The holidays are back with a vengeance and it’s time once again to spread tinsel as well as good cheer around the office. But what can you give to the busy person on-the go that you haven’t already given year after year? How can you wow your office mates or the big boss without breaking the bank? Well, here are some cool and innovative gift ideas that you may not have thought of.

Electronic Gifts
Smartpens are remarkable little devices that not only transmit everything you write from your notepad directly to your computer or hand-held device but also simultaneously record the audio in the room around you. They’re compact, easy to hold and maneuver and are available for around a hundred bucks.

Smartpens could be especially convenient for busy students or for those taking important notes out in the field or at an important meeting. They can even be used to draw or doodle if the user wants to express themselves in a more creative fashion.

Smartpens look like many traditional pens but are vastly different in that they have a tiny infrared camera right under the pen point that takes moving pictures of what you’re writing. That information is then wirelessly transferred to your computer or other device for later use.

The secret behind the functionality of Smartpens though is the use of special paper and the Dot Positioning System. This system consists of very unusual paper which is covered in a series of, well you guessed it, dots.

Although virtually invisible to the naked eye, the dots are organized in such a fashion that as the pen moves over them it recognizes its exact position and recalls the information recorded there, either audibly or in an LED display on the surface of the pen.

The paper also includes printed navigational buttons, similar to those found on a tape recorder that include the options to record, jump to another point or bookmark specific points in your work for later use. Smartpens even have the capability to translate your work into different languages making this the perfect gift for just about anybody on your shopping list.

Artsy Gifts
Would you say your boss is a…character? Are your office partners unique or even perhaps quirky, in some way? Well here’s a gift that will tell them exactly what you think about them, but in a fun way.

Caricatures are brilliant works of art created from personal photos that capture the likeness of any person or persons, but with a comical slant. So the boss with a passion for golf may be depicted as slicing the ball into the woods with a surprised look and uttering the expression “fore!”, or the manager with a taste for outdoor activities could be pictured fly fishing and uttering the familiar “a bad day fly fishing is better than a good day in the office.” Or even just a picture of the person smiling while working at their desk or on the phone would work nicely. These are simple examples of how the art could be devised but how your quarry is captured and represented is purely up to you.

Caricatures are highly personalized gifts that show a genuine liking and interest in your colleague’s character. Because of this it is of the utmost importance that you select the appropriate photograph from which the art will be created so that the desired traits are highlighted in the art. But be careful! A gift of this nature could be construed as overly critical or inappropriate so when working with the artist make sure and highlight desirable and humorous traits so you’ll still have a job in the new year.

Caricatures are available through various on-line and local sources and can be created starting at around $100, depending on the type of matting and frame you choose for your work of art.

Relaxing Gifts
Since the arrival of the chair over 4500 years ago human beings have been striving to improve it by making it more comfortable, supportive and beautiful. Years of research and development and countless hours of sitting have led us to great advances in seating technology and chairs that rival or perhaps even exceed the thrones of the mighty pharaohs themselves.

Although massage chairs carry a lofty price tag (beginning at around $150 and extending into the thousands) they are undoubtedly an amazing and generous gift for the executive in your life.

Some lower-end models offer multi-speed massaging with lumbar support and sensors that recharge the batteries when the chair isn’t in use, while others include features like heated surfaces and remote controls. The upper level chairs, found in the $2000- 3000 range are nothing short of spectacular. Many of these include infrared heat which penetrates deeply into the muscle tissues, and air bladders that inflate and deflate gently massaging your back and legs. Further attributes include foot and calf massage, stretching mechanisms that decompress the spine, a variety of massage programs and even a zero gravity feature that puts you into a virtually weightless position.

Although most of us need to work to survive who says we can’t work in comfort and style?

Winston Churchill said, “why stand when you can sit”.

Obviously, you’ll need deep pockets to spring for the more expensive chairs but wouldn’t it look nice under the tree? And perhaps if you play your cards right, you’ll be able to slip into that cozy chair yourself for a little relaxation time when no one is looking.

Last month’s Tech Talk introduced the first five of Scott Berkun’s 10 Myths of Innovation. In his recent book, “The Myths of Innovation” Scott deliberately sets out to break the mythical ways in which we may think about innovation, so that we can be ‘free to try and change the world.’ What follows are myths six through 10.

Myth #6 – Good ideas are hard to find. It is universally accepted by psychologists and creativity researchers that humans are built for creative thinking. “The difference between creatives and others is more attitude and experience than nature.” This is a point that we emphasize in our Idea to Implementation Workshop at the Centre for Research & Innovation. One of the quickest ways to restore our creative nature in the workplace is to stop the misuse of brainstorming by eliminating the judgment of ideas and all negativity around an idea’s value. Start by simply generating ideas without filtering or denigrating them. Idea-generation processes like brainstorming should be fun.

Myth #7 – Your boss knows more about innovation than you. Why would she? The manager is charged with producing an outcome (product or service) probably with directions to do that efficiently.

In fact, the need for improved productivity is a common story within business pages and is a focus of the AB Government’s efforts related to productivity. But innovation often runs counter to productivity and thus needs to be managed. Berkun suggests five challenges to managing innovation. First – life of ideas: someone must be responsible for the idea. Secondly – environment: someone must create an environment the will “put innovation at the centre”. Thirdly – protection: as Berkun sees it, it is the manager’s unique responsibility to protect the new idea while it develops. The fourth is execution – all steps (i.e. concept, prototypes, production models, market ready product) are necessary. Finally, innovations require funding and leadership to get it there, that is, persuasion.

Myth #8 – The best ideas win. Simply not true. Ask any Apple user; and remember what happened to Beta video tapes. What about Imperial measurement and the Metric system? Need more be said about the QWERTY keyboard and how stuck we are in its use when a number of more efficient key arrangements have been developed? Just because you have a ‘best idea’ don’t expect acceptance.

Myth #9 – Problems and solutions. Burken suggests that problems should be seen as an invitation to look beyond the obvious. While that may seem unnecessary for everyday problems, it may lead to solutions that have greater use than first imagined. “Framing problems to help solve them” usually means time and effort well spent.

Myth #10 – Innovation is always good. Is an innovation good if it solves your problems [and those of your customers] or makes you money? Definitely. But what if it also causes people to lose their jobs? . . . The impact of innovations can be unpredictable (DDT, the Internet). Sometimes their impact is sudden, while for others it takes years. Occasionally, the ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ prevails.

There they are – The Myths of Innovation.

Not only is his book a good read, but it is full of practical tips on how to be an innovator or an innovative company. The journey begins with the decision.

Dr. Bruce Rutley is the Director of the Centre for Research & Innovation at Grande Prairie Regional College.

Innovation continues to be an important part of the way we need to conduct business. All too often however, we think of innovation as being new technology or technology commercialization – developing that new product and getting it into the marketplace.
Innovation is also different from invention. Relatively speaking, new inventions are few and far between while innovation – the combination of existing ideas or things for new purposes – is more common.
Scott Berkun, in his recent book “The Myths of Innovation” describes what he calls the ten myths of innovation. What follows are the first five myths, and my commentary on each.
Myth #1 – The myth of epiphany.  Quite simply, while the ‘eureka’ moment is what many innovators seek, it is most often only the moment when the last piece of the puzzle was put in place. Or maybe it was the original inspiration. But rarely does the finished product appear in that moment. It is only after much hard work that the innovation is complete.
Myth #2 – We understand the history of innovation.  The presence of a dominant new technology is often just the latest step in the development of many versions of that technology.  For instance, the domination of VHS over Beta only to be rendered obsolete by CDs which was then replaced by MP3s and so forth. It is easy to be clueless about what came before – just ask a teenager about dial telephone. You know what they say about cultures that don’t know their history.
Myth #3 – There is a method for innovation.  Essentially what Berkun says is that innovation starts by starting – it doesn’t really matter where. There isn’t a method as much as “there are patterns and frameworks that can be useful”. Work hard in a specific direction and or hard work with direction change is normal. Many innovations begin with curiosity, driven by the quest for wealth or money, or out of necessity.  “While there are no maps, there are attitudes that help.”  So, find the paths of innovation that work for you and get help with the others.
Myth #4 – People love new ideas.  “Every great idea in history has the big, red stamp of rejection on its face.”  So … perseverance is a necessity, but remember, becoming delusional about your idea can be catastrophic to your financial position. Managing your fears, excitement and doubt is imperative while you develop your product. While you may love your new idea expecting that there will be many roadblocks, setbacks and disappointments when you start will enable you to manage those setbacks more realistically.  “Frustration + innovation = entrepreneurship.”
Myth #5 – The lone inventor.  “Who invented the light bulb? No, it wasn’t Thomas Edison. Two lesser-known inventor, Humphrey Davy and Joseph Swan both developed working electric lights well before Edison.” Don’t think you can do it alone, because you can’t.  Managing your help is the secret to success.
Next month, the remaining five myths of innovation as described by Scott Berkun.
Dr. Bruce Rutley is the Director of the Centre for Research & Innovation at Grande Prairie Regional College.

A Heat Trace System That’s Greening Things Up.
In the North, heat is a commodity valued by both residents and industry. While it is easy enough to heat a home, there are locations where heat is needed but not as readily available and providing it comes at a cost to the bottom line as well as the environment.

Cataflow Technologies has a solution. Seven years of development have produced a technology that converts energy from its gas form to heated glycol and electricity. And while there are many potential applications ranging from in-floor heating to RVs, the company is currently focusing on industrial users that need heat for flow lines, pipe lines, well heads, BOP’s, separators, tanks (including production, propane and pop tanks), tank farm manifolds, buildings, battery banks and walkways.
“The biggest thing about the technology is that we’re utilizing a flameless heater and what we’re doing is we’re harvesting the heat out of there and converting it over to a more friendly type of medium,” said Cataflow business manager Delbert Benterud.
“The other interesting thing we’re doing is we’re generating electricity as well so it’s completely self-powering. All that you need in order to utilize this is either natural gas or propane.”
And in smaller quantities than other products, he added. It’s efficiency allows the larger unit burns six litres of propane a day and the smaller one burns three.
One of the biggest advantages in the age of lower emissions and environmental accountability is that “pretty much everything” is burned off. Testing showed close to zero emissions on Cataflow’s equipment. There is an extremely small amount of methane unburned.
“You can run this inside your building safely without it being vented to the outside,” said Benterud.
“When you look at the CO2 emissions of what they’re doing out there in order to achieve the heat trace that they have right now they will vent atmosphere, on average, 2-million cubes a year, which is about 750 tonnes of CO2 emissions, which translates in carbon tax form to $15/tonne.”
The possible savings can amount to $10,000/year – and that doesn’t account for the long -term environmental costs.
Inside the stand-alone heater box, glycol from a reservoir is moved through the proprietary heat exchangers while at the same time, electricity is being generated which powers an electric pump that moves the glycol. The only moving part on the equipment is the DC motor and the flow is even, without high pressure.
At present, models are being built with the focus on heating but in the future, said Benterud, models will be built that produce excess power of 40 and 60 watts initially. When that happens, workers could tie their instruments into that instead of having to have a generator to create the needed power. They newer models are about a year away from being released, said Benterud.
Some units have already been in the field for two years and some have been located in “problem sites” and Benterud said, they have performed “very well”.
“We’re now at the point of CSA approval…and we’re ready to move into production and we’re ramping up to do that now,” said Benterud.
Into the future, the technology could be applied to home heating, commercial heating, RVs and campers.  The possibility for those applications is promising, particularly the capacity to generate surplus energy to power batteries and other devises.
The company has also been invited to participate in a McMaster University high efficiency home project over the next two years.
“We need to explore that a bit more…as of yet we don’t know everything that will be involved in that but it’s very exciting,” said Benterud.
“I believe it is the way of the future. It’s just a matter of getting things properly sized for the applications.”

Cataflow Technologies is a Grande Prairie company. They can be reached at 780-532-7070 or through their website at www.cataflowtech.com

When it comes to security, what could be better than real time images of what’s going on and who might be lurking where they shouldn’t be?

Several years ago when pipelines were being bombed, one enterprising small business set about to provide stealthy security that would capture images in real time.
“There’s a lot of challenges with that,” said Eagle Vision partner Cole Busche. “There’s a lot of locations over a lot of country so how do you remotely get an image of somebody doing something wrong?”
The development wasn’t always easy but good research, persistence and dedication have paid off and innovation gave birth to T.R.U. Security and the Talon Reconnaissance Unit.
Since that time they have been successful in developing a product that does just what that want and have recently taken that a step further to create a ‘lite’ version that can be used by homeowners, businesses, property owners – well the list goes on.
One of the motivations, said Busche, is that he was angry that someone making the point that they are unhappy with what an oil company is doing but endangering the public through the means they chose. The problem was personal and so was the solution.
“My partner Ben Haab, he was really keen on it and he did a lot of research and we knew we could do it, we just had to get the right components together and build something,” said Busche.
It had to be low power consumption so it could work anywhere and didn’t need to be on a plant site where there is power. It had to be stealthy and blend in to the environment. It had to be able to see at night. It had to be motion sensitive. It had to remotely provide real-time high-resolution images.
The solar panel that powers the full version was designed so that it would run on the shortest day of the year in overcast skies with enough power to do the job and in fact, Busche is confident that it would run for a month without any sun.
“With some advice from a pipeline security company we built it and we nailed it in my opinion,” said Busche. In part, that was possible because of the skills of main technician Ben Knutson.
Testing in real world applications was very successful, said Busche. “We spent the first month tweaking and then the rest of the time it just ran.”
The original product won the Northern Business and Technology Awards – Technology of the Year Award in January.
“That really got us a huge amount of exposure,” said Busche.
The system senses motion, takes a still picture which is sent directly to a cell phone and a website making images accessible as events happen. Each customer has their own secure access to the website. Customers know immediately if someone is on their location and can respond appropriately but have the option to set the system to send images only during hours of choice.
Initially they were gathering the components and building the systems themselves – a very expensive venture.
They are now able to have the systems factory built and have just completed testing the lite version, which is working well.
“This lite version is really far less cost and it will be targeted at businesses or homeowners…or people who have a remote cabin,” said Busche.
The caveat is that the lite version only works on the Rogers network and so needs to be located in an area where the reception is strong. Those wanting the more robust version can still get that.
“What makes the other version more expensive is that we have a large solar panel, a good large battery pack and a stand and it’s disguised as a key piece of oilfield equipment,” said Busche.
Development of the Talon Reconnaissance Unit, like many other new products was expensive and challenging but it also afforded Busche and his partners a chance to work with new technology in a way that had never been used before, something Busche found interesting and stimulating.
“We’re at a real exciting time and could have these things out in a really short time,” said Busche. He believes it is the ultimate in remote security with a broad base of potential applications. And it is one of the great examples of what a small business can do when they have the determination and skills to take on a challenge.

There are rules and regs and common sense and protocols and any number of other factors that go into safety, but arguably one of the most important is the ability to be proactive. It’s that ability that spurred Randy Hansen into action. Instead of accepting that fall protection was the best practice for him, he designed a piece of equipment that theoretically will take ‘fall protection’ to ‘fall prevention’.
“We’re in the fuel hauling business for Weibe Transport – I’m the shop supervisor and of course fall protection is mandated by OH&S,” said Hansen. “Rather than the traditional approach to fall protection which means everybody tries to catch you after you fall, I found that to be a rather silly way to look at fall protection, I set out to devise a way to prevent the fall rather than catch you after you fall.”
The result was the RAP (Retractable Access Platform). It’s, simply put, a retractable fence mounted on a scissor lift that is deployed to prevent falls. It’s not complicated and Hansen says that in comparison to the more traditional approach of brining in an engineer to deal with anchor poles and cables, his approach has cost benefits and efficiencies the engineered approach does not.
“Typically, a scissor lift is within it’s own right a platform. You can work over the side so you reach over the railing from the scissor lift and do work. In our business, because we work on hatches on top of tanks, sensors that type of thing, we are actually standing on top of our work surface so what we needed was something that creates the corral around us and is not in fact a platform under us.
“Essentially, you pull the scissor lift up beside the tank, a walkway or platform folds down and it rests on the tank. Now that gives you access out onto the tank, and then a railing system unfolds and that extends out over the tank area,” said Hansen.
A very standard scissor lift with a 30-inch width was chosen so that it was maneuverable in the confines it was likely to be needed in. Other things like this exist, said Hansen, but they are three-wheel extendable ladders, with a fixed platform.
“The problem with that is that it takes another bay,” said Hansen. The RAP allows someone to work in the space a mechanic would pull his toolbox into.
It’s a completely simple and completely different approach that yields a multifunction piece of equipment that, of which one component is or should be a standard piece of equipment, he explained.
After dreaming about the initial idea, Hansen went to his employer who gave his blessing to proceed. Hansen had a welder work up what turned out to be a very successful prototype.
“We went ahead and build two more,” said Hansen. There were then three Weibe shops, each with its own RAP. Safety officers investigated the prototypes said Hansen who reports it was given a safety approval.
An engineer was also brought in to check the RAP out with similar positive results. The engineer, said Hansen, said he could engineer the RAP at which point the apparatus was validated.
The process from idea to manufacture isn’t always as simple as the idea and in this case, Hansen said he found it helpful to have an educated organization on his side when it came to developing his idea, particularly in terms of getting a patent.
At this stage, the RAP has been engineered and is patent pending and Hansen hopes others will see this in the same way he does – as a fully functioning safety innovation.
“We’re prepared now to release a circular on it, of course, presentation is a big part of any game and we want to do that right,” said Hansen.

The experts say that to have continued success in business you need to nurture innovation by building a culture that is open to new ideas. Every business needs a Don Quixote who is prepared to dream the impossible dream. But if innovators are dreamers, are they also problem solvers?
If we agree that the most effective innovators don’t wait for problems to arise but rather fix what isn’t broken and seek to improve on things that have no apparent deficit, then Alberta Einstein was correct when he said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.
When we choose to explore rather than apply, these are the behaviours and choices that drive innovation. It would also be true then that business is about solving problems. Getting an education and developing professional expertise is therefore about learning how to solve problems.
So if you have a job, it means you solve some problem that business would have if you weren’t there. The ability to solve problems is certainly a high-value skill, and the more difficult the problems you can solve the more value you provide.
But innovation is about much more. Innovation is about providing products and services and capabilities people don’t even realize they lack. Think about the automobile, the airplane, the light bulb, the personal computer, the internet, the mobile phone, WiFi, Post-It Notes, ATM’s and i-Pads. None of these products addressed any widely recognized problem.
Rather than being solutions, these innovations are things that have enhanced our lives, enhancements so dramatic that we would now consider it a problem to be without them. Few of us would want to try to live without computers and cell phones and cars, but until someone dreamed them up and figured out how to make them real, we didn’t miss them.
Innovators do need to solve problems in order to create these breakthroughs. But if they waited for some problem to be recognized before pursuing their ideas, they might still be waiting. Henry Ford famously said that if he’d asked consumers what they wanted (i.e. what problem needed solving) they would have told him a faster horse.
Exactly what problem did Facebook solve? Yet look at its value today. Innovators are those who don’t have time to wait for problems to arise. They’re the dreamers who as George Bernard Shaw put it, “do not see things as they are, “…and say ‘Why?’ but…dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’”.
Problem solving is essential to innovation, just as it is to business. But if your approach to innovation is to first identify problems, and you’re dismissing ideas that don’t meet that limited criterion, innovation will be slow at best. You need to imagine possibilities beyond those tight parameters or you’ll soon find that you’re falling far behind those who do.
For more information on this article, or to contact The Centre for Research & Innovation call (780) 539-2807, toll free at 1-877-539-2808, email info@TheCRI.ca or visit our website at www.TheCRI.ca .

With ‘innovation’ becoming the buzzword of the millennium, many businesses are attempting to establish a ‘culture of innovation’ within their organizations. The challenge with this idea is taking the steps to turn theory into action; to water the root of the tree, not just the branches.
The key is to remember that organizations do not innovate; people innovate – inspired people, fascinated people, creative people, committed people. Therefore, innovation is always from the inside out.
The organization’s role is to get out of the way. And while this ‘getting out of the way’ will probably include formulating supportive systems, processes, and protocols, it is important to remember that they are the context not the content. What’s needed in organizations that aspire to a culture of innovation is an inner change.
People need to experience something within themselves that will spark and sustain their effort to innovate – and when they experience this ‘something’, they will be self-sustaining. People will innovate not because they are told to, but because they want to. When people are inspired; share a common, compelling goal; and have the time and space to collaborate, the results become self-organizing. General George Patton said it best: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
Creativity however is often a numbers game. Einstein had plenty of bogus theories. Mozart wrote some crap. But they continued being prolific. And it was precisely this self-generating spirit of creation, which enabled them to access the good stuff. An innovative organization needs to be a place where everyone is encouraged and empowered to think creatively.
It also needs to be fun! Unfortunately, the sound of laughter in the workplace is often interpreted as proof of a slacker workforce, as if laughing and working were mutually exclusive. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think,” explained Clarence Darrow. HAHA and AHA are two sides of the same coin. The same thing that triggers laughter triggers insight. It’s all about a momentary shock to the system: the unexpected, a surprise, and delightful discontinuity. When that happens, when we are momentarily boggled by an input that does not fit with our logical expectations, VOILA! Breakthrough! A good time!
So you want to establish a ‘culture of innovation’ in your organization do ya? Well, words are cheap. It’s easy to wax poetic about culture change, it’s quite another thing to make it happen. Still, the effort is worth it.
Your employees are more than hired hands; they are hired minds and hearts as well. Start by listening and honouring their ideas no matter how many or how bizarre they may seem a first blush – you never know when you will find the priceless one. Bottom line?  The time it takes you to listen to the ideas of others is not only worth it – the success of your enterprise may depend on it.
For more information on this article, or to contact The Centre for Research & Innovation call (780) 539-2807, toll free at 1-877-539-2808, email info@TheCRI.ca or visit our website at www.TheCRI.ca .

When you look at them from the outside, inventors and entrepreneurs can look very similar. According to Wikipedia, they are both “creative, pioneering and driven to solve problems.” However, that is where the similarities end.
An inventor develops or discovers a new product or service that never existed before.  He or she may or may not bring it to market. An entrepreneur, on the other hand, takes the risk to bring a product to market with the goal of making a profit. It is not necessary for an inventor to be an entrepreneur. Similarly an entrepreneur may or may not be an inventor.
It’s easy to understand why many inventors feel that once the patent is filed, their product design is complete, and their invention goes into production they’re almost home free in terms of getting their product to market. After all, it’s taken a lot of time and effort to reach this point.
In reality, the final element – sales – still weighs heavily on the invention’s success and shouldn’t be underestimated. To be successful, inventors have to look at their inventions as marketable products. In addition, due to their personalities, inventors often do not have the appropriate skills or even the desire to turn novel ideas into self-sustaining enterprises.
Enter the entrepreneur, who acknowledges the great idea and then allows his creative instincts to take advantage of the opportunity.
Inventors, therefore, have four choices when it comes to commercialization:
➢They can license or rent their idea.  When an inventor licenses or rents an idea to a manufacturer, the manufacturer handles the marketing, manufacturing, distribution and basically everything else required to bring the product to market. The manufacturer usually pays the inventor a quarterly royalty on every unit they sell. This royalty, generally a percentage of the total wholesale price, is the inventor’s payment for bringing them a new product idea that they can sell to their customers. Licensing is an attractive, low-risk alternative to manufacturing products and taking them to market.
➢To sell an invention outright for the present value of the anticipated royalty payments over the life of the product or the life of the patent. Lump-sum payments are rare because of the amount of capital required and the difficulty of estimating the product’s life and sales.
➢Inventors can partner with someone who has entrepreneurial skills. Partnering may mean sharing the profits, but it also means sharing the risk and responsibility. Inventors who find complimentary partners stand to gain more and stress less.
➢Or finally, they can assume the risk and play both roles – inventor and entrepreneur. Inventors should bear in mind that few people are successful at both roles because each requires distinct skills and aptitudes. There are notable exceptions – people who are simultaneously successful inventors and entrepreneurs – but the list is very short. Remember, venture capitalist General Georges Doriot said, “There have been many fine scientists desperately trying to become poor businessmen.”
Whichever route is taken, entrepreneurs and inventors are generally completely different but invariably dependent upon one another.
For more information on this article, or to contact The Centre for Research & Innovation call (780) 539-2807, toll free at 1-877-539-2808, email info@TheCRI.ca or visit our website at www.TheCRI.ca .

Does ‘Einstein’ make you think of someone extremely intelligent, able to multitask, process huge amounts of information and then make that information work in the practical world?
In the case of Alpha Safety Ltd, Einstein means all those things and more. But instead of a ‘someone’, it’s a very complex ‘something’. They have had a software program created that will be handling the whole range of in-house administration tasks that are presently labour intensive and time consuming.
One of the biggest benefits of ‘Einstein’ is that the program, although intended as an in-house aid, is also going to benefit both students and client companies as much as it does Alpha, said training manager Colin Kearney.

“There’s a whole package that aids us in a huge way. We’re going to be able to manage students, invoicing, policies, registration, history – everything that we do with our school is going to be run through Einstein – scheduling courses, scheduling our instructors, our rooms, stock control, the whole thing,” said Kearney.
And all of this is in time for the company’s new branding.  Alpha Safety has expanded its training division, which is now known as Alpha Training Solutions – all in time for the arrival of Einstein.

“What is really amazing is that down the road we can add to it anything which will better serve our client’s needs,” said Kearney.
That’s a big claim for a program that, as it is now, can do so much. Everyone from staff to students to client companies will now have the freedom to register online in real time – anytime of day or night. Einstein will be accessible by multiple staff members to process phone registrations, however, with 400-450 students a month being processed presently by one staff member, Einstein will impact that process and will create a much faster, more accurate and more convenient process.
Their soft launch, planned for the beginning of April, is the first stage of an incremental implementation of the program and will see a limited number of companies using the existing potential as a final test run.
“One of the key things that we’ve discovered is that we get calls almost every day from someone saying, ‘I forgot to get my ticket, I need it tomorrow’, or ‘I lost my ticket last week’. Sometimes a company calls and says ‘we have five guys who need training and we need them in tomorrow’,” said Kearney. Einstein can now help with 24/7, online registrations.
It isn’t just students that have a tough time managing their tickets and expiry dates. We know companies using spreadsheets that need to be meticulously checked every week, which is a huge time investment for client companies. Einstein will help alleviate that responsibility.
Einstein has a solution. As soon as a student finishes their course, the student’s ticket expiry date is entered into the system. Then 30 days prior to the expiry date, three, or ten – doesn’t matter -  years later,  the student will receive an email reminder, telling them it’s time to book their next course. An automated phone message and/or text message of the same type is on the drawing board.
Companies will receive the same notification for students they book. They will not need to track those details manually. They will be able to book students online, anytime, from any internet-connected computer, and will be able to book them into a course on scheduled days off, for example, minimizing the amount of downtime.
“We’ve spoken to a few companies already and they say, ‘Yes that would be a huge help’…now, literally they can just forget about it,” said Kearney.
Eventually, both students and client companies will be able to set up their own accounts to review all their own information. For approved companies, this will include the option to be invoiced online.
The first major upgrade, after the launch is to, “allow companies to have an online account in the system allowing them to logon…and to check their account with us. They’ll be able to check their workers expiry dates, check invoices, pay online, book students in online, that kind of thing,” Kearney said.
What makes Einstein truly unique is the level of integration and interactivity. An online interactive calendar, on the Alpha Safety website, will allow people to select a course and click through immediately to a registration page that can be filled out and which, after a convenient online payment, registers them, or the company’s staff, immediately into their course. Companies can book in multiple students and records will be automatically updated, invoices emailed and confirmation emails sent to the students and the company.
“For companys this means, the moment they register online, they receive a confirmation of payment, a confirmation email of the course booking, course date and start time, instructor’s name and the names of the people the company just booked into the course, offering the company a real-time record of the transaction.  This will all save time and money and avoid fees due to no-shows or miscommunications,” said Kearney.
One of the plans being investigated for future implementation is a job bank where students can indicate whether they are working or not and client companies can search for potential employees secure in the knowledge they have been well trained.
“Einstein will allow us to operate multiple campuses from the same web based software, which we plan to use when we open our future campuses – the first one is planned for Red Deer Alberta,” Kearney said, pointing out yet another benefit of the new program.
The final product is well worth both the money and time for development said Kearney, but that doesn’t mean the process was without its issues.
“The program was developed by a great company in Ontario, so I think the main challenge we had was communicating between our time zones and making sure that we were clear on exactly what we wanted. We did have moments when, I would have a picture in my mind – I would like it to look like ‘this’ and then I would explain it to them and they would develop, and I would test it, and I would think to myself– that’s not it,” said Kearney.
Therefore, one of the suggestions he had for other companies looking at software development was to set regular meeting times with the programmers, and use that time to ensure the details were clear, understood and taken care of.
“Book it every week so the programmers and you are up to date because the moment communication breaks down, things fall apart. Define (things) very clearly in more words than you think is necessary so that what you see is the same picture they’re painting on the other side,” he explained.
“I even communicated so clearly to the point that I was taking snapshots of my screen, and I would draw little circles around ‘issues’ and say, ‘This is the problem, do you see the same thing?’”
Another piece of advice he had was to have a detailed plan in place far in advance. Understanding exactly what processes are currently in use, what processes are expected from a program, and in detail, how the processes interact. After all Kearney said, it’s the extra, unanticipated work that can add dollars to the bill.
The other big challenge he mentioned was to ensure they could duplicate the efficiency their staff now have in electronic form. Hours spent observing the people now performing the functions which the program will take over, helped to refine the specifics that were needed.
Kearney anticipates the Return on Investment (ROI) within a year based on man-hours, processing time and paper savings. He added that the opportunity for more direct Internet marketing should also speed up that process.
“The more I get to know Einstein, the more I see he’s living up to his name. There’s more functionality than I expected.”