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.