Software Focus - Issue 177
April 21, 2005

The education of software staff has not kept pace with the advances in tools and technologies and the industry needs to take a completely different approach. This is the philosophy behind InnerWorkings, which was formed in late 2002 to create new methodologies. The company’s development group in central Dublin has designed a new type of training and assessment product for distributed teams of software developers who work on Microsoft’s .Net platform. Large enterprises in North America are the first customers to implement it.

The InnerWorkings Developer product offers practice sets that present learning challenges to developers who use Microsoft Visual Studio and write applications in C# or VB.Net. It provides them with guidance on best practices, access to technical support and context-sensitive links to trusted reference material. It also incorporates Inferent, a rules-based code judging engine that analyses their code and offers real-time corrective feedback. ‘The benefits of InnerWorkings’ solutions are carefully aligned with the needs of all primary stakeholders in the software development function, including development managers, training managers, HR professionals, senior executives and individual developers,’ director of product marketing Brian Finnerty explains.

According to chief executive officer Francis McKeagney, the company has positioned itself as a product developer rather than a service provider. Its customers obtain product licences by purchasing ‘keys’ that activate the learning challenges. He foresees opportunities to customise InnerWorkings Developer, but has not decided whether the company itself will carry out this work or should refer it to partners.

InnerWorkings cites Wells Fargo in the US as its primary reference customer. More than two dozen other companies participated in an early adopter programme for InnerWorkings Developer.

Commercial sales have followed, but so far these have all been in North America. The company plans to start direct selling to large organisations in Europe - probably within the next year. Francis McKeagney says that developers in small firms can also benefit from InnerWorkings’ methods. The company is just beginning to consider a business model that can cater for this population and he thinks that some form of e- commerce might be appropriate. ‘We absolutely intend to reach out and sell to small companies and individual developers,’ he asserts.

InnerWorkings announced a USD 8.8 million financing package from Benchmark Capital Europe and MDV earlier this week. It will use these funds to accelerate its development plans and to step up direct sales in the US. The company was set up by a management team that previously worked together at CBT Group - the e- learning pioneer later known as SmartForce. Microsoft has accredited it as a ‘gold certified’ partner and as a member of its Visual Studio industry partner programme. InnerWorkings carries out all of its research and development in Dublin, while its corporate headquarters in Pleasanton, California handles sales, marketing and client services.

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