Author Archives: veriadmin

TRAINING IN THE WORKPLACE
“Quality assurance and compliance in the training sector can come with a heavy weight load for companies. A study by learning network Skillsnet found there are four facets to evaluating training in the workplace. Reaction of the participants to the training and connection to the subject matter were of utmost importance. Learning new skills was ranked highly whereas behaviour demonstrated whether or not the skills learned were implemented afterwards. Ann-Marie Sorley, founder and CEO of Veri Integrated Training (a cloud-based dashboard that captures data and key performance indicators) believes capturing data is an essential part of a company’s success. “l had my own training company and felt the paperwork demanded by accrediting bodies was a huge cost but we could not see benefit as it was all in dead paper. I knew there was huge value in this data.”

So by Christmas we had the beta client, the technical team, the innovative concept all in place. We now needed to validate that the problem was industry wide not just something that was a nice to have for us and our one client.
Excitement and enthusiasm over compliance software is not easy to muster ( unless you are the founder of course). Being compliant is expensive and boring and takes a huge amount of time. But it is only when there is a problem, an audit or an inspection do we see the benefits.
So the first thing to do was look to the Watch Dogs for audits and Inspection in Training Compliance in Ireland, the top one being Quality Qualifications Ireland, QQI (amongst other things they are the new FETAC).
“In the area of quality assurance, we are responsible for reviewing the effectiveness of quality assurance in further and higher education providers in Ireland.”
With Barrow training we presented to QQI the full functionality of the system and how it was being used to improve standards and save time, the result is a quote that said
“Veri is new, something we have not seen before and a training Providers Quality system”
We then moved to the client’s themselves. The most important validation is from the market itself and another thing we have learned is that a software product can be different things to different market segments. So QQI is one accrediting body, but almost every training function has some one that they are accountable to.
From our research with Corporate Training HR want information on attendance or achieving KPI’s or Milestones. Finance want ROI or training outcomes and Corporate Services Management want evaluations and improvement plans.
In local Government, consistency of delivery nationwide is critical as well as tracking and evidence to national civil servants. Some training companies use international accrediting bodies like City and Guilds or VCTC and what we have found and validated is Veri Integrated Training fulfils all these functions.
So with verification from 6 clients from different sectors using the software our name and brand was created VERI (as in verification) Integrated Training. Next job was to work towards a launch and reach out to new clients in the most effective way possible…. more information on mobile working apps in our next post!

Since launching Veri, a process management system for measuring the delivery of on-the-job training, Kilkenny-based entrepreneur Ann-Marie McSorley has signed up 20 clients, among them the Irish Red Cross, the Irish Wheelchair Association and Irish Times Training.
McSorley brought Veri to market last October following two years in development. A cloud-based dashboard, it has been designed to reduce the time and cost involved in quality assurance (QA).
Organisations can use Veri instead of paper forms to ensure their training is consistent and compliant with Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (Phecc) accredited training requirements.
“The measurement of KPIs for skills-based or on-the-job training has been almost non-existent. The idea is that the outcomes of accredited training can now be measured,” said McSorley.
The Veri dashboard is relevant to any sector with legislated training requirements. Administrators can set up a “perfect course”, which prompts tutors at regular intervals to complete their QA documentation online. This documentation can then be viewed by administrators and quality managers in real-time.
“It has an evidence-based mobile app, which gives live feedback that turns QA information into intelligence for improvement,” said McSorley, who has just recruited Shane Barron, former senior software developer at Bluefin Payment Systems, as Veri’s new chief technology officer.
She came up with the idea for Veri while running iResource Education and Training, which has worked with clients including the Ombudsman for Children’s Office and State Street.
“I felt that the paperwork demanded by accrediting bodies was a huge cost, but we couldn’t see benefit as it was all in dead paper. I knew there was huge value in this data,” she said.
Veri employs four people and McSorley is targeting an 18-strong workforce and revenues of €1 million by 2020.
“The product is aimed specifically at further education, which is about skills-based training rather than the lecture hall environment,” she said. “There are a lot of potential applications for it in healthcare, not just in accredited training, but it could also be applied in the delivery of services like occupational therapy or in care home settings. Our route to market will be to validate each vertical and then bring it to Northern Ireland and on to Britain and the US.
By Elaine O’Regan
Sunday Business Post, 16th April 2017

24 hours with the most Non-Compliant, Risk takers we at Veri have ever seen!
Working weekends has been par for the course, since we at VERI launched last October, as is working with clients who have the huge issue of compliance and risk in the delivery of their training.
Risk takers and non conformers were the company that I kept this weekend. Although I had been looking forward to the Cork BIC Entrepreneur Experience since we were selected from over 100 companies to participate I never would have believed I would have had the opportunities and insights for us emerging companies that occurred in Beautiful Ballymaloe House this past weekend.
The Job of the good first impression
Joe O’Sullivan was first to the stage on Friday morning with our MC Pete Smyth for the weekend, Founder of the private investment company Broadlake. (And Professional Croquet Player at Ballymaloe)
Joe worked directly with Steve Jobs at Apple and Jobs’ quote “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” could have been about this quiet unassuming procurement expert that helped innovate Apple to where it is today.
He told the story of how three competing suppliers flew to the West Coast to pitch to Jobs for a multimillion distribution contact that they had all prepared for months for. Joe warned them all that Steve jobs did no dither, and expected a crystal-clear value proposition from the off. The meetings lasted minutes and Jobs made his decisions on clarity and price, simple as that.

Cash is King and Diversifying
The Wikipedia definition of Diversification is the process of allocating capital in a way that reduces the reduce risk or volatility by investing in a variety of assets. Mary Mc Kenna of Tour America built a €20 million company with 50 staff and more importantly survived 9 11, Ash cloud and a recession by innovative diversification into cruising, country and many other fantastic products delivered by a team that she says are her most important asset. I was lucky enough to spend 4 hours in group sessions with Mary and her attitude to respect and relationships is something that I want to match as a core value for Veri going forward.
Pat Lynch of Cork based Compliance and Risk was an experienced Entrepreneur that knew our business sector. He has recently diversified into publishing and I spent my Sunday reading his Self-Made from cover to cover.
Clarity and CPD
Albert Einstein said “The only source of knowledge is experience” Eileen Moloney of Cork BIC and Frank Madden of Crest Solution are part of the huge wealth of experience that make up the Entrepreneur Experience. Over the past 18 months we have tried to ensure our clients are clear on what Veri provides, digitalisation of training compliance records.
Frank Madden re-enforced the need for clarity in all areas of business. Crest has managed to scale Track and Trace in Ireland, the UK Benelux and Scandinavia and Madden attributes a huge amount in continuous professional development. Whether that is with Enterprise Ireland year Long Management Development Programmes or 1 hour long E-book in between meetings, the need for constant learning is one of the most crucial in the successful Entrepreneur.
And Finally Sell, Sell, Sell.
At Veri we aim to manage the numbers for our clients, saving them time and money on training compliance. The most important numbers I heard this weekend were 2468. Donal Garrihy company services 8000 business in Ireland and the UK for products from Coffee to Water Coolers.
As Veri’s mentor for the 24 hours the matching was amazing. Understanding our customers’ needs by asking them about their business will identify how we can help, because according to Donal selling is really just about fixing problems in a reliable, timely and price effective way.
Donal was equally as humble and generous as the other experienced entrepreneurs I met and his patience and insight will drive us to go out, find and help new clients from Monday morning.

When Veri Integrated Training was a Beta product for our sister training company Iresource, we knew the pain involved in ensuring consistency in course quality, communications and outputs. This gave us the basis for the exisiting sofware, but we had to improve it and ensure it was stable. With advice from our EI mentor  Alan Carey I was advised to carryout a code review….. A what ? I asked.
So basically it’s just getting another coder to have a look at the code that the first software was based on and seeing is it worthwhile going forward.
The day that my mentor asked me to do that I thought ok, I don’t know any code – its written in PHP which I don’t understand and I don’t know any other coders.
Our team had a gap and I needed to fill it.   In my office building there was a guy who I knew, who knew PHP called Brendan from  Pinpoint , I asked him  did he know anyone who was a programmer and that has got good PHP skills who might do a code review and he gave me a number for a guy from Toodle.ie, Shane Barrron. The same week I had started a graduate for a three month internship through WIT and from Brazil. Anna, the  graduate and I  headed down to see Shane and asked him to have a look. I liked Shane’s directness, he gave me a price some feedback and agreed to work with our Beta Client on added functionality. I didn’t look up his credentials. I had a personal reference and I thought I’ll give him a shot and see how it worked out.
This mini team, me, a pay per hour experiened PHP programmer, an intern to do the basics  work and our beta client gelled and after our second team meeting,  Shane said to me, this solution is very different and solves a real problem, we should build the new version from the ground so we can produce a really strong, stable, scalable software…. I agreed with the only issue being a huge investment and no money.
Shane had a solution, he came on board, building out the platform for equity in the business. And the kicker, he has a blue chip backgroud in software development . He was the first employee of Sonru as Technical Services Engineer. Previously was a developer with Unum, an American startup company based in Carlow. He had created his own  Perfume.ie and Toddle.com with a BSc Computer Science DCU. And the kicker … he was lead developer with Hostel World, a company that now works with over 20,000 hostels from destinations all over the globe listed on Hostelworld.com, like everything, they started small and IPO raised €180 million in 2015.
So now we had a team and we were well on the way to having a product ….
The next step.. Christmas comes and so does validation!

I was introduced to Franklin Covey and all about the seven habits of highly effective people by a mentor about  10 years ago and I find there uses constantly keep re-emerging on this Start Up journey .
The first habit that Covey talks about is ‘Begin with the end in mind’. The great support I have had from Local Enterprise, Inspire, New Frontiers and other mentors all are aiming towards this,  getting a business plan together. Simply put it this is  a picture,  if you like,  of what your business will look like when all the work is done. Financially, strategically, operationally and culturally.. …the people that will help you make it a reality.
Veri Integrated Training, now selling, would not have got to this stage without the following great support we sought out over the past 12 months.
Inspire Programme

• Mentoring from an industry expert
• Research Trip to A Fab Lab In Wales to investigate new product design

Local Enterprise Office  

• Onlinetrading voucher a 50% support for doing business online
• Specialist Assistance for a 50% support marketing and design

Enterprise Ireland

• Innovation Voucher- €5000 for project research work such as mapping or design
• New Frontiers – Mentoring and Stipend of €15.000 for supporting the time it takes to get a product like Veri Integrated to market.

As well as the practical elements of these programmes, the confidence and group aspect is all important. Start Up can be a very lonely place, normally a one man show having  to find the motivation to move, manage and critically analyse the new business every day (normally with little or no money).
So, for sure there are great days with new breakthroughs like new clients and awards but there as many knockbacks and resilience and support systems are a  critical resource for the Start Up Founder.
The main objective of New Frontiers Phase 2 is to be ready to sell and grow, it’s all  about being able to have the vision to scale. Then be able to share that vision with strategic alliances, especially with new investors and partners. And that is the next post, how our CTO (Chief Technical Officer) Shane Barron came on board !

Henry Ford, the great innovator, explained that his invention, the Model T was a transport solution that his customers didn’t know they wanted. Cars were for the rich, not accessible to them, so he came up with a solution, an affordable motorcar.
Sitting around a table a few months ago at the New Frontiers Conference with a dozen other start ups, we had some great advice from one of the group who had originally worked for Google.
The topic of discussion was selling, and I had kicked off saying that I am not a natural Salesman, and while I am passionate about my product’s benefits, I was really a little uncomfortable looking for money.  The advice was that I needed to shift my company’s Paradigm, selling solutions, especially what people now refer to as “a disruptive piece of  technology” is less about selling and more about understanding your customer and finding a new way of  fixing their problems.
When I thought of my sales to date, I realised he was right. Last February at a meeting I mentioned  my  software to a colleague who was setting up a new community training centre: School of Food. His problem was that he had no follow up staff, no systems or processes for this new venture.
When I showed him it’s functionality, without blinking an eye he said it would solve all the issues and agreed to buy the MVP (first version). A few weeks later another colleague from a larger accredited company that I work with, Barrow Training, was showing me the details of the new consultation for Quality Qualification Ireland (QQI). Again the focus on a need for Management of Information and Communications with Learners was apparent and Veri solved the problem.
Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. Ensuring Quality means that we have to be looking all the time. This costs time and money and was the original reason for developing the software.
So three down – three companies using the software and we were just on version 1, then I decided, you know, there is something in this, I need some advice to take it further. The next post.. the huge support available along the way.