Our energy in this sector is directed into charities, clubs and arts organisations, and it’s easy to do because of the common thread they share – community.  Veracity Business Solutions uses business experience and technology to scale the communities our clients create. And this is so important in a constantly evolving environment.

• The tectonic shift in the charities sector has been the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) driving unprecedented attention to client services and experiences and case management. 
• The major movement in clubs has been around managing the member experience on a precinct basis rather than visitation or event-based experiences.
• Arts organisations are focusing on enhancing the end-to-end experience for their patrons and scaling patron engagement and attendance, along with development and fundraising activities.

Talk to Veracity Business Solutions today about how we can help.

We have worked closely with both state government agencies in Queensland and local governments to deliver technology-based solutions that improve customer service and satisfaction. There’s a laser-like focus in the state government sector around raising capabilities across team, supervisor and senior management levels and Veracity has been a proven partner for many years delivering technology-based, whole-of-government learning solutions that really work.

Talk to us today about how we can help.

If the past couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that businesses must be resilient and have the capacity to operate nimbly, remotely and securely. Veracity is perfectly positioned to help local businesses use technology to make transformative decisions that set them up for success.

Talk to us today about how we can help.

Our client

HOTA, Home of the Arts is the Gold Coast’s contemporary cultural precinct nestled amongst sub-tropical parklands and just a stone’s throw from Surfers Paradise. The next stage of the precinct development opened in early 2021. It features a brand new $63 million art gallery that complements existing cinemas, cafes and retail outlets, along with an award-winning outdoor stage, showcasing the very best local, national and international artists.

Background

In 2016, Veracity CEO Bill Owens published an article comparing a live entertainment experience he’d recently had, to an at-home streaming experience. He suggested live venue operators could learn a lot from streaming platforms like Netflix, such as:

• Making it easier for producers and consumers to plug into their physical platforms
• Collecting, analysing and monetising both producer and consumer data
• Developing and applying labour-saving algorithms to match supply and demand
• Daring to scale better, bigger and faster to reach beyond local vicinities
• Being smarter, more agile and innovative to attract, retain and scale both producers and consumers.

Challenges

HOTA Director of Operations and Transformation Anna Carroll saw the article, it piqued her interest, and she reached out to Veracity. It started a productive discussion around using digital technology to put the patron at the centre of the experience, and to ensure that experience was a quality and contemporary one.

HOTA was forging ahead with a suite of major infrastructure work as part of a 10-year plan and were not only looking for the right IT hardware and systems – but also help with the higher-order strategic thinking required to future proof their venues and challenge the status quo.

All eyes would be on HOTA as they opened a new gallery space in early 2021, and it was important for them to have a trusted partner by their side to ensure this and their other venues could operate seamlessly and exceed visitor experience expectations.

Veracity’s response and solution

Veracity worked with HOTA to conduct an ICT Healthcheck. Next came the development of a three-year roadmap to design and implement an IT platform that would power their state-of-the-art facilities and integrate effortlessly across venues. We designed infrastructure to support applications mostly hosted in the cloud to facilitate access anywhere and anytime, because we believe work is a thing you do, not a place you go. This gave HOTA staff freedom to work flexibly without being tied to a physical work space – which is so important for creative organisations.

HOTA’s new outdoor stage and entertainment area challenged us to think beyond supporting just the ICT requirements of a building to a whole-of-precinct approach and visitor experience. Within this HOTA ‘digital dome’, we made it possible for patrons to connect wherever they are in the precinct to book tickets, see what’s on, secure a BBQ location or even pay for food and beverage while an event is going on.

The implementation has been a great success, and now that the precinct is up and running, Veracity continues to provide remote and face-to-face IT support services to HOTA, 24 hour a day, 7 days a week.

Client benefits and outcomes

HOTA found a valued partner in Veracity who could help them embrace technology in a visionary way to support their aspiration to be the cultural heartbeat of the Gold Coast. Our team did whatever was required – early mornings and late nights – to deliver the IT solutions in time for HOTA’s new gallery launch.

Knowing that Veracity was invested and experienced in the arts and not-for-profit sectors was also important to HOTA. Being able to draw on our experiences in these industries and price our services accordingly was valued. But more importantly, HOTA considered the alignment in our values and our focus on human relationships, as one of the keys to a really productive and successful partnership.

“It’s been an incredible journey for HOTA. We started out as a small regional art centre – a successful, 400 square-metre gallery space. And now we are the proud custodians of a new $63 million art gallery with over 2,000 square metres of exhibition space, a magnificent outdoor stage and a performing arts centre with cinemas, theatres and cafes.

“During that time, Veracity has been a key partner of ours. They’ve been by our side as we’ve experienced the most extraordinary growth. What they’ve done for us is to make sure we’ve been ready at every single step of the way as we’ve developed into a thriving precinct. What we love most about Veracity is that they share our passion for community and that they’re always there at the end of the phone. I often say that in arts and culture what we are about is humanity, and Veracity reflects that. They’ve been a firm partner, they’ve helped us every step of the way and we couldn’t have got to where we are today without them.”

­– Criena Gehrke, CEO HOTA Home of the Arts

Our client

Brisbane Festival is a major annual Australian arts festival. The highly anticipated event brings people together at venuesacross the city for a program of dynamic arts performances and experiences. 

Background

When we first began our work with Brisbane Festival, we did a deep dive to understand their business and requirements – and from the outset, it was clear the team needed to be untethered from their physical offices. The nature of their work required them to access documents, resources and tools anywhere, anytime. They were also striving to collaborate more effectively in an online environment.  

Veracity’s response and solution

The IT platform Veracity rolled out for Brisbane Festival pre-COVID achieved this goal and not only set them up for better collaboration but also provided disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities. Once COVID hit and offices were locked down, it was simply a matter of Brisbane Festival employees continuing their work from home, with full remote access and the ability to collaborate on the program.  

In addition to the Festival’s permanent work space in Fortitude Valley, Veracity also works closely with the team during the Festival to set up their remote sites and performance venues, which involves getting their network, including wi-fi and printers, up and running. The operations people running events behind the scenes rely on these mini platforms to stay connected.  

“The partnership between Veracity and Brisbane Festival is driven by the shared values of challenging the status quo and being adaptive, progressive and community focussed. As Brisbane Festival builds a community to connect people to the arts, Veracity scales it to reach a wider audience.”

— Veracity Managing Director, Bill Owens

Client benefits and outcomes

At the Festival’s permanent work space in Fortitude Valley, the managed services platform Veracity implemented has equipped Festival staff with the tools and technology they need to work more flexibly and collaboratively, from multiple venues.  

This preparation and infrastructure also went some way towards helping the Festival team remotely plan and deliver a large-scale live event series in 2020, amid the chaos of COVID-19.  

“We greatly appreciate our partnership with Veracity – their ongoing support forms the bedrock of our operations. And we all love working with Veracity, we know their team members by name and their service desk is helpful and responsive and always there when we need it.” 

— Brisbane Festival CEO Charlie Cush

Our client

QMF is a strategic music agency that helps communities unlock the power of music to create a brighter future. The programs it facilitates are typically partnerships between leading artists and arts organisations, local communities, government, corporate and philanthropic partners.

Background

When we first met Queensland Music Festival, its ICT platform was providing significant challenges for its small team to fulfil their state-wide vision, particularly as staff were tethered to office spaces for platform connectivity and productivity.

Veracity’s response and solution

Veracity began by undertaking an ICT Health Check to give management and staff an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the existing ICT platform – and it was clear that it was broken.

The next step was to come on board as the organisation’s technology partner and make some fundamental changes, such as overhauling broadband connectivity, migrating infrastructure to the Cloud and rationalising overlapping applications.

We then worked with the team to develop a Three-year ICT Roadmap that provided a strategy and a way forward to deliver a platform that would support QMF’s business requirements into the future.

QMFs ICT platform transformation began in 2017 and our first Roadmap was completed in 2020, which enabled QMF to take their work on the road…literally. In 2021, QMF launched Queensland Music Trails, a world-first music tourism experience that invites visitors from around the world to Queensland’s natural beauty, through itineraries of iconic music events in amazing and unexpected locations. This was a significant departure from the biennial festival organisation and made it even more critical to have an ICT platform that would work anywhere, anytime, across Queensland.

“QMF is a kindred spirit for Veracity. It’s an organisation prepared to challenge the status quo, to take on the risk of creating a new business model and to offer new services when the old ones get stale. QMF strives to engage communities, both familiar and new, and puts customer experience at the heart of everything it does. This is what we do when we work with our clients to transform business with technology.” — Veracity Managing Director Bill Owens

Client benefits and outcomes

Not only did Veracity transform a broken ICT platform into a reliable and powerful tool to support QMF’s business objectives, but it also enabled its people to work from anywhere in the state. This was a critical business imperative when delivering a new program of 12 Outback Trails across regional Queensland.

Now in 2023, as QMF has expanded into a strategic music agency that employs more people to deliver a suite of exciting music events and opportunities across Queensland, Veracity continues to work in partnership with QMF to deliver on this expanded vision.

As we embark on the delivery of a second, Three-year ICT Roadmap and support QMF’s move to a new premises, we’re working hard to ensure QMF has the ICT platform it needs to use music as a vehicle to bring people together, to encourage participation and to inspire change.

“I was sitting at a café in Weipa on the road for QMF’s Queensland Music Trails and opened my laptop to do some work, and I could – and it really drove home the fact that this wasn’t always the case. Veracity has taken us so far. We now have a reliable ICT platform that means our team can work from anywhere around Queensland, or the world, and when you’re on the road delivering programs in communities around the State, that really matters.” ­— Simon Buchanan, QMF, Government & Philanthropy Director

Our client

The Gympie RSL Club is a popular community hub with over 10,000 members and featuring a restaurant, cafe, bars and gaming. It’s closely affiliated with the Gympie RSL Sub Branch, which is part of the fabric of the local community and provides a range of veteran support and advocacy services to its members.

Challenges

We first met the RSL in late 2018. They were concerned about their IT platform and were eager to have an independent assessment to identify any risks and inefficiencies. Veracity Business Solutions was engaged and performed an IT Health Check and report.

During the three years that followed, the Club underwent extensive renovations and growth, and as a result of this expansion, its IT systems and requirements had not kept pace with the demands of the new operating environment.

Hardware and software project implementations had not gone smoothly and cabling wasn’t up to the standards required to effectively run its operations.

Veracity’s response and solution

It was time for a change. The Club urgently needed a more mature and holistic approach to its IT infrastruc

ture to match its organisational growth and development. Veracity Business Solutions came on board as their IT Managed Service Provider and worked closely with the Gympie RSL Club Management team and Sub Branch to deliver a solution.

We undertook an updated IT Health Check to identify and prioritise important issues and developed and rolled out a set of remediation actions, including activating multi-factor authentication and implementing a cloud backup solution.

Once the key infrastructure was in place and the systems were operating efficiently, Veracity Business Solutions stepped back, but continued to be on call remotely, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help troubleshoot any issues that came up on the ground. Because we run our business as an anywhere, anytime model, we don’t need a shop front down the road to provide the personalised service clients like Gympie RSL seek.

“Gympie RSL is fast becoming an iconic club in the region. They expect the highest level of IT service support and Veracity Business Solutions has the capabilities and capacity to deliver to those exacting standards. It’s an exciting partnership.”

— Veracity Business Solutions Managing Director, Bill Owens

Client benefits and outcomes

For the Gympie RSL Club and Sub Branch, working with Veracity gave them a trusted partner. Veracity has a clear understanding of their business operations, as well as the risks they face and how to manage and resolve them. The IT solution we put in place resulted in a more efficient IT platform with less down time and a better support experience for staff, which undoubtedly flows on to their customer experiences.

Our client

In 2014, the Queensland Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs* was looking for a way to provide common learning experiences across the State. The goal was to give all public servants access to quality professional development and compliance-related training materials, irrespective of their role, level or location.

Challenges

As each government department has its own focus and responsibilities, they had each developed discrete Learning Management Systems (LMS). However, as these LMS weren’t integrated, it led to siloing of learning records, staff development and workforce data as a whole. With government employees often moving between departments, this resulted in:

• downtime due to retraining on each LMS
• incompatibility or loss of training records
• inconsistent user experiences with training.

At a higher level, it was next to impossible to report across multiple departments to identify training needs/gaps and to then develop strategies to address them.

Veracity’s response and solution

Veracity was engaged to design and build an online scalable solution. We worked closely with the Department’s workforce capability specialists to identify online, offline and blended-learning requirements for all capability levels. We then designed and built a public, cloud-based learning management system called iLearn that delivered 24-7, year-round access to quality online training modules with assessment and reporting integration.

Client benefits and outcomes

Designed as a shared-service model, iLearn delivers an enterprise-grade, cost-effective online learning experience for Queensland Government departments of all sizes, particularly smaller agencies that wouldn’t typically have access to a bespoke, commercial-grade learning platform such as iLearn.

Key benefits

• Anywhere, anytime – online learning materials are available to public servants across the State, no matter where they’re located.
• Learning rates rose – thanks to a reliable and easy-to-use platform to deliver consistent materials to geographically dispersed staff, updated in real time, and accessible online.
• Portable training records – iLearn’s public cloud design is flexible and scalable and enables the automatic transfer of training records when staff move between participating departments.

“Veracity transformed the way the Queensland Government delivers learning to public servants by designing, building and supporting iLearn. This truly scalable and accessible learning management platform is now used by a growing number of government departments.”

— Bill Owens, Managing Director, Veracity.

* formerly the Department of Communities