Auckland-based IT company QLBS.com and Singapore based consultancy JAS Brand Creations have joined forces to develop and market brand management tools for businesses in Asia.

The project was sealed in Memorandum of Understanding signed last week in Singapore between Keith Phillips, President (QLBS.com) and Ertah Tandjung, CEO (JAS Brand Creations).

Keith Phillips said the new partnership would mean a breakthrough in brand monitoring for businesses.

“Brands are one of the most valuable assets in business yet we struggle to monitor or measure them. Almost all brand monitoring tools currently available are paper-based and our product will set a new benchmark making it much easier for businesses, irrespective of their size, to cultivate their brand as they grow.”

The alliance, which has had practical advice and support from both New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the Singapore's Economic Development Board, brings together Kiwi ingenuity and Singapore's networks and knowledge of the Asian market, Mr Phillips said.

QLBS.com's Q100 Business Assessment System is already used widely in New Zealand, particularly by business advisors assessing the business capability for their client companies.

David Penny, Team Director-Niche Manufacturing for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, who has assisted the company to develop its marketing approach, said the software fills a valuable niche in the market.

“Business advisors using the program have found that it provides the opportunity to rapidly engage with clients in a non-adversarial way, assisting clients and advisors to focus on issues that require attention in the business, ” Mr Penny said.

Mr Phillips said it is QLBS.com's experience in developing a series of robust business assessment tools that is opening the door to a number of overseas markets and offshore business partnerships.

QLBS.com will transform JAS Brand Creations' current method of managing brand performance into a scalable, user-friendly productivity tool based on specifications for the Asian market.

“We will retain the intellectual property as JAS Brand Creations has purchased the license to use the product and will promote it in their market.

“We also believe the product will be able to be marketed on a worldwide scale. Last year USD $341 billion was spent on advertising and promotions globally, of which brand leverage is a critical component. In 2003 an estimated USD $74 billion will be spent in the Asia Pacific alone,“ Mr Phillips said.

QLBS.com is also hopeful its Singapore partnership will provide the beginnings of a regional hub from which its products can gain access to other Asian markets. Immediate expansion plans are in place to internationalise the product to specific regions such as China, he said.

Working together with local experts such as JAS Brand Creations is part of QLBS.com's long term strategy to deliver a world class benchmarking tool to organisations supporting business development and national economic development.

The advantages of the tool is that it allows organisations, such as incubator organisations, to select and monitor high achievers, benchmark enterprises to achieve higher success rates, assess the effectiveness of different business managers, and help with critical business decisions, Mr Phillips said.

QLBS.com expects the initial investment in product development to be in the order of SGD $100K and possibly as high as a million dollars in the mid to long-term, as new functionality is added.

The QLBS.com and JAS Brand Creations partnership was announced at the recent Global Entropolis conference in Singapore.

QLBS.com believes the recently signed Free Trade Agreement between the New Zealand and Singapore Governments has provided the impetus for companies from the two countries to collaborate in joint product development.

“We think this new partnership is a great example of how the excellent work done at government levels, particularly by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the Singapore Economic Development Board, can cascade through to actual business-to-business cooperation and mutual benefits,” Mr Phillips said.