UK IT Industry Awards Finalist

Information technology is a vital part of modern businesses today, helping all corporate sectors to achieve goals, generate revenue, and reduce inefficiencies.

The UK IT Industry Awards are the largest and most well-known event in the technology industry calendar. Security Watchdog was one of the UK IT Industry Awards finalists in the running for the Best Security, Defence or Law Enforcement IT Project of the Year. We worked in partnership with a software engineering company, to complete a 3-year digital screening project to develop a world class, highly secure screening platform - VOLTi4. VOLTi4 – is a responsive and accurate employment screening system that helps in digitally transforming the user experience and raising the screening industry bar for system excellence in security and experience. 

Below is an interview with Paul Goddard, IT Director at Security Watchdog.

A passionate advocate of cloud computing and microservice architectures. He began as a web developer, then began to specialise in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and later Dynamics 365.

After five years of working in IT solution architecture, Paul took up his current role in 2018, tasked with modernising the technology used to delivery Security Watchdog's screening services. With the release of their new industry leading VOLTi4 screening platform, Security Watchdog continues to be a key player in the pre-employment screening industry.

Please provide a background on Security Watchdog

Paul Goddard: Founded in 1998, Security Watchdog has been at the forefront of the background pre-employment screening industry for 24 years, providing thought leadership for the international criminal records check guide issued by gov.uk. We support over 30,000 clients both locally and globally and have access to over 32,000 worldwide sources in up to 28 languages - including 450 continuously updated newswires and multiple governmental entities, such as HM Treasury and the US Department of State. As trailblazers and thought leaders, we continue to innovate, heavily investing in our new VOLTi4 platform, releasing new features and functions regularly, driving continual improvements for both candidates and HR professionals alike.

How is your company different from its peers?

At Security Watchdog, we understand that speed, candidate engagement, and accuracy are essential ingredients in a successful and seamless hiring process. Our mobile-friendly clearance solution is submitted by 64% of candidates using their mobile device, taking an average of 6 minutes 15 seconds to complete; with basic checks, such as identification, right to work, and criminal records turned around in an average of 19 hours. Our dashboards capture a candidate who is dragging their feet, alerting recruiters to delays and potential dropouts, enabling a proactive outreach, making all the difference to a successful hire.

What one company achievement in the last 12 months are you most proud of?

The release of our new Volti4 system; it has been two years' worth of research, design, build and testing. Of that, the trialling with pilot users and the constant user feedback loop into the agile development process has helped ensure the product is market leading in the pre-employment screening industry. I am super proud of our teams involved, both those in the UK and Ukraine - particularly working through the unique challenges posed by the Russian invasion, and the way the development teams worked so hard to ensure their team members and families were in places of safety first; and then, where possible, continuing to work to ensure tight deadlines remained on track. We are delighted that some of our Ukrainian colleagues are able to join us at the UK IT Awards ceremony.

What are you working on this year?

With the rollout of our Volti4 screening platform completed, we are busy planning and designing a new public facing API to allow our clients and suppliers to integrate our platform with their own technology where appropriate.

Why are events like the UK IT Industry Awards important to the IT industry?

Industry recognition and a platform to share and discuss industry leading work is critical to the IT Industry. Unlike many other industries, I have often seen excellent IT work being carried out in the shadows, and not receiving the high-profile recognition it deserves. As IT leaders, we need to continue to do more to recognise and celebrate excellence. The annual UK IT Awards is an excellent example of this. The recognition of work, particularly for the grass roots of our industry, for those in back office technical roles who are pioneering in their fields, it means more than can be put into words to receive recognitions such as this and inspires the teams around them.