SkillsForge is a leading provider of student and researcher management and course booking systems for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Their software-as-a-service solution supports in excess of 300,000 HEI users in more than 30 institutions globally.

SkillsForge was designed to ensure postgraduate students and researchers got the right support during their time at their university, and to facilitate supervisors and administrators in providing that support. 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 SkillsForge to create a new product which would enhance their customers' experience.

Innovation

Part of the key functionality of SkillsForge's solution is to provide a reporting facility to clients, and they aspired to a higher degree of functionality in this area. Clients sought more extensive analysis and reporting, which SkillsForge's system could not deliver. They therefore needed to replace the facility with a leading edge Business Intelligence Solution (BIS). Integrating this would produce a dramatic change to their service offering, greatly enhancing their service for existing customers, and attracting new clients to use the software.

SkillsForge was awarded a PAPI grant of £8,508 to help purchase a unique and highly advanced BIS.

Business growth

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.

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, skilled jobs to the business.