When Gary and Julie Moinet set up Head Start Nursery Group in 1994, the chain quickly grew from one to five nurseries within five years. Along with more children and staff to manage, the Government then introduced nursery education grants. Gary needed a management software system that would help him run his business more efficiently. But with none on the market that fitted his requirements, he decided to produce his own - and so BabyTech was born.
Launched last year at the Early Years and Primary Teaching Exhibition in London, BabyTech is an administration software system designed to control a nursery manager's essential daily routines - from occupancy, invoicing and forecasting to staff rotas and Government grant funding.
According to Richard Costello, managing director for BabyTech, 'The difference with this system to others on the market is that it is a complete administration system that has been developed by nursery professionals, for nursery professionals.'
Gary's inspiration for producing the product was based on his own frustrations as a nursery owner. 'I was constantly finding that there was no uniformity or consistency in the processes that my managers used to log data,' he says. 'When I wanted to find out future forecasts or outstanding invoice values, I had to speak to each manager separately.'
Gary's managers were also bogged down with administrative duties - often spending 35 per cent of their working week on onerous tasks such as sorting out milk returns and grant funding, 'when they should have been spending more time with children, staff and parents,' says Gary.
After conducting market research through a series of telephone interviews to 150 nursery settings nationwide, Gary soon discovered the shortfalls of software systems. He then set about writing a specification based on his findings and his personal experiences.
His main aim was to create a software package that would improve the efficiency of his chain of nurseries and at the same time prove to be reliable, robust and accurate. Head Start tried and tested BabyTech for a year before introducing it to the nursery marketplace.
Two years later, BabyTech has revolutionised Head Start. Staff morale has improved - nursery managers can now get on with the job they were trained for - and Gary is able to access all the data he needs by individual nursery or on a group basis from his office or his laptop. This is made possible by a function that connects the data to a central headquarters. It includes grant funding, reports, revenue, occupancy, forecasts, fees and invoices - all of which can be displayed through graphs, showing trends over a rolling six-month period.
BabyTech can highlight outstanding fees for any family at any time. Richard says, 'It will automatically adjust invoices and change your occupancy data so that every time a change is made, it is driven through the system and the nursery manager has peace of mind that the controls are in place.'
For example, rather than having to calculate each child's daily milk quota - which can be claimed back from the Government - the system can automatically calculate milk returns for each child in any given four-month period. The forms can then be printed in the format required by the Government Funding Agency, signed and posted off to get the refunds.
In the same way, the 'Early Years Grant Funding' function autoselects three- or four-year-olds by three-term intake or postcode. It then automatically credits each parent's account with the refund. The next invoice will contain this information. The declarations are printed and signed for issue before posting.
The system is user-friendly - even for first-time computer users. It comes with a free computer, a training package, and there's a helpdesk support team at hand to answer queries. If a nursery manager is really stuck, one of the IT advisers can even 'get inside' their computer and get them back on track through a process called 'remote access viewing'.
Richard explains, 'Our market research revealed that many nursery managers were first-time computer users and potentially weary about using new software.'
Further information
For more information on BabyTech or to contact Richard Costello or Gary Moinet, call 0870 444 1330.
