A market opportunity was identified to develop a coherent and integrated high availability, highly secure, e-portfolio management solution that could manage the training assessment process for any work-based learning program. The system would automate and replace an existing paper-based process and allow both learners to qualify much faster and the training provider to operate more efficiently with a better profit margin.

In order to address this growing market, SkillWise committed to the development and implementation of Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model for its VQ Manager product. VQ Manager is SkillWise’s flagship software application which is sold to Further Education Colleges, Private Training Providers and large employers. The software manages the assessment process involved in any work-based learning program, for example S/NVQ. It replaces traditional paper-based evidence portfolios and automates workflow management within the assessment and verification process.

VQ Manager was designed from the outset as a SaaS based application. SkillWise had previously had a lot of experience in delivering training courses to a broad audience and as a business had plenty of experience in managing traditional software products. It was clear that this market was a perfect target for launching a SaaS based solution.

Work-based learning program portfolios contain valuable evidence, taking a lot of effort and time to compile, so the data needed to be safe and secure. The information can also be sensitive, for example, in Children’s Care NVQs. Users would demand access to their portfolio and achievement record any place, any time- at college, at home, internet café, at the workplace and from mobile phones. Any e-portfolio solution would also require an effective backup and disaster recovery strategy to ensure data integrity and eliminate the risk of lost portfolios.

The solution needed to provide high speed of access to overcome the expected resistance to change from the old paper-based approach. Finally, particularly in the local government market, it was essential that the solution did not create an additional overhead for college IT networks, eliminating the possible barrier to implementation. A web-browser based approach offered the ideal solution.

“We recognised that meeting the end users’ demand for 100% uptime would require 24/7 application and systems management, hosting, networking and security infrastructures, disaster recovery capabilities, change management policies and procedures, and much more,” says Paul Greenhalgh, Commercial Director, SkillWise.

SkillWise selected Attenda, as its IT Services partner, and worked with Attenda to implement the SaaS delivery model for VQ Manager application. The solution is a Microsoft Windows-based hosted web application, designed to international standards for web accessibility, compliance and security. The solution is configured with Microsoft SQL cluster with SAN data storage, to ensure high availability of data.

The SkillWise application was developed in-house, with a pre-production and production environment at Attenda. The production environment is a 3-tiered system for enhanced security. By managing the application from development through a pre-production environment, identical to the live environment, SkillWise can ensure that the testing environment, accurately replicates the live system, with the same security and patch management. Remote VPN access is provided to SkillWise head office, and additionally VPN access for remote developers.

Attenda was chosen for its proven capability in SaaS delivery and its impressive client base, including many ISVs who had already adopted the SaaS delivery model. It was also important to SkillWise that they could benefit from Attenda’s experience in the operational delivery of SaaS based software applications; and that Attenda could assist their business in moving across to a SaaS business model, from sales right through to support.

Attenda’s IT operations platform, Attenda M.O. provided SkillWise with the availability and performance that their customers were demanding, and at a fraction of the cost of establishing the equivalent service levels in–house. Attenda’s ISO 27001 certification also meant that the SkillWise application was not only safely hosted, but also that it remained secure.

“Attenda’s operational support service and investment in powerful monitoring and management means that we can deliver our customers an exceptional support service 24/7, and at the same time reduce the overhead on our in-house support resource.”

Attenda can also provide SkillWise with the flexibility and scalability that the business needs to readily grow the infrastructure in the future, to cater for the expected growth in numbers of clients and increased usage.

The SaaS solution has enabled SkillWise to quickly open up new markets and provide a stable, recurring revenue model to build the business strategy upon a firm foundation.

“SaaS gave us a huge advantage in the marketplace – our time to market was rapid, giving us a unique differentiator. By adopting a SaaS approach we can easily introduce the application to clients with flexible user levels, and with absolutely no reliance on internal IT hardware or resources,” comments Greenhalgh.

The simplicity of SaaS has afforded the consolidation of development and support resource around a single version of the application, significantly reducing support costs yet increasing service levels through delivery of the Attenda Service Level Agreement.

Attenda has become part of the SkillWise sales process - its operation platform, its client base, industry leading ITIL–based processes and its industry accreditations all provide SkillWise clients with the reassurance that their vital applications are in safe and secure hands.

“We view our partnership with Attenda as a long term one and will continue to develop and adapt our hosted solution to meet the needs of our business as it grows and changes in the future,“ concludes Greenhalgh.