Our Values and Our Purpose Guide Us

Learnanywhere - Simple and Powerful

Running a high growth tech company comes with it’s benefits and it’s challenges. Whenever we have difficult decisions to make in our business we try and look at the issues from a customer point of view and then use our company values to guide us all the way.

Our purpose is to create jobs in the communities in which we operate and this is how I measure success. Our values are to be flexible, have fun, to contribute, to go the extra mile and to learn all the time.

Webanywhere believes in worthwhile work, people are allowed to work the way they want to (within certain guidelines) and we keep celebrating our successes as a winning team.

We hope you as a customer share some of our values and we look forward to working with you in the future. Our goals are stretching and ambitious – we love our customers and we want to grow our business – let’s keep creating lots of jobs together.

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It’s Showtime – BETT Show 2013 & Learning Technologies 2013

A very Happy New Year to you all!

We’ve had a fast start to 2013, with more new starters and some exciting developments
approaching fruition – more on that another time…

January sees Webanywhere at the two big ICT exhibitions this month. We’ll be at both BETT and Learning Technologies, at Excel London Jan 30th- Feb 2nd, and Olympia 2 London 29th-30th Jan respectively, with a bigger and better presence than ever.

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I’ll be at both shows, and am relishing the chance to chat to customers and non-customers alike. Our stands will be manned by our fantastic team of e-learning specialists and developers, so if you would like to ask us a question or see our products in action, make sure you stop by stand F280 at BETT or stand 122 at Learning Technologies. To book a meeting in advance, click here for BETT and here for Learning Technologies.

I recently had the pleasure of another trip down to Google UK headquarters. As a Google
Enterprise partner, and Google Apps for Education reseller we really value our relationship (and internally Webanywhere’s use of Google Apps for Business allows us to communicate and collaborate in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise).

Sean at Google

I am delighted to announce that Webanywhere and Google will be conducting a joint
seminar at Learning Technologies – Stretch your organisation further with Google Apps for Enterprise, examining amongst other things the integration of this powerful suite of cloud based tools with Totara LMS.

We hope you can make it to at least one of the shows, and that they provide you with new ideas and inspiration for the coming year.

Merry Christmas from Webanywhere

I would like to wish all our customers and partners past, present and future a very Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous New Year.

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I would also like to thank the brilliant Webanywhere team for their many and varied contributions to (another) record year. Our office Christmas Party is this afternoon (and most likely long into the evening…) and is set to be a cracker!

Look out for some exciting new developments from Webanywhere in the New Year, but for now however you are spending the festive period, have a great time.

Silicon Valley Comes to the UK

I was delighted to receive an invite to attend SVC2UK 2012 – Silicon Valley Comes to the UK 2012– and last week travelled to Cambridge to take part in this annual meet up of UK business leaders, Cambridge University students and the cream of Silicon Valley.

The event brings together digital entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and the brightest students of Cambridge University to debate, discuss, create and fund the technology of tomorrow.

As the sector under the spotlight this year was Education Technology, the event was of particular value to me. My main focus was the ‘Scale Up’ theme of the event – examining how to transition growing tech companies into internationally operating concerns with turnovers in the hundreds of millions.

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Webanywhere are certainly ‘scaling up’ as we broaden our horizons internationally, and so I was invited to join the CEO workshop event comprising of leaders of companies on track for rapid growth, who are looking to accelerate that growth.

I was inspired to speak with some of those who have been there and done it on the grandest scale, including Megan Smith, VP, Google [x], Rahul Vohra, Founder and CEO of Rapportive and Angela Lin, Head of YouTube Education. As you may imagine, I came away with plenty of food for thought. Something that struck a chord with me was that the best companies empower their staff to act like the CEO – to own their issues, to take control of their projects and to be proactive. If you have talented people, provide the space to be creative and you will be richly rewarded.

I also got chance to sit in on a very lively debate: The Future of Learning – What will students’ lives look like in 10 years time?, covering topics such as the flipped classroom, learning platforms and social and mobile learning.

The main thought left stuck in my head when leaving Cambridge was the need to stay dissatisfied. There are always opportunities to improve your offering, there is always a new challenge to stretch your ability, and always another horizon to aim for.

Learner Journey – Map a lifetime of learning

Learner Journey – Choose your Path from Webanywhere on Vimeo.

I would like to signpost our recent launch of Learner Journey, an online e-portfolio and safe social network used by schools to create a digital map of personal learning journeys, preserving each milestone and landmark along the way.

Using Learner Journey:..

Pupils can

  • create a personal document of their time in school, packed with multimedia content
  • share achievements with peers and the wider community
  • communicate and collaborate with fellow pupils in a secure online environment

Teachers can

  • assess and provide feedback on student work online, anytime, anywhere
  • store work and resources online – never lose work again
  • help meet Ofsted guidelines on e-safety

The product has been designed with e-safety in mind. The explosion in social networking, and reduced parental and teacher oversight of online activity poses new challenges for educators. Learner Journey provides a safe, positive introduction to online interaction and expression for younger pupils, and can form the central pillar of e-safety teaching and initiatives in schools.

We are very excited about Learner Journey here at Webanywhere, and I hope you check it out – it can become a really powerful learning tool, as well as a fun way for pupils to communicate.

MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival

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Last week I paid a visit to a fantastic event in Sheffield, the MADE Entrepreneur Festival.

I am always seeking to improve the way we do business, the way we manage and inspire colleagues, and love nothing more than exchanging ideas with other entrepreneurs. As you may imagine, this meant I enjoyed the event immensely!

MADE brought together business owners, inventors, designers and investors at a variety of venues across Sheffield for the free exchange of ideas and opinions. Speakers this year included The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Dr Vince Cable MP, Peter Jones and many, many more.

So what did I learn?

  • Delegreat
    Delegate to great people and you will not go far wrong. We have built an incredible team here at Webanywhere, and as we continue to grow at a rapid pace there are more and more projects for staff to really take ownership of. There is certainly the opportunity for people to shine here!
  • Over deliver
    Our motto at Webanywhere is ‘Stretch Beyond’, and that is what we do, every single day. We work longer, we work harder, and we care a great deal about what we are doing, where we are going, and what we deliver to our customers.

MADEreinforced thatto be great is not some unattainable quality that a chosen few are born with. By always seeking to over deliver, you make yourself great. When facing a new project or task, do it with that little bit extra, be creative, add a bit more value and go the extra mile. This is what makes someone great day to day, and when multiplied across the organisation adds up to something special, something great.

Roll on next year!