After testing the market for a year the two parties will consider an equity participation.

``The tie-up with SQ Centre will give us access to their consulting experience and the brand name to leverage in the Indian market. As part of our agreement we will be able to offer SQ Centre's services and expertise to the Indian market through seminars and workshops. We will also work jointly on consulting assignments as they happen,'' said Qualteam Consultants Limited's executive director Naresh N Shahani.

SQ Centre, a joint-venture between Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board is a training and consulting organisation that helps organisations develop service excellence.

Qualteam is a process management consulting organisation assisting corporates in the area of systems development and implementation, process reengineering and improvement.

``We have been examining the Indian market for close to two years now. The market opportunity is tremendous as quality and service excellence are relatively new concepts to the market,'' says SQ Centre divisional director consulting, John Antony.

The SQ Centre offers services like Service Quality Training Programme (SQTP), team building programmes, customised training, service traits and attitudinal response profiling (STAR), consultancy and measurement to its clients. The company has worked with over 670 organisations and trained more than 1,00,000 professionals so far. Its key clients include Motorola, Robert Bosch, Citibank, Costa Cruises, Inchcape International and the Chennai-based Murugappa Group.

SQ Centre has expanded its presence across the Asia-Pacific region over the last one year. The consulting company has already covered countries like China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Philippines.In the Indian market, the SQ Centre sees plenty of opportunity in sectors like finance, healthcare hospitality and the public sector in the Indian market. Starting early next month, the company will start approaching companies with information and presentations about its services through its partners in India.

``We have already started talking to service organisations like airline companies with the consulting and training services that SQ Centre and Qualteam have to offer,'' says Shahani.

Adds John Antony, divisional director, consulting, SQC: ``Service excellence is important for the very survival of businesses in a scenario driven by competition and deregulation. Organisations have to shift focus from hard resources to soft assets like people and knowledge. Service Excellence drives on the premise that people are seeking a vocation, a source of inspiration rather than mere jobs that fetch a living.''