Forging innovation
SkillsForge create innovative new products with the help of a PAPI grant
SkillsForge is a leading provider of student and researcher management and course booking systems for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) globally. Their software-as-a-service solution supports in excess of 300,000 HEI users across over 30 institutions. SkillsForge was designed to make sure postgraduate students and researchers got the right support during their time at their university and to facilitate supervisors and administrators in providing that support.
Innovation
Their solution provides for the whole life cycle of researcher management from admissions through examinations to ongoing career support and personal development. PAPI support allowed the company to build on this solution to create a new product which would enhance their customers' experience.
Part of the key functionality of SkillsForge's solution is to provide a reporting facility to clients. However, after receiving client feedback, they realised that their reporting facility required improved functionality. Clients were asking for extensive analysis and reporting, which SkillsForge's system could not do. They therefore needed to replace the facility with a leading edge Business Intelligence Solution (BIS). Integrating this with SkillsForge would produce a dramatic change to their service offering, which would greatly enhance their service for existing customers, and attract new clients to use the software.
Business growth
SkillsForge were awarded a PAPI grant of £8,508 to help purchase a unique and highly advanced BIS.
The innovative use of the BIS within SkillsForge enhanced the company’s customer value proposition, with new analysis and reporting tools. Clients can now utilise a highly flexible, highly functional business intelligence interface, which is very easy for a non-expert user to operate and analyse the extensive data generated by SkillsForge.
The purchase of the new solution delivered a new key USP for the company's solution and enabled SkillsForge to provide value-adding consultancy input to new and existing clients. The project and new solutions generated a 20% increase in revenue, an increase in clients, and also added two new jobs to the business.
SkillsForge was a young company at the time of the PAPI grant with some big aspirations. The PAPI grant enabled us to carry out a strategically-critical change to our solution with our integrated BIS now being a key USP supporting our company's growth.