2022 in Review- Another Year Not For the Faint of Heart

Not for the faint of heart!

Just like that, our fourth year as QoT has come to an end. Our fourth year as QoT and our fifteenth year of business in the software testing world. It felt like it went by in the blink of an eye, a slow blink, but a blink nonetheless. In retrospect, I don’t see how this year could ever have happened in a blink of an eye, maybe a series of epilepsy-inducing rapid eye-blinks would summarise it a bit better. This year was frenetic. COVID may have loosened its icy grip, but the effects of Covid are very far from gone. So while the world has largely picked itself up, dusted itself off and started again, I think that it is fair to say that we are all involved in a massive game of “catch-up”.

Many businesses didn’t survive the months (in some cases, years) of lockdown affected by the pandemic, and those that did lost people, resources and a tremendous amount of potential income and growth. Fast forward to two years later, and the start of 2022, and you find a world dramatically changed and industries whose business models are now vastly different to what they were before this madness began. Economies are still stretched very thin, trying to recover, trying to find better ways to do things, more efficiently. I think it is safe to say, that COVID has brought out the creativeness in all of us- we’ve all had to find innovative ways to work, live and to survive actually, both in business and in general, day-to-day life.

New ways of working.

So the start of 2022 saw us all struggling along, feeling like we’ve been hit by the proverbial bus, dragged through a bush backwards and a whole whack of other exhausting analogies that don’t quite capture Covid-fatigue. And yet, most of us saw the world getting back to normal and were full of optimism and hope. We realised that we were capable of doing some pretty great things, through some exceedingly difficult and unprecedented times. We knew that the entire planet was in the same boat, we needed to pull together, rise-above and get ourselves back on track. We have become used to thinking on our feet, finding creative ways to solve problems that we don’t quite expect and also taking curve balls in our stride- we are survivors after all. But then, just as the dust was starting to settle Vladimir Putin made his ill-timed, unsupported move on the Ukraine, much to the horror of the majority of the rest of the world. And in a bid to press unions to reduce support for the Ukraine, Russia curtailed fossil-fuel exports, creating a global energy crisis. The hits keep coming! Once again the world is having to test its determination, to get resourceful, to dig deep and persevere as costs of living escalate and economies battle to grow.

For us here at home in South Africa, on top of all of this, we have our own set of unique challenges as our Load Shedding trials continue to wreak havoc on our daily lives. As years go by, we find ourselves with fewer and fewer hours of power and, as businesses, have had to allocate annual budget to alternative energy sources in order to continue to operate as normal. So whilst we, as a company, are in a happy position that we can afford to explore alternative energy, we are also forlornly aware that a great number of South Africans are unable to work during load shedding hours, putting tremendous pressure on our economy and countless families. Thus, it becomes the onus on the companies that are able to survive under these trying times to support our people and our country wherever we can. In 2022 QoT Solutions partnered with the Giving With a Purpose Foundation to feed many hungry South African’s through the foundation’s various feeding schemes. Towards the end of the year, in addition to Giving with a Purpose, QoT has also partnered with the Breathing Life Foundation to provide support for the numerous victims of human trafficking. In keeping with our CEO’s People, Planet & Profit mantra, we were extremely proud of our staff who stepped up to help us wherever they could this year, despite the tremendous pressure they themselves are having at home.

People, Planet & Profit!

If you’ve made it through this article up until this point, and haven’t thrown yourself in front of a moving vehicle, we really applaud you. It is quite disheartening to look back over the events of this year without feeling a sense of hopelessness. Still, despite all of this, despite the numerous 2022 curve balls, we are really pleased to state that we, at QoT have actually had a successful year. There was a tremendous amount of energy, inventive thinking and of course the usual blood, sweat, tears and more tears that went into making this year a success. Our people continue to do amazing things and represent our company very well which is the foundation from which we continue to grow. We started our year with our annual graduate programme and, by the end of the year were proud to see them all placed at our various clients and shining like the stars that they are. Overall, business was its usual consulting-world rollercoaster, we welcomed some fresh new faces to our QoT community and said goodbye to a few of our people exploring the world, but our company did grow its employee base by ten percent in 2022.

QoT Solutions would not be the company it is today if it wasn’t for the long and meaningful relationships that we have with our clients. We are thankful to all of our clients who stood by us in 2022 and continued to give us opportunities, as well as renewed the opportunities we already had with them. It is these relationships and references that have also made us credible in the eyes of our new clients. We were very excited to start new partnerships, in the banking, insurance and gaming domains with OM Banking, OM Finance and Turfsport, growing our client base by a further twenty percent. We are excited to see what the new year holds for us with our newer clients, and look forward to seeing our existing clients grow their businesses and their service offerings in the same way that these partnerships have allowed us to.

So, despite starting the year on precarious footing, having several spanners thrown into the works and generally feeling like you are constantly on the lookout for the next hurdle, we made it! We made it through 2022, and as a company we remain vigilant, we remain optimistic, we remain innovative and we know that our people and our passion will continue to see us through these darker times. For a relatively “young” company, QoT is proving that it has the mettle to overcome challenges the world has rarely had to face. 2022 was definitely not a year for the faint of heart, and we are proud to have made it through! Bring it on 2023….

Bring on 2023!