InQuest Technologies
InQuest Technologies, founded in 1997 by Michael Colapietro and Jeremy Carr, is a successful 35 person IT company located in Providence. Originally based in Massachusetts, the partners chose to move to Providence to take advantage of the city’s high caliber information technology and digital media community as well as its centralized location between Boston and New York.
InQuest Technologies worked with the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) and secured a $750,000 loan from the RIEDC’s Small Business Loan Fund that allowed them to support their relocation and expansion costs as well as create additional high wage jobs.
“We are growing aggressively and taking advantage of the area’s strong talent pool, highly regarded academic institutions and vibrant information technology and digital media community,” says company president and CEO, Colapietro. “We’re able to seek and retain energetic innovators, thinkers and problem solvers who can thrive in our environment.”
The firm’s success stems from a very unique and innovative application platform called “IQ9” which can be utilized by non-technical business users to assemble web-based applications without coding. These applications are called “SmartApps” and can be configured in just hours to solve practically any business problem.
Each SmartApp can include document management, workflow/BPM, asset management, program/project management and collaboration capabilities. InQuest’s client list includes some of the largest and most respected organizations in the world, including: Verizon, National Grid, Gilbane Construction, NBC Universal, ConEdison, Staples and The U.S. Navy.
Colapietro cites an operating philosophy that challenges technical boundaries in order to develop unique solutions to solve business problems. “Innovation is about pushing our own boundaries while securing customer satisfaction and product success,” he says. “We also value individual innovativeness by encouraging employees to participate in the product development process and allowing them to step away from the day-to-day routine in order to think outside the box.”
InQuest also walks-the-walk by using its own product to streamline business operations. For example, when developing new products, IQ9 SmartApps have been configured to streamline the “Idea-To-Production” processes. With this approach, customers and internal resources can better collaborate in getting solutions to market.
How has InQuest weathered the recent economic downturn? “It has actually been a tremendous opportunity for us”, says Colapietro. “IQ9 helps organizations cut costs, increase revenues and improve customer satisfaction – all value drivers in this type of economy. We’re excited by a number of large deployments and a new version of our flagship IQ9 product scheduled for release later this year. We continue to focus on growth and hiring talent to support our on-going success.”