The implementation process for Discover Childcare is structured to ensure smooth onboarding and minimal disruption to daily childcare operations. It is designed to be user-friendly, guided by onboarding specialists, and typically spans a few weeks depending on service needs.
Key Steps:
Initial Consultation and Needs Assessment: The process begins with an introductory meeting to understand the centre’s operations, goals, and current challenges.
Account Setup and Configuration: A dedicated onboarding specialist helps set up the centre’s account, including room setup, staff profiles, child enrolments, and custom forms.
Data Migration (if needed): If transitioning from another system, existing data such as attendance records, child profiles, and parent contacts can be imported securely.
Training Sessions: Hands-on training is provided for administrators, educators, and staff to ensure they are comfortable using features such as attendance tracking, billing, and parent communication tools.
Go-Live and Support: After setup, the system goes live with full access to customer support. Staff can begin real-time usage with assistance available.
Typical Duration: The entire implementation usually takes between 1 to 4 weeks, depending on the centre size, data migration complexity, and training needs.
Customisation
Discover Childcare offers customizable features and workflows to support a variety of operational models. Whether it's a small childcare centre or a multi-site organization, the platform can adapt to specific business processes.
Customizable Features Include:
Forms and Templates: Custom digital enrolment forms, observation templates, and daily reports can be tailored to meet centre policies.
Billing and Payment Rules: Centres can set up unique billing cycles, subsidy calculations, and automated invoicing according to local regulations or business rules.
User Roles and Permissions: Staff access can be customized by role (educator, administrator, director), ensuring proper data security and access control.
Notifications and Communication Settings: Parent communications, notifications, and reminders can be tailored for different preferences and scenarios.
Learning and Development Frameworks: Centres can map observations and learning records to their preferred curriculum frameworks.
Additional Costs
Discover Childcare is generally offered as a subscription-based model. While the core functionalities are bundled into the subscription fee, some additional costs may apply depending on specific needs or service levels.
Possible Additional Costs:
Setup or Onboarding Fee: Some plans may include a one-time setup or onboarding fee, especially for tailored onboarding or large-scale data migration.
Training Costs: Basic training is often included, but centres requesting advanced or onsite training may incur additional charges.
Custom Development or API Access: For centres needing integration with external systems (e.g., payroll, CRM), custom API access or development may come with extra fees.
Premium Support Services: While standard support is typically included, enhanced support packages offering priority assistance or dedicated account management may be billed separately.
SMS/Email Charges: There may be charges for exceeding certain limits of SMS or email usage if used heavily for communication.
Hardware or Device Costs: While not charged by the software, if centres require tablets or dedicated devices to run the software efficiently, those would be additional out-of-pocket expenses.
Training
Discover Childcare provides a robust onboarding experience with a combination of guided training, self-help tools, and ongoing support. The goal is to ensure that every user, regardless of technical experience, can effectively operate the platform.
Training and Support Offerings:
Dedicated Onboarding Specialist: Each new customer is assigned a specialist to walk them through setup, initial training, and the go-live phase.
Live Training Sessions: Interactive webinars or scheduled video calls are conducted to guide users through key modules such as enrolments, billing, attendance, and parent communication.
Role-Based Training: Separate training sessions are provided for administrators, educators, and finance staff based on their specific platform responsibilities.
Video Tutorials and Help Guides: Access to an online knowledge base with step-by-step guides, short tutorial videos, and best practices for common tasks.
Ongoing Customer Support: Post-implementation, users can access support via email, live chat, or phone during business hours for any troubleshooting or guidance needs.
Optional Refresher Training: Centres can request follow-up or refresher sessions when onboarding new staff or revisiting underused features.
Security Measures
Discover Childcare applies industry-standard security practices to ensure the privacy, integrity, and safety of all data stored within the platform. This is essential given the sensitive nature of childcare and family information.
Key Security Features:
Data Encryption: All data is encrypted in transit (via SSL/TLS protocols) and at rest using advanced encryption standards.
Role-Based Access Control: Staff access is restricted based on user roles, ensuring individuals only access information relevant to their responsibilities.
Secure Data Centres: The platform is hosted in secure, monitored data centres with robust physical and cyber protections.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Users may be required to verify identity through a second layer of authentication to prevent unauthorized access.
Regular Security Audits: The system undergoes scheduled security reviews and vulnerability scans to identify and address any potential risks.
Data Backups and Disaster Recovery: Automated backups and disaster recovery protocols are in place to restore data in case of system failure or breach.
Compliance with Privacy Regulations: Discover Childcare aligns with data protection regulations such as GDPR and relevant local privacy laws to ensure lawful data handling.
Updates
Discover Childcare follows a proactive software update strategy to deliver new features, improvements, and security patches. Updates are managed centrally, so users benefit from enhancements without needing to manually install anything.
Update Practices Include:
Regular Feature Releases: New features and improvements are typically released on a monthly or quarterly basis, based on user feedback and roadmap priorities.
Security and Bug Fixes: Critical patches and fixes are deployed as soon as needed to address vulnerabilities or system bugs.
Cloud-Based Delivery: As a cloud platform, all updates are pushed automatically, ensuring all users always access the latest version without downtime.
Update Notifications: Users are informed of upcoming changes through email, dashboard alerts, or in-app messages, often including a summary of what’s new.
User Feedback Loop: Feedback from users is used to prioritize enhancements, ensuring the platform evolves based on actual customer needs.
Zero Downtime Deployments: Updates are managed behind the scenes with no impact on day-to-day operations, preserving service continuity.
Data Ownership and Portability
Discover Childcare maintains a transparent policy that prioritizes the user organization’s ownership of its data. This approach ensures centres retain full control and have the ability to access, export, or migrate their data when needed, even in the event of contract termination.
Key Data Ownership and Portability Provisions:
Full Data Ownership: The childcare provider or organization remains the rightful owner of all data entered into the platform, including child records, attendance, communications, and billing information.
Access Rights: Authorized users can access and manage data at any time during the contract period without restrictions, subject to their permission levels.
Data Export Options: The software provides built-in tools or support for exporting key data sets (e.g., enrolment details, billing records, and learning observations) in commonly used formats such as CSV or PDF.
Portability on Termination: If the organization discontinues use of the software, Discover Childcare offers assistance in exporting data to enable a smooth transition to another system.
Retention and Deletion Policy: Data is retained for a defined period post-termination (usually 30–90 days), after which it is securely deleted unless otherwise agreed in writing.
Compliance with Legal Obligations: Any handling, exporting, or deleting of data is done in accordance with data protection regulations to maintain privacy and compliance.
Scaling Up / Down
Discover Childcare offers flexibility to accommodate growing or contracting childcare centres. Whether adding more children, opening new rooms, or downsizing, the platform is designed to scale with minimal friction and transparent cost implications.
Scalability Features and Conditions:
Flexible User Licensing: Centres can add or remove staff and child profiles as needed. Subscription plans often adjust based on the number of active users or enrolled children.
Modular Feature Access: Additional features or modules (e.g., advanced reporting, multi-centre management) can be added based on evolving operational requirements.
Upgrading Plans: Moving to a higher-tier plan can typically be done immediately, unlocking more features or higher capacity with pro-rated billing adjustments.
Downsizing Options: Centres can reduce usage or downgrade plans at the end of a billing cycle, provided any minimum usage term or notice period is met.
Multi-Site Support: For growing organizations, the system can support multiple centres with centralized reporting and administration, allowing unified control.
No Long-Term Lock-In for Scaling: The service is often offered on monthly or annual terms, so changes in scale can be reflected in future invoices without long-term penalties.
Consultation Support: Account managers or support staff are available to help assess needs and recommend suitable configurations or plan changes as the business evolves.
The terms & conditions for contract renewal and cancellation
Discover Childcare operates on a subscription basis with flexible terms tailored to the needs of childcare centres. The renewal and cancellation policies are generally transparent, with clear notice periods and minimal barriers for exiting the service when needed.
Key Terms for Contract Renewal and Cancellation:
Automatic Renewal: Contracts typically renew automatically at the end of each billing cycle (monthly or annually) unless cancellation is initiated in advance by the customer.
Notice Period for Cancellation: A written notice is usually required to cancel the subscription. The standard notice period ranges from 14 to 30 days, depending on the billing plan.
No Long-Term Lock-In: Many subscriptions are offered without long-term contracts, especially for monthly plans, allowing centres to cancel at the end of a period without penalties.
Early Termination of Annual Plans: If a centre opts out of an annual contract before the end of the term, there may be fees or a requirement to pay for the remaining months unless otherwise negotiated.
Data Access Post-Cancellation: Upon cancellation, access to the platform is typically maintained for a short period (e.g., 30 days) to allow data export before permanent deletion.
Downgrading Instead of Cancelling: In cases of budget constraints or reduced usage, centres can often switch to a lower plan rather than cancelling entirely, subject to plan limitations.
Customer Support for Transitions: Support is available to assist with cancellation processes, data export, and offboarding to ensure minimal disruption to centre operations.
Compliance
Discover Childcare is committed to ensuring that its platform complies with relevant legal, privacy, and operational standards applicable to childcare providers and data handlers. This supports trust, legal alignment, and industry best practices.
Key Compliance Areas:
Data Privacy Regulations (e.g., GDPR): The platform complies with international privacy standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ensuring secure processing, access control, and data transparency for users.
Local Childcare Licensing Requirements: The software is built to support compliance with local and national childcare regulatory frameworks, including documentation, reporting, and enrolment record-keeping standards.
Electronic Payments Compliance: Payment modules within the platform adhere to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) when processing credit/debit card transactions.
Cloud and Hosting Compliance: Data is hosted in secure cloud environments that meet ISO/IEC 27001 standards or equivalent for information security management.
Audit Trail and Logging: The system maintains a secure and timestamped audit trail of user actions, helping centres meet regulatory requirements for transparency and oversight.
Staff and Child Recordkeeping Standards: Tools within the platform are structured to align with government expectations for attendance, incident tracking, and health records.
Parental Consent and Communication Logs: Features that support secure documentation of parental permissions, notifications, and digital communication ensure compliance with privacy and safeguarding policies.
