MARU/VCR&C Launches Today as Part of the Growing MARU Group to Meet Market Demand for Research Consultants With Expertise in Insight Communities

MARU/VCR&C, formerly the Research & Consulting Division of Vision Critical, to maintain value-added partnership with Vision Critical and access to its cloud-based Insight Community platform through commercial agreement

April 5, 2016 – MARU Group has finalized the acquisition of the North American Research & Consulting Division of Vision Critical. The business will operate as MARU/VCR&C, a standalone entity within MARU Group.

The current executive team, led by President Ed Morawski, will guide the business’s mission to provide insights-based customer empathy through best-in class research consulting teams that have technology in their DNA.

“Our vision with MARU Group is to build a new kind of professional services firm with technology in its DNA,” said Ged Parton, CEO of MARU Group. “The acquisition of MARU/VCR&C is a powerful step to achieve this vision. The strength of the business is the depth of expertise of its people – people who are leaders in the design and use of Vision Critical’s Insight Communities. So, we plan to support and invest in the VCR&C leadership team to become a market leader in providing fast and strategic customer insight.”

MARU/VCR&C will continue to deliver strategic insight to its strong client base through engaged communities managed on the Vision Critical Insight Community software, as part of a value-added partnership. All 160 Vision Critical Research & Consulting (VCR&C) employees in six offices across North America will retain their roles in the new organization. Research consultants will remained focused on providing sector-specific expertise to Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail, Media & Entertainment, Financial Services, Technology, Public Affairs, Agency, and Healthcare clients. This agreement also includes best-in-class Voice of Market consumer and business communities (Springboard America, Angus Reid Forum and Aeroplan B2B).

VCR&C joins Voice of the Customer specialists eDigitalResearch (MARU/edr) in the rapid growth of MARU Group, and together, will provide the customer intelligence information and insight services firm with expertise in the US, Canada and UK.

Ged Parton elaborated, “The VCR&C leadership team has talent, stability and intellect. Industry figures such as Ed Morawski, Matt Kleinschmidt and Bruce Friend are indicative of a team with character and bench strength.”

Ed Morawski adds, “The affiliation with rapidly growing MARU Group provides the investment required to meet growing demand for our unique combination of research talent and technology expertise. It also enables us maintain a strong partnership with Vision Critical, while simultaneously expanding the portfolio of technology and capabilities available to our blue-chip client base.”

Added Mr. Parton: “We see tremendous potential across the leadership team; people like Rob Berger, Demitry Estrin and Tommy Stinson inspire confidence and their deep industry expertise and experience with Vision Critical’s Sparq platform is a stellar combination.”

About MARU/VCR&C

MARU/VCR&C, formerly the Research & Consulting division of Vision Critical, is a professional services firm that helps its clients improve business outcomes by being more empathetic to their customers. We deliver our services through teams of sector-specific research consultants that have technology in their DNA, specializing in the use of Insight Community technology. Our research drives decision making across all aspects of customer experience, including innovation, product, branding, commercialization and communications.

Our offer is driven by a firm belief that it takes people to understand people, and that technology enables us to scale and disseminate that understanding faster.

In addition to secure, private, insight communities, we own best-in-class Market Communities that provide our clients with the access to connect with the right people at the right time.

About MARU Group

MARU Group is a technology enabled professional services firm delivering information and insight services. Operating in multiple countries, MARU Group provides research, insight and advisory services to large enterprises across a broad spectrum of industries and markets. Founded in 2016, MARU Group’s core area of expertise is providing fast and strategic customer feedback to corporates through a variety of technology platforms. Led by market intelligence industry veteran Ged Parton, MARU Group is backed by Primary Capital Partners LLP, a United Kingdom-based provider of private equity finance for high potential and growth companies.

About Vision Critical

Vision Critical provides a cloud-based customer intelligence platform that allows companies to build engaged, secure communities of customers they can use continuously, across the enterprise, for ongoing, real-time feedback and insight. Designed for today’s always-on, social and mobile savvy customer, Vision Critical’s technology helps large, customer-centric enterprises discover what their customers want so they can deliver what they need. Unlike traditional customer research, which is slow, expensive and gathers dust on a shelf, Vision Critical’s customer intelligence platform replaces static data and cumbersome reports with real-time actionable customer intelligence that companies need to build better products, deliver better services and achieve better business outcomes.

Hundreds of high-performance organizations use Vision Critical’s technology.
Learn more at www.visioncritical.com.
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/visioncritical.

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