QSR International strengthens local market presence in the Americas and Europe

The world’s largest developer of qualitative data analysis software and services has appointed two experienced, local experts to head up its operations in the Americas and Europe. The new appointments are part of QSR’s commitment to meet growing demand in the regions by continuing to build a strong, accessible local presence.

QSR has appointed Rob Calcagni to the position of General Manager, Americas, and Chris Astle to the position of General Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In the face of growing demand for tools to help analyze rich non-numerical data, these appointments will focus on building a strong local presence in the regions. They come ahead of the release of QSR’s qualitative data analysis software, NVivo 9, in six new languages later in 2011. With the addition of Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese interfaces to NVivo 9, local presence and easy accessibility for customers has never been more important to the company.

Rob Calcagni brings an extensive knowledge of the research and information analysis sectors to the Americas position, as well as over 20 years’ experience in sales, marketing and senior management. Most recently he held the position Vice President of Client Solutions at Outsell Inc. and before that held senior management and sales positions at a number of analytics and research firms, including Reed Business InStat Group, Current Analysis and Ovum Research Inc.

In particular, Calcagni’s understanding of the role technology plays in making sense of data will be invaluable to QSR International’s clients across all sectors, including government, health and commercial fields.

“It’s an exciting time for qualitative research software, as customers’ needs are diversifying to include everything from analyzing and managing data, to providing information services,” said Calcagni.

Chris Astle brings more than 25 years’ experience in sales and management in the information and business technology sector to the position of General Manager, EMEA, including roles with Cisco Systems and Microsoft.

“I look forward to the challenge of engaging broadly with our existing and potential users across Europe to ensure we meet their needs and add value,” said Astle.

QSR International CEO John Owen commented, “As social and technology forces – such as social media – are producing more data in more ways than ever before, the demand for software that helps people to analyze rich data like video footage, articles and interview recordings is growing rapidly.”

“Appointing two General Managers of Rob and Chris’ caliber, we are well placed to meet this demand by leveraging their knowledge and deep understanding of both business technology and research,” said Owen.

QSR is a privately owned company with offices in the USA, the UK and Australia. The company’s NVivo software helps users to access, organize and analyze unstructured information in material like documents, pictures, audio, video, spreadsheets and database tables. Over 400,000 people use the software, spanning more than 150 countries. Users come from virtually every field – from policy evaluation and health, to academia, customer care and product development. QSR’s latest software package, NVivo 9 was released in October 2010. For team research, QSR’s NVivo Server 9 software lets users analyze and manage NVivo 9 projects centrally so that a team can work together on the same project at the same time, leveraging each other’s expertise and experience.