European Enterprise Award 2020

38 EU BUSINESS NEWS / 2020 European Enterprise Awards , Best Software Applications & Service Providers 2020 – UK Calibrand the currency for talent® is an e-assessment business operating globally fromaUK base. Calibrand assesses and verifies product knowledge, measures continuing professional development, assists in credentialing and the awarding of licenses and qualifications, provides lifelong-learning, and assists in staff recruitment through its own software.We profiled the firm and caught upwith Founder and CEO, Denis Saunders to find outmore about one of the best software applications & service providers in theUK today. Nov20594 The company works with a range of organisations including Vocational Awarding Bodies, Apprenticeship End Point Assessment Awarding Organisations, Universities, Government Agencies, Financial Services companies, Corporates, and not-for-profit organisations. On 8th January 2021, Calibrand, the currency for talent® celebrated its 30th year in business. Its values remain the same, to provide straightforward software, be authoritative about its product and marketplace and be proactive in the service of its customers. Founder and CEO, Denis Saunders, set-up the business working from home, in the room being prepared as his daughter’s nursery in December 1990. Roll forward to today and he is back working from home, although he has a study to work from now. In February 2021 Calibrand was acquired by Civica, a global leader in software for public services. “Our mission is to provide our customers with e-Assessment solutions that add tangible benefits to their organisations,” explains Denis, and he continues to tell us that Calibrand achieves this through profitable and mutually beneficial relationships with all of its interested parties. “We seek to reach our mission by developing end-to-end solutions for our customers from content management to result analysis.” Calibrand the currency for talent® differentiates itself from competitors with its unique offering in providing the combination of software for assessment that includes: Calibrand test – an online assessment system; Calibrand marker – an online marking system; and Calibrand ePortfolio - a system for submission and marking of portfolios. It also provides remote invigilation services for delivering assessments that include live remote proctoring services (with human invigilators connected to candidates); auto-invigilation (record and review where the candidate is monitored automatically by the computer); and pop-up test centres with invigilators. This allows assessment to be delivered on behalf of its customers globally, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 of the year. The firm’s internal culture is very much of one where everyone is prepared to help but also to listen. “We are a tight-knit business where although having distinguished roles, every employee gets on with their jobs which means the whole business functions efficiently. Management trust their staff to produce excellent work which enables the business to function smoothly. “We look for individuals who are professionally mature and are reliable. A lot of our invigilation is outsourced to individuals we believe are adept and believe in using our technology to help make learning more accessible and universal.” Recently, with the world being struck down by the Covid-19 pandemic, Calibrand has noticed accelerated change, predominantly the move from paper and test centre-based exams to remotely invigilated online assessments. Although this trend was already emerging prior to 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic saw the closure of test centres and meant that invigilation of paper exams with people meeting up was no longer practical. Customers wanted online assessment and wanted them immediately! Growing in the lead up to 2020, with good foundations being laid as more organisations seek to utilise e-assessments, the e-assessment industry is in a good position to continue to grow and offer higher qualifications online and through remote invigilation. For the future, Calibrand has plans to continue to roll out its new remote proctoring ‘auto-invigilation’ module, which is simple, reliable, easy to use and very cost-effective, it is also enhancing all its software modules to provide html5 delivery to all customers. As well as this, Calibrand is expanding its offering to include a wider range of ‘soft skills’ and language testing that would enable candidates to grow their employability skills, and introducing an innovative way to credential language qualifications, offering employers a certainty of communication skills when hiring, something that is becoming more necessary, especially since the contraction of the economy. “This pandemic has shown the need for businesses to be able to adapt to situations and continue their services and functions sometimes in ways not known or previously used. At Calibrand we believe we have done just that, being able to function at maximum output – and then some – whilst continuing to bring in new resources from all around the globe.” Company: Calibrand the currency for talent® Contact: Denis Saunders Email: [email protected] Website: www.calibrand.com