CodeClan Industry Partner Inoapps specialises in delivering ERP solutions to large public and private sector customers using Oracle Cloud applications and technologies. Since 2016 they’ve been working with us to grow their product development team in their Linlithgow based “Centre of Excellence” – so far, they have hired more than 15 of our graduates.
We spoke to Dermot Murray, VP of Ideation, about what they do and why they’re growing their team of CodeClan graduates.
Tell us about Inoapps
Inoapps is an IT services company specialising in the delivery of enterprise ERP solutions for all the important processes that make large organisations work, including finance, supply chain, HCM, payroll and projects – they are the solutions we deliver to our customers.
Inoapps provides a full implementation lifecycle for those solutions, making them work for our customers and the way their organisation operates. We have also built a suite of industry-focused products to extend and augment those solutions, meaning that we can offer differentiated, targeted vertical solutions for our key markets. For those industry solutions we have a global product development team responsible for every phase of the software development lifecycle; a team that now includes many of our successful CodeClan graduates.
Why have you hired from CodeClan?
Inoapps has been working with CodeClan since 2016, with our first recruits coming from Edinburgh Cohort 3. We previously had a long and successful graduate recruitment programme, sourcing recruits straight from many of the top universities in Scotland, through recruitment fairs and interview days.
However, over time, we found that these conventional channels were drying up and we were no longer getting the quality of candidates that we needed to support our growth. We had tried various agencies and apprenticeship schemes, but none of them really worked.
When CodeClan launched, we had an initial trial with a couple of candidates and it was successful almost immediately. We were able to hire some excellent team members who quickly embarked on a successful career with Inoapps. As we grow, the ability for us to feed that talent pool with high quality individuals is critical.
The relationship we started with CodeClan allowed us to build a long term pipeline of high quality candidates with a broad range of backgrounds, skills and experiences. What makes CodeClan graduates very compelling for us is the range of transferable skills we benefit from, along with the passion and aptitude to learn new technologies and ways of working.
You put a lot of energy and time into onboarding and training CodeClan graduates in the technologies and systems you use. Could you tell us about that?
One of the things that we learned early on with our initial recruits was the importance of having a structured training programme.
We recognise that these individuals have come from a structured learning framework at CodeClan. We had lots of content, we had lots of good knowledge, but we didn’t really have a structured framework in place.
We made a significant investment in building an initial three-month training programme to support and mentor the students, as well as developing an ongoing review and monitoring process with regular checkpoints and feedback. There is then a continuing programme of learning for the next 18 months, which enables the graduates to develop into true subject matter experts.
We also get people involved in real world activities as soon as possible. The best way to learn is to get stuck in.
What’s your advice for someone growing a tech team?
I think CodeClan partners have to recognise that the talent taken on through CodeClan is a very valuable resource. There is a significant cost to us as an organisation that we invest into those individuals. If you don’t recognise and value that talent, then you will lose it. The Scottish technology market is booming, and those high quality individuals with some useful skills behind them are very employable.
My recommendation to other CodeClan partners is to put a structured training framework in place and to make sure you have a support network around hired CodeClan graduates. The value and the return from making that investment far outweighs any cost involved.
Our main challenge in supporting the growth and expansion that we want to see within the organisation is finding the right people. CodeClan is our single biggest opportunity to grow our talent base with some highly skilled individuals.
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