Leaders in Innovation and Digital Transformation: VerseOne Group

Founded in 2004, VerseOne Group is a multi-discipline, product-based company providing cutting-edge digital transformation solutions to the Social Housing, Healthcare, and the wider markets. It successfully blends creative and digital know-how with online and mobile technologies to connect customers and users with the business content of an organization. This derives the most commercial value from this vital business asset, providing its customers with a real competitive edge.

VerseOne’s prime focus is solutions that deliver real value and swift Return On Investment (ROI), whilst being incredibly easy to deploy and with a low and predictable cost of ownership. This approach has been validated through a loyal and growing customer base over 120 organizations, as well as a number of independent recognition and awards. These testimonies have clearly established VerseOne Group as a market leader across a number of private and public sectors, such as Social Housing, the NHS, and the broader commercial sector.

Ahead of Challenges, lies Opportunities

In this era of digital disruption, players in the technology sphere are facing increasing stress to improve time to market—and ensure their offerings are best in class. As VerseOne started out, the biggest challenge was to find and convince the early adopter companies they approached that the company had the resources and the commitment to deliver on their vision. Moreover, the company was entirely funded by the founders—a self-imposed limitation on finances that also presented real challenges.

In spite of the to-be-expected setbacks, the organisation maintained the confidence and the determination alive until the right champion customers presented themselves. The challenges have motivated the company to succeed. “If you really believe in your vision and feel it would make a significant difference to the market sector you have in mind, don’t give up and keep searching and pushing forward. With hindsight, we would’ve secured external finance earlier in the company’s life which would’ve allowed us to propel the business forward much more rapidly,” says Alan Neilson, the founder and Executive Chairman of VerseOne Group.

Excellent Work Culture

The greatest asset in any organization, in particular in the tech sector, is the people that make up the teams within the business. VerseOne recognizes that its people are the most valuable asset and, whilst trying to maintain as flat a structure as reasonable, always ensures that employees have a structured outlet for any conflicts. To bring out the best in its employees, VerseOne sets specific mutually agreed goal and objectives.

With daily and weekly stand-ups and work celebrations (as well as a regular team and company meetings), the employees have an outlet for sharing their observations. The company takes on board the ideas and suggestions given by employees—giving teams the freedom and latitude to suggest initiatives and execute on them.

Whether venting in one of their regular one-to-ones, communicating suggested improvements to managers or, in extremis, requiring support from the HR function, VerseOne employees know where they can go to for help. Additionally, all team members have a reserved “development day” every two weeks, during which they can research new techniques, gain inspiration from design trends, get together with other employees to build a prototype or proof of concept—or anything else that takes their fancy whilst pushing forward the boundaries of what the company can achieve.

The ultimate testimony to this approach is the length of service of many of its staff: even in the fast-paced technology world, the average length of service is well over 5 years—and its management team averages over a decade.

Awards and Achievements

VerseOne has been recognized three times by Red Herring as one of the top 100 Technology Companies in Europe, by CIO as one of the Global Top 20 CMS providers, and by Insights Success as one of the Top 20 Innovative Companies 2019—as well as being shortlisted for the Technology Company of the Year 2017 by the UK National Technology Awards. VerseOne has held ISO 9001 Quality Standard accreditation since 2012 and Investors in People since 2015: both are testimony to its commitment to well-defined and rigorous processes and methodologies in everything it does, and the high value placed on—and the quality of—the people working within the company.

The Success Mantra

VerseOne Group is always releasing new and improved content management and integration   functionality. It does this by looking at its chosen sectors, the technology landscape, and through working with specific “Champion Customers” to develop exciting extensions to the already functionally rich VerseOne software stack platform. Increasingly, VerseOne has embraced integration with back-office systems, enabling organizations to drive value-add self-service solutions for their customers, and a faster, more integrated experience for their employees.

In addition to participating in and presenting at a number of forums and industry-specific advisory groups, VerseOne produces white papers and thought leadership papers that are shared with its customers and the broader industry at large. VerseOne also ensures its solutions are extensible and future-proofed, developed using open standards to provide robust integration with customers’ existing business technology platforms.

In conclusion, nearly half-way through a record-breaking 2019, VerseOne is an exciting company,  deploying cutting-edge software solutions that provide its customers with real value—and which has achieved its current success through staying true to its founding vision.

Meet the Dynamic Leader

Alan Neilson, Founder: As Executive Chairman, Alan is responsible for the formulation of VerseOne’s current and long-range strategies and how to execute these to maximize the group’s success through delivering innovative and value for money solutions to the customers.

In addition to his involvement with VerseOne, Alan acts as a director, adviser, and investor for a number of other early-stage IT and technology companies. Alan was the CEO and one of the founding directors of royalblue technologies plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of royalblue group plc (now Fidessa group plc, FDSA.L). During his 15 years at royalblue, he gained experience of corporate finance, due diligence, and acquisitions as part of the company’s growth which culminated in the IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 1997.

With a BSc in Computer Studies, Alan has broad experience in the IT industry spanning a 30-year career.

"We are dedicated to providing our customers with innovative Digital Transformation solutions across multiple channels that deliver outstanding Customer Engagement and User Experiences.”