Voxpro, a Cork-based provider of technical support on behalf of Google in Europe, is launching a service aimed at smaller US tech companies looking to enter the European market but that don't want to invest in a dedicated support function.
The product is unique in Europe, according to chief executive Dan Kiely and could lead to the creation of 50 jobs at the company which provides customer contact services on behalf of 300 companies.
Voxpro identified a gap in the market to provide multilingual technical support for companies looking to expand into Europe that do not have the resources to establish dedicated technical support teams.
The company will charge them a fixed monthly fee to handle a set number of requests for technical assistance. Any that can’t be dealt with are referred onto the company itself.
“Nine out of 10 times we can solve [the problem]. If we can’t then we escalate it,” said Mr Kiely.
The service, which was launched during the Entrepreneur of the Year CEO retreat in the US last weekend, will be available in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and English. The price is €3,000 a month for up to 50 requests.
The company has signed up its first customer and will “go live” in two weeks, said Mr Kiely who along with his wife and co-founder Linda is a finalist in the international category of the 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year programme run by Ernst & Young.
The potential customers were found through "vigorous networking", he explained "We have 30 American companies interested without even marketing this at all," he said.
Calling card
The relationship with Google is an important calling card and enables Voxpro to demonstrate that it has the capacity to scale up as its customer's grow, he said.
Voxpro was established in 1973 as Pageboy Communications and was bought by Mr Kiely and his wife Linda in 1995.
The company went on to acquire the national paging network Eirpage from Vodafone in 2005 and moved from contact management into the wider niche of business process outsourcing.
The paging network was turned off last year following the migration of the emergency services to a dedicated service.
Voxpro turns over €15 million and more than 80 per cent of sales originate from companies that have their headquarters in the US.
