Stephen Clarke – Truancy Call Ltd

VitAL: Name, company and job title please? Married? Kids?

Stephen Clarke: Stephen Clarke, managing director, Truancy Call Ltd. Two children aged 10 and 4.

VitAL: What got you started in IT?

SC: I have always had an interest in IT since owning my own Sinclair Spectrum in the 1980s. This progressed as I got older and I dabbled in computer programming for a while with a thought that I may want to move into that area but it was marketing that took my interest and after completing a marketing degree I worked for a period as a marketing manager for an insurance company. However, Marketing and IT were my passions so within a few years I moved sideways to take up a product manager role within Truancy Call Ltd and quickly progressed to director and then managing director. It helps to have logical mind when liaising with the technical people in the company and I certainly think my passion for IT helps

VitAL: Was there any one person or organisation that was your inspiration?

SC: In 2000 I read an article about two schoolgirls who went missing on their way to school. They were located after three days but their parents were angry that their school had not notified them about the absence. The Department for Children, Schools and Families recommends that schools phone parents after their children have had unexplained absences of more than a few hours. This is a major task for school offices, which highlighted a need for technology to safeguard children’s welfare through first-day contact with parents of absentees. The Truancy Call software we developed links school registers to a system that sends out emails, text messages and voice calls, informing parents of their child’s unexpected absence and requesting an explanation.

 VitAL: What was your first IT job, what was your first major IT triumph?

SC: I did not have a first IT job as such, however, the first triumph for Truancy Call Ltd must have been when we collected two awards at the Orange small business awards: one for the company and one for me personally. More recently we won the Best use of Technology Category at the Fast Growth Business Awards.

VitAL: Did you ever make any embarrassing mistakes? What did you learn from them?

SC: Not so much embarrassing mistakes but when I picked up a BT Essence of the Entrepreneur award I had to have my photograph taken. The photographer decided that he wanted to link the image to the company name. He decided that I should be dressed as a stereotypical truant, so I was dressed in shorts, a blazer and a hat, holding a skateboard and smoking a cigarette while stood in a park in Oxford in the middle of the day! Parents were wandering by taking their children to the park looking at this grown man dressed as a schoolboy. What I learnt from this is that sometimes you just have to throw yourself into things no matter how much it might take you outside your comfort zone.

VitAL: What do you like best about your job?

SC: The variety; one day I will be out visiting schools with our area managers, next I will be doing radio and TV interviews and then the following day I will be pitching in and speaking to customers to answer any technical queries we have. This was the case when we sent out over two million text messages to parents via our Call Parents system to advise them of school closures during the recent snow.

VitAL: What is your biggest ambition?

SC: We currently operate in the UK, Ireland and Australia and I would like to move the company further into overseas expansions, while expanding our product range in the UK within the education market, public sector and corporate markets using the similar technology to what we have already developed.

VitAL: What are your hobbies or interests?

SC: I enjoy spending time with my family, skiing when the opportunity arises and I am currently learning to play the drums.

VitAL: What is the secret of your success?

SC: Since I started Truancy Call Ltd in 2000 I have led the business to continuous growth and success. This can be largely attributed to our innovative use of technology to help schools tackle issues such as truancy and bullying, while saving them money and halving the time administrative staff spend calling parents. I regularly visit customers to obtain feedback and as a result we can now send messages in 15 different languages, which has increased the volume of automated phone calls sent out and in turn increased turnover. Our products are now used in over 1,000 schools in the UK, Australia and Republic of Ireland.