When Greg Martin came on the scene three years ago as vice president and CIO of KinderCare Education, a $1.6 billion provider of early childhood education, one of the first things he did was set about creating a three-year strategy for the IT organization. In doing so, he came up with five key projects that would take priority.
Two of them had to do with improving customer experience, both for internal IT users and external customers, meaning the parents of the kids the company serves. Internally, conversations with those in the field showed the directors who manage the company’s 1,500 education centers needed improvements to the tools they use to do their jobs. At the same time, it was time to make it easier for parents to do business with the company, and to help them feel engaged.
Both of those endeavors required improvements to the infrastructure supporting the centers, including its Internet bandwidth and internal Wi-Fi networks, so that became the second major project.
Of course, both projects would require significant funding. To get it, Martin took a two-pronged approach.
Where to look for savings
First, he took some costs out of the IT budget by outsourcing service desk, infrastructure, and operations personnel, for a total savings of $4 million per year.
Next, he thought he could get a better deal on the company’s telephone service, so he employed a reverse auction service, EASi, to help. With that platform, businesses can see what others are bidding for a contract, which tends to drive prices down. “It shows you what the bottom price is and allows you to make a more informed decision,” Martin says. “We got about $2.4 million in savings from that.”
That kind of savings tend to get attention and build trust, he says, which helps when the time comes to ask for money for IT projects. Of course, if you can show a project will deliver savings, all the better – which is just what Martin did.
An internal audit team discovered that center directors were not always following corporate guidelines around when to give discounts to families. But it is hard to police because the existing center management tool didn’t provide insight into such details.
The new Center Management System (CMS), which is essentially like an enterprise resource planning tool for the centers, provides that kind of visibility. “It allows us to create policies around discounts, see when they’re given out, and have more control over the process,” Martin says. “That could generate several million in additional revenue.”
Another issue was unbilled tuition. That can occur when a family that is signed up for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays finds they have to drop off their child on a Thursday. Since they weren’t on the schedule for Thursday, they may not be billed for it. But the new system provides an electronic record of when each child is in the center and is integrated with the billing system. “That’ll generate quite a bit of additional revenue,” he says.
Upgrades lead to new services
Infrastructure upgrades were required to ensure the tools would work effectively, but even that came with some open savings. The new Wi-Fi network supports remote management, so the company doesn’t have to send out a technician every time there’s a hiccup. Each center also now has an Internet connection with a minimum of 10M download speed and 5M upload; those in more urban areas tend to be far greater.
The network makes it easier to support new mobility apps for parents. The app allows teachers to take photos and video of kids and send it to parents. “Imagine you’re at work, and you get a video that shows your child taking his first step,” Martin says. It also supports more routine communications, such as how long a child napped or what they ate. Parents tend to love the app, as it allows them to feel closer to their child and caregiver while they are at work.
Additionally, the CMS supports a portal that parents use to sign up kids for different programs and classes, and to keep track of allergies and the like. The CMS also helps KinderCare comply with regulations in different states, such as accounting for each child every 30 minutes or so. While that was previously handled on paper, now it’s done on a tablet. “So we’ve improved the business process as well as operational efficiency,” he says.
That’s one key to getting funding for IT projects, Martin notes. “You need to show the business value of what you’re doing,” he says. “And you need to have a champion pushing for it.” That champion needs to be someone with the power to make decisions without always seeking approval elsewhere, with a vested interest in the success of the project, and with enough time to give the project an appropriate level of attention. “You don’t want CEOs sponsoring projects – they don’t have a chance to do a good job.”
