Power Platform Nursery Staff Management
for Bright Little Stars in Education
Overview
Bright Little Stars operates four privately owned pre-school nurseries, providing top-quality early education to 500 children across North London. Their core mission is to nurture each child’s unique potential through joyful, safe learning environments and innovative programmes, all while upholding the highest ethical standards and ensuring equal opportunities.
Faced with the challenge of managing nearly 200 staff members, including third-party agencies, the organisation sought to streamline payment processes. They turned to HappyWired, a trusted Microsoft partner, to implement a modern solution using Microsoft Office 365 and the Power Platform.
Challange
Thanks to their outstanding reputation, Bright Little Stars has experienced rapid growth and now collaborates with numerous third-party agencies, each with separate billing contracts. As a natural consequence of expansion, essential administrative tasks - such as managing spreadsheets and email communications - became more time-consuming and frustrating. These manual processes diverted staff from their primary focus of serving children and parents.
To address this challenge, Bright Little Stars sought modern digital solutions that would reduce risk and streamline agency payments. After nearly 12 months of searching for the right technology partner, they found HappyWired - a specialist in low-code productivity automation technologies. HappyWired provided a digital solution that was easy to adopt, simple to administer, and adaptable to the organisation’s future growth.
Strategy
HappyWired developed the Bright Little Stars Nursery Management application using Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow. This centralised solution facilitates several critical activities:
- Staff Records: It securely records staff qualifications, medical information, and child-safety certifications (DBS checks) in compliance with industry regulations.
- Staff Scheduling: The app schedules staff capacity based on qualifications at the nursery room level.
- Attendance Tracking: It records time, attendance, and absence for accurate agency reporting and payroll processing.
- Bonus Calculations: The app calculates special recognition bonus payments and directly integrates them into payroll.
- Remuneration Management: It handles individual staff remuneration and benefit packages.
- Confidential Reviews: Staff can provide confidential input during bi-annual reviews.
- Review Scheduling: The app schedules and records staff reviews and appraisals.
The Bright Little Stars Nursery Management PowerApp uses SharePoint as its data source for staff information, including contracts, remuneration details, and annual reviews. SharePoint permission groups ensure secure management of personal data, and SharePoint calendars provide scheduling information by person and nursery rooms. Additionally, Microsoft Flow automates attendance hours calculation for payroll and manages notifications and approvals related to leave and bonus payments.
The flexibility of Power Apps, combined with HappyWired’s creative thinking and responsiveness to our business challenges, helped created a great platform to grow our business.
Pintu Varsani
Finance Manager
Result
In less than four months, Bright Little Stars implemented a modern application that empowers all staff to efficiently manage their employment and personal development within the organisation. Meanwhile, management can track key performance indicators, assess employee well-being, and strategically plan recruitment for sustained growth. The extensible nature of this solution also enables process automation, allowing Bright Little Stars to stay true to their core values.
