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IT start-up targets software for small business

An IT entrepreneur intends to take the mystery out of open source software and make it available to small businesses.

Technology start-up Quater, which is short-listed for the 2015 Spark Business competition, run by Stockport Business and Innovation Centre (SBIC), aims to provide a modular software package for business applications based on open source software.

The brainchild of Hagen Kuehn, Quater intends to initially launch a state of the art Customer Relationship Management system. The modular software package will allow customers to purchase only the licences they require while the IT systems offered to customers will feature heightened security. In addition Quarter will also offer maintenance contracts to customers.

Hagen is targeting businesses in the UK and Germany initially, but is looking to go global as his IT idea grows. He says: “I want to sell innovative products and services, putting sophisticated open source software within the reach of small businesses around the world.”

Hagen is keen to point out that Quater’s advantage is that businesses get the same convenience and cost savings they would if they were to opt for a Cloud-based software solution, but because Quater’s products are deployed in-house using the business’s own hardware, their clients remain in full control of their critical business data.

Hagen believes winning the 2015 Spark Business competition and a package of support worth £15,000, including a year’s free office space at SBIC which is owned by Stockport Council and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund,, will allow Quater to invest in IT infrastructure and marketing in its first two years of trading.

Hagen concludes: “I believe Quater has great potential in a rapidly growing market. It seeks to provide more innovative products than the competition, and I’m sure we can save our clients’ money and better safeguard their business assets.”

The winner of the Spark Business competition will be announced at a gala evening on June 23rd.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by James Welton .