Research Solutions Makes Key Senior Sales and Marketing Hires, Reports Strong Preliminary Fiscal 2018 Results

By STS News Desk On Jul 27, 2018

Rogier van Erkel Joins as Chief Sales Officer, Yohann Georgel as Chief Marketing Officer

Research Solutions, Inc., a provider of workflow efficiency solutions for R&D-driven organizations, has appointed two key senior executives to the roles of chief sales officer and chief marketing officer.

“At the start of our year, we developed a strategy to optimize our sales and marketing resources, seeking more efficient ways to acquire customers through digital marketing, content generation and focused sales management,” said Peter Derycz, president and CEO of Research Solutions. “These two critical hires represent another key step in our strategy. Rogier and Yohann both possess deep knowledge in their respective fields and have proven their ability to lead and grow dynamic sales and marketing teams. We are confident they will help Research Solutions in our goal of becoming a key workflow solution for our R&D-driven customers.”

Rogier van Erkel, Chief Sales Officer

Rogier van Erkel joins Research Solutions with 12 years of sales management experience at Elsevier, an information and analytics company, and one of the world’s major providers of scientific, technical and medical information. In his most recent role, he served as sales director, leading a global team and agent network. He managed a diverse sales portfolio consisting of four product groups selling to businesses all over the world. In that role, he specialized in information products, input for discovery tools and solutions to optimize and maximize customer workflow. He also served in other senior sales roles in Elsevier and before that, managed sales and operations teams for five years at Renewi (formerly Van Gansewinkel), a leading waste management company operating across Europe.

For charity, Rogier coaches start-ups to improve their sales through his involvement in incubator firms Rockstart and ACE.

Yohann Georgel, Chief Marketing Officer: Yohann Georgel brings to Research Solutions 12 years of marketing experience, most recently serving as senior director of digital marketing for PrimeSport for over six years. PrimeSport is the leader in providing direct access to the biggest sporting events on the planet, offering tickets, travel and hospitality. Prior to that, he was a director of digital marketing for OleOle, a social media platform for soccer fans worldwide. While there, he was in charge of marketing in 10 different languages.

Yohann’s passion for data and algorithms led him to pursue a career in digital marketing, specifically search engine optimization and marketing. Other areas of his expertise include data analysis, social media and user experience.

Preliminary Fiscal 2018 Results

Based on preliminary unaudited information, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, Research Solutions expects to report total revenue of approximately $7.2 million, up 5% compared to $6.8 million in the same year-ago quarter. For fiscal 2018, Research Solutions expect to report total revenue of approximately $28.0 million, up 9% compared to $25.7 million in fiscal 2017.

Platform subscription revenue in the fourth quarter is expected to increase 66% to approximately $529,000 compared to $318,000 in the year-ago quarter. The quarter is expected to end with annual recurring revenue up 64% to $2.3 million (see the company’s definition of annual recurring revenue below). For fiscal 2018, Platform subscription revenue is expected to increase 86% to approximately $1.8 million compared to $980,000 in fiscal 2017.

Transaction revenue in the fourth quarter is expected to increase 2% to approximately $6.6 million compared to $6.5 million in the same year-ago quarter. For fiscal 2018, Transaction revenue is expected to increase 6% to approximately $26.2 million from $24.8 million in fiscal 2017.

“We ended fiscal 2018 on a strong note, with continued growth in our Platforms business and steady growth in Transactions,” continued Derycz. “We believe our momentum will carry into fiscal 2019 as we implement further Platforms improvements and sales and marketing enhancements that we expect to drive more efficient growth.”