Innform Brings eLearning to the Hospitality Sector

On April 23, Seb Azzo Software based in London and co-founded by Sebastian Hefel and Michael Azzopardi announced plans to launch their new product, Innform, this July. Innform, as one might guess, targets hospitality industry workers. Specifically, it is designed to simplify hospitality training in one affordable SaaS package.

The hospitality sector faces unique training challenges. It needs to train and retain both low- and high-skill workers along with a high percentage of both young people, including those entering their first job, and immigrants.

Training issues range from safety concerns (e.g., how to work with hazardous materials or properly dispose of materials that may pose a health risk) to preventing sexual harassment in the workplace (notably, this is frequently cited as just one of the risks hotel cleaners face on the job as they move in and out of guests’ rooms and it is also frequently cited as a risk for servers in restaurants) to offering culturally sensitive services to people visiting from around the world. In many regions of the world, the hospitality sector also attracts a highly diverse range of workers. While this is a plus, offering training to workers who may speak many different first languages can also be a challenge. Innform, however, is well aware of the demographic their new eLearning software solution hopes to target.

First Subscription-based eLearning Solution for the Hospitality Industry

In a press release issued last week, Seb Azzo Software announced that Innform will join “the market as the only hospitality eLearning software to offer a complete training solution with a simple subscription model. Innform also includes a free basic tier for small teams who are brand new to eLearning.” (At least one other subscription-based software program does exist for this sector, but Innform appears to be alone in the UK market where the company is based). Among other features, Innform comes with monthly “ready-made hospitality courses and quizzes.” Azzopardi, co-founder of InnForm, emphasizes, “Like many other industries before it, digital learning is evolving. Today, eLearning products must deliver the training tools we know and love in one flexible package, and for one simple price.”

Responding to the Hospitality Sector’s Growing Training Needs

Sebastian Hefel, co-founder of Innform, emphasizes, “A blend of learning methods is known to boost skills development in a workforce considerably but is often expensive to organize. We want to make these benefits available to all businesses, big and small.” For this reason, Innform combines powerful automation and easy content authoring tools with flexible training features. In other words, it is not simply a tool for delivering online courses. As stated in last week’s press release, “The tool will allow trainers to combine its powerful features with classroom and mentor-based training, supporting blended learning.”

Innform also encourages employees to collaborate and submit feedback to their trainers in order to allow companies to optimize their training efficacy. Most notably, the eLearning software has been designed to carry out “rapid translations” to facilitate global training. This, Innform’s founders emphasize, is “an out-of-the-box feature that can radically speed up the training process.” In short, the InnForm team hopes that by combining feedback tools with real-time reporting, companies who subscribe will be able to more easily adapt content to respond to their workforce’s evolving needs. Again, the software has been designed with a recognition that a blend of learning methods is the best way to boost skill development.

Seb Azzo Software plans to offer potential customers a chance to try Innform Starter and Innform Plus staring in July 2018. They are also offering a free 30-day trial to help organizations assess the software’s compatibility with their organizational needs. For small organizations, Innform is even offering a free toolkit that can be used to offer basic training to up to four-member teams.