Case Studies
Issue No. 4 - February/March 2002
Quest Electronics
sales quest
Quest Electronics is a big name in American football. At a growing number of gridiron stadiums across North America, spectators buy refreshments and memorabilia through this South Australian-designed and built point-of-sale system—as do skating-rink patrons in Canada, cinema-goers in Mexico and footy fans at Colonial Stadium.
Quest’s VersaTerm system has set the world standard for POS systems, and the tough ask of tracking high-volume transaction environments is a specialty.
Quest International Computers Pty Ltd (QIC) formerly known as Quest Automation Pty Ltd, was established in 1980 as a wholly owned subsidiary of UK company Quest Automation plc. Quest set up here to sell and support a range of CAD/CAM systems for the electronics industry, but things changed in mid-1984, when the CAD/CAM division of Quest UK was sold to Marconi Instruments.
Local General Manager/Director David Brown organised a management buy-out. QIC continued to sell and support CAD/CAM equipment to some of Australia’s largest companies, education and government users but increasingly looked to its own product development.
Quest Electronic Developments Pty Ltd (QED) opened in November 1986 as the R&D and manufacturing operation of QIC. QED is based in the commerce and research precinct of Adelaide University.
During the middle and late 1980s, Quest developed and marketed an output system for technical drawing which let designers inscribe CAD images directly on to film. That system was superseded by advancing laser plotter technology in the early 1990s, but the VersaKey keyboard developed for CAD/CAM users was a popular input tool that was readily adapted to a much bigger market. Around the VersaKey console, Quest developed a software/hardware package that allowed retailers to integrate PC capabilities with their cash register functions.
The first VersaTerm was not simply a dressed-up PC. As Quest engineering manager Tim Stollznow recalls, i...
