By Brian Briceño
For WisBusiness.com
You are excited to begin your new job. However, that feeling quickly begins to fade when the human resources manager drops a three-ring binder on your desk and announces that training sessions begin Tuesday.
Whether it is for new employees or to teach seasoned veterans at the company some new skills, training is an important tool for skill development in the work place. Yet most people would describe training programs to be mundane and un-engaging.
E-Learning, which is the use of electronic media and communication technologies in education, is supposed to be the remedy to your run of the mill “three-ring binder” training programs. However, even many of those programs are nothing more than “glorified Powerpoints,” noted Scott Kohl, co-founder of Ronin Studios & Consulting.
Kohl and his team at Ronin aim to change that through the use of software-based games that have the ability to engage and teach in a manner that is more effective and fun than existing methods.
Ronin has worked with and developed games for a variety of clients such as Cool Choices, a non-profit organization in Madison, Wis., and MRA, a human resources management training company.
After meeting with a client to determine their needs, the team at Ronin Studios is able to begin work on a building a fully customized game to fit those needs. The Ronin Game Development Process engages clients from the beginning “Discovery” phase, during which project goals are set, to the “Support” phase beyond the game’s creation to ensure optimal results throughout the game’s useful life.
It isn’t all about fun and games at Ronin. The team is comprised of individuals who are development and business experts.
“While we are a gaming company, we drive to make games that solve real business problems,” Kohl said. “An important point is that all the employees have stock in the business so hopefully that encourages them to take a stake in the future, beyond just a secure paycheck.”
The task at hand is always important but plans for the future are a big blip on the radar for Ronin.
“We have plans to hire on a sales and marketing team to execute our sales/marketing plan. We’ll have two major parts of the business: contract work and product sales. Both reinforce each other, but the sales and marketing team will primarily be for in-bound strategy,” he said. “As we grow we also need to add additional staff on to help with project management and development.”
Kohl said the “ideal” is three teams with a designer, artist, and engineer. Floating team members would be the CIO, CTO and project manager; support staff to ensure quality and customer management would quickly follow.
“It’s important to give customers a great experience and the attention they need,” he said. “Right now, that falls largely on our development teams, which is not ideal.”
While Ronin has initially focused on the Madison and Milwaukee markets, there are plans to expand to the Fox Cities, Minneapolis and Chicago.
What makes Ronin different? “It’s our combination of business experience, gaming experience, teaching experience and experience in the learning sciences,” Kohl said. “Mapping gaming solutions to business needs is not a trivial thing and the failures are many. This requires a unique “A Team” with the right experience and insights.”
The company presented to potential investors Nov. 5 during the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.
— Briceño is a senior in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.
