Category Archives: Ellen Brophy

The world of computer science is not exactly glamorous. There are not many household names in the field. The work is mostly taken for granted and the average computer user never questions how the processes came to fruition. If you have turned on a computer the chances are you have used the copy and paste function. The man responsible for that concept is Larry Tesler and he passed away on Monday.
Mr Tesler’s specialty was in user interface design. He wanted to make computer systems easy to use and accessible to everyone. Back in 1973 he became staff at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre.  It was here many of the ideas that molded today’s personal computer were conceptualised.
At the time modes were a common feature in software. Modes allowed users to switch between functions on apps and software but made tasks complicated and time consuming. His loathing of modes is legendary, so much so the licence place on his car reads ‘NOMODES’.
There he came up with Gypsy. Gypsy was one of the first document editors that used the key board and mouse. Gypsy was….. You guessed it, modeless. This meant the interface was always editable as opposed to having to use commands to edit the text.
This innovation caught the eye of Apple where he went on to work for 17 years.  After leaving Apple he set up an education start-up, and worked for brief periods at Amazon and Yahoo.  Bill Gate, Steve Jobs and Larry Page are all well known names and Larry Tesler never seemed to reach those heights.
What we admire about him is that he wanted to make computers accessible and easy to use. We strive to make our app Veri user friendly. Our whole ethos is about making it efficient to complete daily tasks. Many compulsory tasks specific to individual industries are time consuming and rooted in duplication and paper piles. We hope to see this come to an end. We might have to change our licence plate to ‘digitise’!
Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum said Mr Tesler “combined computer science training with a counterculture vision that computers should be for everyone”. Xerox tweeted ‘your workday is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas.’ Mr Tesler has left a legacy that all future computer science innovations will be built upon. Ask yourself the question, how many times did you ‘copy and paste’ this week?

The IITD National Training Awards is recognised as the premier Learning & Development event for industry. This case study shows how Impact Training and Veri went on to win Best Consultancy Partnership 2019
Challenge:
Impact Training had high administration processes some of which were required for compliance with regulatory, ETB and examining boards. The aim was to ensure that quality is not compromised by tutors or support staff needing to spend time on manual administration. Listed below are a few examples of administration that doesn’t add value to training delivery.

• Participant enrollment details
• Profiles and benchmark data
• Course content/ specification
• Participant/Tutor/Administrative/communication
• Monitoring communication
• Completion of Lesson Plans/Milestones required
• On the job practical evaluations
• All assessment type results gathering
• Participant/Tutor/Administrative/communication

All this information was stored ineffectively and inefficiently in paper forms, word documents, excel spreadsheets, and emails.  The volume of paper meant boxes of paperwork but no management overview as without live data there was no way to re-mediate to ensure maximum success for the learners.  The boxes of paper were a valuable resource that could be turned into intelligence. Statistics on learner outcomes (attendance, milestones etc.), tutor successes, course figures, were often impossible to pull together due to the time and administration involved.
Solution:
Veri offers a bespoke digital solution developed for the Irish market specifically for the Contracted Training Sector.
Objectives:
For the learners:

• Ensure attendance and payments are tracked and traced digitally to improve accuracy.
• Digital student feedback to create an open and transparent digital environment, which automates results and follow up to each milestone reached.
• Create for the student a line of communication with their tutor, all messages date and time stamped for traceability. Teachers can in turn liaise and manage their students regardless of their location opening up the opportunities for collaborative learning.
• Allow for competency based learning to be recorded digitally by uploading evidence e.g. photographs, directly to the administration dashboard

For Impact

• Create a more efficient administrative system, a time saving of 30%, (time and motion study)
• Transform data to monitor tutor’s performance to allow for remediation where improvements are needed
• Use this data as Intelligence to improve programmes
• Use this data to report to funders or management in real time using data analytics to show benefits and evidence-based outcomes.
• Improve communications, engage participants to increase progression, outcomes and improved retention.
• To ensure that all participant and tutor records are GDPR compliant

Plan:
Impact required innovation to make their large team of 30 plus tutors that were on live off-site contracts simpler and more streamlined in terms of compliance and training management. The conversion of raft of documents to an app was a huge relief to staff as well as a resource and money saver for the administrator. The biggest benefit in terms of use is for the Quality Manager who had weekly reporting on all of these systems previously via paper. Now who just has to click a button.
A detailed project plan was developed which included: scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communication, risk and stakeholders.  The plan was iterative and the primary objective throughout the plan was to maintain the quality of delivery and minimise the risk to learners.  As a result of the planning phase we decided on a phased implementation – we selected one course which was live on the system for four weeks before Veri was rolled out  across the network.  Both companies committed to an agile philosophy in relation to project implementation – in a nutshell ‘if the plan wasn’t working we changed it’.
Execution:
During the execution phase we committed to 1^st level support and were immediately available with support for any queries Impact had.  
We used ICT for conference calls, remote meetings but we also ensured where it would add value we would put ‘boots on the ground’.  This meant Veri staff working in the Impact Offices and each tutor being trained in person by one of the Impact Senior Management team –adoption rates by Impact tutors was 100%.
Result:
The decision to move to the Veri digital platform was not a requirement for the market sector Impact is currently operating in. The decision to progress in this direction stemmed from the ethos that ‘Change before you have to – Jack Welch’.  Veri allows Impact to turn large amounts of raw data into meaningful information and reports.
Change is never easy and like any project problems were encountered but the critical success factor was that project was underpinned by a partnership approach. Also Veri’s knowledge and experience of the ETB training sector meant we often understood what was required before Impact even asked.

In 2018 Cambridge Analytica became a talking point around the world, for all the wrong reasons. A former employee confirmed what had been suspected. Cambridge Analytica misappropriated data and used this information to influence voting in political campaigns.
Data mining, data brokerage, data analysis and strategic communication are all strategies that are used in every campaign worldwide. The problem in this instance was that they did not have permission to gather this data.
An app was developed where Facebook users would answer a series of questions and the results were to be used for academic purposes only. It was revealed that a gap in Facebook’s data protection then allowed the app to collect personal information on the people taking the survey. It didn’t stop there. It also allowed access to the personal information of all the people in those users Facebook social network. As a result Cambridge Analytica had accumulated data from millions of people.
So what does this mean? Basically it means that Cambridge Analytica gathered so much data on individuals that they could build a profile allowing them to create targeted advertisements to Facebook users depending on the user’s personality traits. Their aim was to influence people on who to vote for, by showing different advertisements on the same topics to different people. In conclusion, the digital data correlated could potentially win an election.
Our own general election is around the corner and don’t be too surprised to see political advertisements pop up in your newsfeed. In fact the targeted ads based on the data you knowingly provide to Facebook is a vital tool in any campaign strategy. So much so, that from March 2019 to 19th January, Fine Gael has spent over €24,000 on Facebook advertisements.
There are arguments for and against how effective these methods are, but there is no denying that carefully gathered data is a powerful tool. This highlights more than ever that a move to digitisation is essential. Could you imagine the workload of gathering information like that with a traditional paper trail? By the time the required conclusions were gathered the information would be out of date and irrelevant. No business wants to be irrelevant. Moving forward digitisation is the only way to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Veri Wins Google’s Adopt A Startup Programme

13th November 2017

We won!!!! We won the Google Adopt a Startup Programme 2017What an achievement. To say we are delighted is an understatement. In a cohort of impressive competitors we excelled and it’s really a fantastic boost for our young company.

“We put a lot of time into getting the most out of Google’s Adopt A Startup programme and this win validates the team’s hard work. In our business we help digitise compliance for companies across various sectors including the health and construction. We are absolutely delighted to be named overall winner of Google’s Adopt A Startup programme and would like to thank the team and our mentors for all the help they gave us throughout the programme”.

30 start-ups competed for a place in the final, and in the end, eight were chosen to present a seven minute pitch focusing on the results they had achieved through taking part in the Adopt A Startup Programme.   Google had the difficult decision of picking the winner from a superb line up of companies.

Speaking at the final, Colin Goulding,  Director, Global Customer Care said, ”  Veri joins a stellar alumni of past winners including Food Cloud, Jobbio, Logograb; Arklu and Beats Medical, all of whom have gone on to achieve scale and growth in the intervening years.

“It wasn’t an easy decision for the judges, given the richness of talent and the achievements of our finalists over the past 12 weeks.  All our Adopt a Startup companies have shown real promise throughout the programme and I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more from them over the coming years”.

What winning Google Adopt a Startup Means

The Adopt a Startup Programme forms part of Google’s commitment to supporting the Startup community in Ireland.  Over 100 companies have participated in the programme since its inception and many have gone on to raise significant capital funding and greatly increase their employee numbers.

Other supports provided by Google to Ireland’s StartUp community include mentoring events such as Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur, hosting community events with partners like Startup Weekend and Enterprise Ireland and its partnership with Dogpatch Labs. Irish Startups can also avail of work spaces from Google for Entrepreneurs programmes in Dublin, London and the US.

We will receive €10,000 in AdWords credit and will become eligible for the Google Cloud Platform for Startups which comes with $100,000 Google Cloud Credits.