Despite being a relative newcomer to the industry, Dutch software house Quintiq has made some strong inroads into the aluminium sector since its formation. The firm, which writes advanced planning and scheduling (APS) and logistics software, claims to have grown by an average of 80% every year since it was set up in 1997. Its big breakthrough - an installation of modules at the Alunorf rolling mill jointly owned by Alcan and Norsk Hydro in 1998 - led to other projects in the aluminium industry. Nowadays Quintiq's products are being used at eleven of Alcan's facilities, with a further three pilot projects for the company currently being evaluated. Alcoa is also a client, as is Corus's aluminium division. A minnow compared to giants of the business software world such as SAP - Quintiq's annual revenues are in the region of EUD8m-9m - the company has focused on a highly specialised niche of planning and scheduling for metals.
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