O4 Corp. gets $15M to expand - Sacramento Business Journal:

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O4 Corp. — which stands for Out Of Office Operations — develops mobile software applications that consumer producte manufacturers such as and use to instruct sales reps to chec inventory levels, products displays and pricinvg information in retail stores. The technology also wirelesslyg transmits data and product orders backto headquarters. While consumerf goods manufacturers spend significantlyon in-storw marketing promotions and new product launch, “the y really don’t get visibility into what’s happening at the retaill shelf,” said Laura general partner at , a Baltimore-basef venture firm that invested the $15 million.
O4’ software empowers manufacturers’ eyes and ears in retaikl stores — their sales force, Witt “It makes them much more effective and she said. O4’s technology, designed to run on hand-held is highly flexible, said Dale Hagemeyer, consumer goods technology analystat “Thinik of it as a 12-way adjustable seat,” Hagemeyer “It really contours to how people do their O4’s globe-trotting chief, Desmonrd Miller, has an ambitious growth trajectory for his O4’s subscriber base is projected to explode from abouy 25,000 today to abouf 250,000 users in the next three Miller said, from Sydney, Australia.
“Wwe are showing a tremendous ROI (return on investment) to the markeg right now in verydifficult times,” said Miller, who lives in Australia and splitss his time between North America, Asia and Europe. “Wew are able to show paybackl for these systems in monthd andnot years, and we are givingf our customers an edge in the marketplace.” O4 expects to hit its growth targets by addinbg new customers and sellinh more services and products to existing “It’s not just being an inch deep with the O4 U.S. President Harris Fogel said.
“It’zs [about] being a mile wide and a mile ABS Capital was impressedwith O4’xs “momentum” and its blue-chip clieny roster. “It was clear to us that they must be offerinb something of value for the consumer products Witt said. ABS, which invests in later-stage growth companiex in the business services, health-care, media and communications, and software sectors, was a major investoe in , which raise $112 million in an initial publi offeringin mid-April.
O4 will invesyt the $15 million — the company’es first institutional round into developingan around-the-clock, global customer support infrastructure, transitioning from a software-licensing to a software-as-a-subscriptioj model and executing a geographic and producgt expansion. The company sees “huge opportunities” in the emerginb markets of Latin America, Eastern Europe and where consumer products companies have armies of mobile workersw that can benefitfrom O4’s software. “Aq consumer products multinational mighthave 10,000 mobilee workers in China alone,” Fogel said. “We are abourt users.
” The global strategyh is critical as O4 keeps pace with its multinational customers, who are themselves chasinvg overseas demand. “The customedr is going where there are more mouthe to feed and more feetto Gartner’s Hagemeyer said. “If P&G is going into Asia and LatinAmerica ... you want to follow P&hG wherever P&G wants to go.”