ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°149 - Juillet/Août 2013 - 24

FoCus

By Laura ROCCHINI (Étudiante MEB)

Managing queues
Qurami is an Italian start-up developing time saving mobile solutions, with
a special focus on queue management; Laura ROCCHINI, the Business
Developer, speaks of this smartphone application.

Qurami has developed a
smartphone application
that allows the remote
reservation of a place
in a queue issuing an
«electronic ticket» and
informing the user on the
queue status through
push notifications: in this
way the user will be free
to spend his time in the
most convenient way
and will reach the counter only when it is time
to be served. Qurami’s
mission is to let users
regain the time they
would otherwise waste
queuing. This operation,
which at first sight could
seem very simple, is possible thanks to Qurami’s
integration with all the
Queue Management Systems (QMS) present
in the partner venues.
Our key strategy is to
be completely horizontal:
we have partnership agreements with all the QMS
producers, so that the app can be a universal
«collector» of venues.
Marketing strategies

First: Innovation

I am in charge of the Business Development together with one of the co-founders: with regard to
the Italian market, our aim is to reach at least one
«monster» client for each target segment: Public
Administration, Banks, Retail, Health, Transports,
Universities, Large Scale Distribution. It is worth
mentioning that Trenitalia, the Italian railway company, has adopted Qurami’s technology in all the
ticket offices of the High Speed Stations (11 all

24

over the country). Foreign markets also showed
their interest in Qurami: the app is currently in testing in LATAM, negotiations with QMS producers
in France, UK and Holland are ongoing.
Managing flows of customers using their mobile
devices is the innovation proposed by Qurami,
whose added value is the horizontal integration
strategy: on one hand, QMS producers themselves recognize the uselessness of proprietary
apps, and on the other, automation companies do
not have the mindset or the knowhow required to
move from hardware technologies to mobile ones.
These are some of the reasons why Qurami has
not identified a real competitor so far.
The power of digital business nowadays is clear:
customers can be reached via digital devices
that already belong to their everyday life, such as
tablets and smartphones; ads placed on social
networks like Facebook or on mobile applications
have higher conversion rates than traditional advertising. Digital business is becoming the preferred marketing channel for many companies; within
this scenario, Qurami can’t exempt itself from
being a unique communication tool. The start-up
gathers precious information about its users: their
real time position (thanks to geolocation), age,
gender, and last but not least, the service they are
queuing for. These data are available to partner
businesses who can decide to send highly customized messages to target customers (discounts,
special offers, institutional communications, etc.).

Apart from marketing strategies, I believe that
digital business represents a big chance for a
considerable number of organizations, including
public administrations and all those institutions
providing services to citizens, such as transports,
museums, hospitals. The concept of «smart city»
is frequently used: institutions could exploit innovation as a powerful tool to radically change the
perception of the quality of life.
●

- ESCP Europe Magazine N° 149 - Juillet/Août 2013

Table des matières de la publication ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°149 - Juillet/Août 2013

Couverture
Zapping
Sommaire
BUSINESS
Personnalités du mois Cyril ZIMMERMANN (94) : Un avenir prometteur
Focus
L'appel du numérique
E-learning
Innovation, innovation…
Data is gold
Speed and risk
La fin du e-commerce
Photo réussie !
Managing queues
A win-win situation
The fabulous box
A gateway to Brazil
Itinéraires
Changez vos ampoules !
Grands crus
Manger bon, frais et sain
Entretiens
Maroc
Nouvelles technologies
Cloud
NEWS
Vie du réseau
Etienne PREVOST (MSE 94), Directeur du Who's Who in France
Nominations
Alumni Forum 2013
Groupe Centre
Groupe ESCP Europe au Féminin
Groupe Normandie
Groupe Seniors Actifs
Premier week-end de ski
Agenda/Carnet
À lire
Carrière
Réseaux sociaux, nouvel outil de votre carrière
Managing people remotely
Voyages En voiture !
CAMPUS
École Launching a business in the digital area
Fondation Soutenir les nouvelles générations
Vie étudiante
Toutes voiles dehors !
Changeons nous-mêmes l'éducation !
Let's celebrate curiosity!

ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°149 - Juillet/Août 2013