, claims Raja Natesan, CEO of ITQ.

He explains the reasons behind the formation of ITQ and says, "As a global distribution systems (GDS), Galileo India was flowering with travel agencies and enjoying a good market share while simultaneously providing them with cutting edge technology. To add to this, the company had the backing of Cendant, a company with a US $28 billion market cap and the leverage of ITQ's other companies."

So to be different and create a different image, Galileo set up ITQ. In actuality, the international technological division was broken up to form an internal division that was merged with Galileo India to form ITQ. "Therefore, Galileo would remain the backbone of ITQ but work as a different entity," Natesan says.

That this concept has caught on with the trade is evident by the fact that ITQ received positive responses in the initial stages, Natesan claimed. What the audit does is it breaks down every department of an agency and analyses it. Through a software that has been developed in-house, each division of the company answers a set of questions, which are then evaluated and scored. This score is then compared with the industry score and evaluated for each department. If the score does not match industry standards, recommendations are given to improve the workings of that department.

For any agency, an increase in score points results in improved efficiencies, thereby improving its profit margins. After having successfully completed this stage of the audit, if a company is satisfied, it can proceed to the next stage, which involves a more detailed implementation process. This takes a while but after successfully completing this stage, the company is given a set of final recommendations for enhancing their business. The company undergoing the audit has to sign a statement agreeing to seriously implement the recommendations.

Natesan elaborates, "There are no monetary benefits for ITQ in the first stage. But once the company moves to the second stage based on their business performance, ITQ gets a cut from their profits. ITQ, in turn, provides a three-pronged strategy: we offer a business process improvement map, technology automation, as well as the services of a BPO."

The good new is that the agent need not be a part of Galileo to do the audit. "We have run three successful pilot audits till now and are working towards many more. This proves that word-of-mouth publicity is still a strong marketing tool."

A full-fledged audit takes around six months to complete. So in the initial year, we are targeting about 50 agencies. On completion of both stages of the audit, the agency gets a certification and a guarantee that its business will grow by a defined percentage. "If it does not show growing profits, we pay them for all their efforts," concluded Natesan. Its initial focus will be on primary cities followed by the secondary cities.