Saville Consulting, a global human resources assessment firm, has moved into the vast Chinese market with the signing of a large scale and long-term international partnership with ATA Inc.
In a multi-million pound deal, the company has forged a major alliance with ATA, China’s leading provider of computer-based testing and assessment services. ATA operates over 2,000 secure testing centers throughout China and has delivered more than 33 million billable tests, since they started operations in 1999.
Its tools of choice will now be Saville Consulting’s cutting-edge online psychometric test technologies which have been developed to ensure the best fit between an individual, role and organisation. ATA employees have been trained by Saville Consulting to deliver and interpret the tools to the highest international standards.
It means that ‘almost overnight’ Saville Consulting has nationwide coverage of psychometric testing sites in mainland China.
Award-winning ATA has been providing recruitment solutions and services for government bodies, academic institutions, corporate clients and tens of millions of test candidates since 1999. It has recently been listed as one of the top ten best-performing U.S. listed Chinese stocks this year (Source: China Analyst, August 24, 2011).
Saville Consulting International Chairman and CEO, Professor Peter Saville, said: “We feel this is an excellent partnership for Saville Consulting, and allows our firm to establish a massive footprint in the world’s biggest emerging economy through the most respected test assessment company in China.
It’s a flagship ten year-agreement that reflects our long-term commitment to both ongoing product development and new markets. It will also add to our global presence in over 80 countries still further.
ATA is the very best in their field and we are absolutely delighted to be partnering with them.”
Walter Wang, President of ATA commented: “The addition of this unique assessment content has significantly enriched the product portfolio offered by ATA in the Corporate HR assessment market in China. Saville Consulting has a remarkable pedigree as one of the industry’s foremost content providers, and through this partnership, will integrate its assessment tools onto ATA’s testing platforms in the coming weeks. We are thrilled to be able to work with the firm in bringing the best, internationally proven psychometric materials to China. As the corporate assessment market is expanding in China, we are working to take advantage of the country’s tremendous potential for growth in psychometric assessment. The number of tests administered by ATA is rapidly increasing with 19.9% year-over-year growth in financial year 2011 to over 6.9 million billable tests. This significant growth comes mainly from the private sector in China, which we believe will drive our future business growth. Our partnership with Saville Consulting should help to enhance our competitive advantage in the private sector.”
Saville Consulting’s Vice President, International Development, Chris Small added: “This is a great opportunity for us to stamp our mark on the fastest growing marketplace for testing and assessment.”
“The past 18 months has been a time of rapid international growth for the company where we have signed around 15 partnership arrangements worldwide, including in India, Russia and across South America.
The ATA deal represents the pinnacle of our efforts but it is also a signal that international markets are prepared to look far and wide to seek out the best providers of assessment content.”
