While many organisations were forced to roll back back operations during the Covid -19 pandemic, others have found themselves in a busier position than usual. Kerry-based RegTech company ViClarity work with companies nationally and internationally offering bespoke, automated compliance and risk-management solutions.
“Like most other businesses we made the switch to working remotely,” says CEO Ogie Sheehy. “Thankfully Covid-19 hasn’t disrupted our working hours, and the team have been fully operational and servicing clients in what is a difficult time for many of them.
“In fact we have been able to provide extra assistance during the pandemic as with most of our clients working remotely we have been able to offer them products for managing board meetings remotely, assessing their business continuity plans and in the healthcare space, and extra audit templates to manage the Covid-19 crisis.”
The team in Kerry currently comprises 14 people, and recently merged with a US regulatory services firm PolicyWorks LLC, which sees a team of 18 based in Iowa. The company are looking to expand further in Ireland.
“We are currently recruiting for further project managers, business analysts and marketing assistants due to winning significant contracts in 2020. Our team has doubled in size over the last two years, and it has seen us open a second office space in the Tom Crean Business Centre,” says Sheehy.
In June, ViClarity announced that it was granting free access to its newly-developed Return To Work Safely Self-Assessment Tool to all Irish businesses. The tool is based on the protocol published by the Government, and allows management teams to assess and prepare their working environments so that they can adhere to all the guidelines set out in the Return To Work Safely Protocol document.
“The self-assessment tool is the latest offering we have to support Irish businesses as they return to work,” says Sheehy. “It is free to use, and at the end of the process organisations are provided with a full gap analysis report outlining any issues they have and action plans to solve those issues.”
Office space
Figuring out how best to return to work is a problem every company has had to face, including ViClarity.
“Preparing our office space for returning to work is our main challenge,” says Sheehy. “Under the current guidelines it wouldn’t be possible to get the full team in our offices at the same time. We are holding open communications with staff members to find solutions for this which include rotating days in the offices and some employees who wish to do so continuing to work from home.”
The self-assessment tool has already seen use across several sectors, according to Sheehy, and is available from ViClarity’s website.
“We have a wide variety of organisations using the tool. We’ve seen banks, insurance companies and credit unions in the financial space using the tool, and in healthcare we’ve had hospitals, nursing homes and charity organisations sign up.
“We’ve also had interest from other sectors including local councils, hotels and homelessness services. We have helped over 200 organisations with other free tools during the pandemic, and we hope that this return-to-work tool will help many an organisation to return to the working environment safely.”
