Kinderpedia supports Maple Bear Central and Eastern Europe's expansion by offering an integrated solution for the entire network
„We are extremely happy at Maple Bear CEE and I would definitely recommend the solution to all the schools in all the network.”
Looking for a school manager platform that can support the fast expansion of a leading educational franchise
Yann Bidan, the CEO Maple Bear CEE, was looking for an efficient school management aplication and software platform. One of the board members of the tech start-up he was a member of told him about Kinderpedia.
„It’s a very funny story actually. I am a board member of a French tech in Bucharest and I was looking for a management and communication app and one of the board members told me that as a parent, he was using Kinderpedia in Romania. When he had to change kindergarten, the only factor that he was looking for in the new kindergarten was „are they using Kinderpedia?” , said Yann.This enthusiastic recommendation made Yann look for more details about Kinderpedia.
„For me it means happy parents using this platform would be interested in us, Maple Bear, and that’s how I started looking into you guys.”, explained the CEO.
Kinderpedia brings valuable benefits specific to the Maple Bear philosophy
Maple Bear came to Central and Eastern Europe in 2019 with the ambition to grow a network of 130 schools in 10 years, in 21 countries. Finding the best digital instrument to help manage this network was crucial for Maple Bear.
With Kinderpedia, the managers have easy access to real-time important data. And in the case of a multi-unit institution, like Maple Bear, Kinderpedia enables a centralized view over the entire network.
„What is very important for a school network is to know at any time how many teachers, how many children, how many parents, how many schools we have and thanks to Kinderpedia I have a real dashboard now that helps me manage on a daily basis my school network.”, said Yann.
„It was key for us to find a digital and technical partner that could cope and follow with our growth.” , said the CEO.
Another key factor for the users is to have a platform that is easy for the school to implement. The customer service is always a crucial element that makes the difference between a low or a high churn rate.
„The cert point was the customer care. We do not want to partner with additional partenrs who do not have time or do not know how to serve once the platform is installed.”, said Yann Bidan.
Which are the benefits of using Kinderpedia in Maple Bear CEE?
The managers of Maple Bear Schools were struggling to find answers to problems concerning the platform they were using. It was very frustrating to be stuck and to not have a prompt way to fix the error.
“With Kinderpedia, every time a school owner or a teacher has an issue, they contact the customer care and the problem is solved in a very fast and easy matter.” added Yann.
The new operating system brought about benefits that were visible early on.
"We saw we were gaining time and no longer spending hours in the administrative effort they were doing before. They were able to focus on what matters most, which is delivering quality education to the children. That is a real benefit for us.”, added the CEO.
Time for a transparent and time-saving invoicing process
Kinderpedia automates and simplifies the financial management, both on the institution’s and on the parent’s side.
“I think a school needs to be properly managed as a company. When the administrative part of the school is messy, this gives a bad image to the parents as well. Thanks to Kinderpedia, our schools were able to ease this all these invoicing solutions. It’s extremely transparent, it goes directly to parents’ e-mails, parents can pay with their cards. So it easeas all this process, it’s supporting the school image with the existing parents and to enroll new parents.” , is Yann’s opinion.
How does Kinderpedia simplify teachers’ day to day work?
One of the key paramenters for Maple Bear is to constantly have teachers present with the children in the classroom. In tranditional kindergartens or schools sometimes the teachers need to take care of administrative workload that will distract them from being with the children.
“With Kinderpedia, instead of taking time outside the classrooms, our teachers are working on administrative tasks on their phone. They can do several tasks at the same time – take attendance, give assignments to children, receive back the assigments from the children and correct it, communicate with the parents, send pictures, and all the other types of tasks that you expect teachers to do, can be done very easily from the classroom.” , said the manager.
How does Kinderpedia enhance communication and trust in the school community?
Kinderpedia helps Maple Bear Schools build a stronger connection with families – those that are already part of the Maple Bear community, but also indirectly through them, the school builds a good reputation with potential clients.
„What we realized after using Kinderpedia, is additionally to ease the work load of the teachers and the school owner with a lot of transparency to the parents and you gain their trust in the Maple Bear schools thanks to the use of the platform.”, added Yann.
Educating children by instilling a passion for lifelong learning
There are currently more than 39,000 students in 560 Maple Bear Early Childhood, Elementary, and High Schools. They are present in 30 countries: Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, UAE, Oman, Turkey, Morocco, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Romania, Bulgaria, Nepal, Thailand, the USA and Peru. They are preparing to be open in 9 countries: Kenya, Argentina, Paraguay, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Guatemala, Ukraine and Australia.
Maple Bear CEE leaders believe that education is the cornerstone institution that will have the most positive impact on the future of the region – not only from an economical point of view but with regard to addressing the main challenges humanity faces as well.
