The typical implementation process for Famly software generally follows these steps and takes a few weeks to complete, depending on the size of the childcare setting:
Initial Consultation and Needs Assessment: Famly’s team discusses your center’s specific requirements and goals to tailor the setup accordingly.
Account Setup and Configuration: Setting up the platform with your center’s details, including enrollment, staff roles, schedules, and billing preferences.
Data Migration: Importing existing data such as child records, staff information, and financial details into Famly.
Staff Training: Providing training sessions and resources to ensure all staff members are comfortable using the system’s features like attendance, messaging, and observations.
Parent Onboarding: Introducing the platform to families, helping them create accounts, and explaining how to use the parent portal for communication and updates.
Go-Live and Support: Launching Famly for daily use with ongoing support from Famly’s customer success team to address questions and optimize workflows.
Famly offers extensive customization options to fit specific business needs across childcare settings. Key customizable features include:
Customizable Registration Forms: Nurseries can create tailored registration forms to collect the exact information needed from families during enrollment, with flexible permission settings for staff roles to manage these forms.
Custom Curriculum Builder: Famly allows centers to design their own digital curriculum from scratch or using templates. Educators can define learning areas, subareas, and reference materials, tailoring the curriculum to their pedagogical approach. Custom assessments and progress reports can also be configured to match the curriculum and center requirements.
Flexible Staff Roles and Permissions: Administrators can assign detailed permissions to staff members, controlling access to features such as registration forms, curriculum creation, observations, and assessments, ensuring workflows fit organizational structures.
Activity Planning and Scheduling: The platform supports customizable activity plans, staff rotas, and expected attendance, enabling centers to organize daily operations according to their unique staffing and program needs.
Billing and Payment Management: Famly’s invoicing and payment features can be adapted to charge for specific items (e.g., meals), manage batch invoicing, and automate payment reconciliation, supporting diverse financial models.
Communication Customization: Messaging and reminders can be tailored to fit communication styles and schedules, helping centers engage families effectively.
Reporting and Data Export: Custom reports on occupancy, attendance, child development, and finances help centers analyze data relevant to their operational goals.
Multi-site Management: Forms and settings can be shared across multiple locations, allowing organizations with several sites to maintain consistency while adapting to local needs.
Famly offers training and support to new users to ensure a smooth transition and effective use of the platform. This includes:
Personalized onboarding: Famly provides tailored onboarding support to help centers set up their accounts, configure settings, and migrate data.
Live training sessions: Staff receive live, interactive training covering all key features such as attendance, messaging, observations, billing, and scheduling.
Extensive online resources: Users have access to a wide range of tutorials, guides, and FAQs that cover every aspect of the platform.
Responsive customer support: Famly’s support team is available via phone, email, and help desk to promptly answer questions and resolve issues.
Ongoing assistance: Continued support and training are offered as needed to help staff become confident and proficient users.
Famly employs a comprehensive set of security measures to protect data, ensuring compliance with GDPR, UK GDPR, and other relevant data protection laws. Key security practices include:
Data Encryption: All data is encrypted both at rest using AES-256 and in transit using TLS 1.2 or later, ensuring data remains secure throughout storage and transfer.
Secure Hosting: The platform is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Frankfurt, Germany, which hold certifications such as ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, and undergo annual SOC2 and SOC3 audits. Data backups are stored separately in Switzerland with incremental and full daily backups.
Access Controls and Permissions: Famly allows assignment of role-based permissions so that staff only access data relevant to their role, implementing privacy by design and default.
Regular Security Audits: Annual audits by PwC and certification under a UK government-backed anti-cyber attack scheme ensure ongoing adherence to high security standards.
Data Breach Notification: Famly commits to notifying customers within 48 hours of any data breach and assists in mitigation and regulatory reporting as required.
Data Retention and Deletion: Customers can delete data at any time; upon service termination, all customer data is securely and irreversibly deleted within 60 days, following industry best practices.
Famly releases updates regularly and continuously to improve features, security, and user experience. These updates are managed through their cloud-based platform and mobile apps, ensuring users always have access to the latest version without disruption. Users typically receive updates automatically via app stores (iOS and Android) or through the web platform, with no manual intervention required. Famly emphasizes seamless deployment so that new features, bug fixes, and improvements are integrated smoothly, allowing childcare providers to focus on daily operations without interruption. Although the exact frequency of updates is not publicly specified, the platform’s commitment to ongoing enhancement and user feedback suggests frequent incremental updates and feature rollouts.
Famly’s policy on data ownership and portability is as follows:
Data Ownership: The customer (childcare provider) retains full ownership of all data, including Customer Data and User Submissions, entered into the Famly platform. Famly acts as a data processor and does not claim ownership over the data submitted by customers or users.
Data Processing Role: Famly processes customer data strictly as a processor under GDPR and related data protection laws, following the terms outlined in their Data Processing Agreement (DPA), which is incorporated into their Terms and Conditions.
Data Access and Control: Customers have control over their data and are responsible for compliance with applicable data protection legislation. Famly provides tools and permissions to ensure data access is limited to authorized users within the organization.
Data Deletion: Upon termination of services, Famly commits to securely deleting customer data within a defined period (typically 60 days), following industry best practices to ensure data is irreversibly removed.
Famly offers flexible terms that support scaling up or down as organizational needs change, making it suitable for nurseries of all sizes:
Multi-location Support: Famly allows management of multiple sites within a single platform, enabling organizations to add or remove settings easily as they grow or consolidate.
Flexible User and Staff Management: Administrators can add or remove staff accounts, adjust roles and permissions, and update schedules and rotas dynamically to match changing staffing needs.
Adjustable Enrollment and Attendance: Child enrollment and waitlist management are digital and flexible, allowing programs to quickly increase or decrease the number of children served.
Scalable Billing and Payments: Batch invoicing, payment processing, and fee structures can be modified to reflect changes in enrollment or service offerings without disruption.
Month-to-Month Subscription Model: Famly’s pricing and subscription plans typically operate on a monthly basis, allowing nurseries to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel plans with relative ease as their business size changes.
No Long-Term Lock-In: The platform’s subscription model and modular features mean organizations are not locked into rigid contracts, facilitating smooth scaling.
Here are the key terms and conditions for contract renewal and cancellation for Famly based on the available information:
Automatic Renewal: Subscription terms (monthly or annual) automatically renew for subsequent periods unless terminated by either party by the agreement.
Customer Cancellation: Customers may terminate the agreement by giving at least one (1) month’s written notice (including email) at any time. There is no entitlement to reimbursement of paid fees upon cancellation.
Famly Termination: Famly may terminate the agreement by giving three (3) months’ written notice (including email), unless otherwise agreed. Termination takes effect at the end of the current subscription term.
Immediate Termination Rights: Either party may terminate immediately by written notice if:
The other party breaches a material provision and fails to remedy it within 30 days of notice.
The other party suffers insolvency or ceases substantial business operations.
The customer fails to pay fees and does not remedy the breach within 14 days of notice.
Free Package Inactivity: Famly may deactivate and terminate accounts using the free package if inactive for more than three (3) months, with prior written notice.
Data Handling on Termination: Upon termination, customers must instruct Famly to return their data before termination; otherwise, data will be deleted securely per the data processing agreement.
Outstanding Payments: Customers must immediately pay any outstanding invoices upon termination.
Famly software meets several important compliance standards and security certifications that ensure data protection and regulatory adherence for childcare providers:
GDPR and UK GDPR Compliance: Famly is fully compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR, implementing privacy by design and by default. This ensures strong data protection and user control over personal data within the platform.
Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP): Famly also complies with Switzerland’s new Federal Act on Data Protection, reflecting its commitment to international data privacy standards.
AWS Security Certifications: The platform is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Frankfurt, Germany, which hold certifications including ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 27018. AWS undergoes annual SOC2 and SOC3 audits, providing a highly secure infrastructure for Famly’s services.
Annual Security Audits: Famly undergoes annual independent security audits by PwC and holds certification under a UK government-backed anti-cyber attack scheme, ensuring ongoing adherence to robust security measures.
Data Processing Agreement (DPA): Famly’s DPA forms part of its Terms and Conditions, outlining strict technical and organizational measures to safeguard data, and ensuring that all sub-processors are vetted and bound by GDPR-compliant agreements.
