Serial entrepreneur Duncan Lennox is to establish the European R&D headquarters of Qstream, a mobile software company he started with a Harvard professor, in Dublin with the creation of an initial eight jobs.
University College Dublin (UCD) alumnus Lennox told Siliconrepublic.com that the plan is to double this headcount to 16 within two years. Half of those employed will be engineers.
“We will be taking advantage of emerging opportunities in Europe and Asia.
“The company is a spin-out of research at Harvard University by Dr Price B Kerfoot, a professor at Harvard Medical School. He spent five or six years doing this research to find ways to help people retain skills and knowledge.”
The expanded presence comes on the heels of Qstream’s recent US$2.8m funding led by Frontline Ventures, with participation by Launchpad Venture Group in Boston, and follows seed financing from Enterprise Ireland and Delta Partners in 2011.
Tailored coaching
The Qstream solution is clinically proven to keep sales reps sharp and improve on-the-job performance. Busy reps respond to scenario-based questions in just three minutes using any mobile device. Game mechanics, such as scoring and leaderboards, ensure user engagement, and an analytics engine captures dozens of critical data points and instantly transforms them into actionable insights for sales management, such as opportunities for tailored coaching.
To date, Qstream has delivered more than 180m questions in nine languages to sales reps and others for product launch support, competitive threat management and response, and strategic business initiatives. With tens of thousands of registered users, Qstream’s customers include some of the world’s top brands in life sciences, technology and financial services, including Genentech, Boehringer Ingelheim, Intuitive Surgical, Oracle, SunGard, Rackspace and SunTrust.
Qstream, which provides mobile sales enablement and analytics for driving high-performance teams, has named Trinity College Dublin alumnae and technology industry veteran, Louella Morton, as general manager, Ireland.
Qstream is poised to address the issue of ensuring reps are equipped to have value-added conversations with their clients.
According to Forrester Research, companies worldwide are spending 19pc of their SG&A costs, on average, in sales support-related activities. But despite these large investments, Forrester indicates that only 36pc of B2B buyers believe their meetings with salespeople are valuable and live up to their expectations.
