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High-tech Tools Can Help You Manage Child Care

Team Collaboration Software is One Tool That Can Increase Efficiency

January 2006

by Art Young

Managing a child care center in church organizations is no easy task, and that's why integrating technology into your program can make operations run more efficiently and effectively. Whether your child care program has a staff of two or twenty, there are affordable technology solutions to help your church meet the everyday challenges of running a successful child care center.

Using Technology to Boost Communications Leads to Effective Operations
There are many areas in which technology can play a role in child care programs, including computers in the classroom, on-line learning programs, and attendance and billing software. However, one area that is often overlooked is communications, yet it is the key to success in every organization. Open and effective communications with your staff members, volunteers, parents and church board members leads to shared ideas, understood expectations, peace of mind and effective operations. With this in mind, let's take a closer look at technology designed to help organizations communicate and collaborate more effectively and efficiently. Commonly called team collaboration applications (or intranets/extranets), this technology has been in development for many years and brings together tools and features that make it easy for teams and work groups to communicate, collaborate, organize, prepare and accomplish tasks and responsibilities.

Imagine logging on to an intranet created specifically for your church's child care program complete with calendars, files and documents, e-mail, contact lists and discussion forums for your staff, volunteers and parents to access and share. What a team collaboration solution does is create a secure, "virtual" online work center that allows you to streamline communications, organize and provide access to important documents, and increase participation and cooperation among teachers, staff, volunteers, parents and church administrators. It can help you or your program director facilitate information and administrative tasks and allow them to spend more time focusing on the children and their care and developmental progress.

How Team Collaboration Technology Can Save Time, Money
With easy to use tools and a broad range of features, team collaboration solutions can save you time and money. Here are a few ways team collaboration technology can impact a child care center's operations:

Calendars & Scheduling Scheduling staff and teachers with vacations and holidays can be time consuming, but it is a critical step in running an effective child care program. With calendaring features, team collaboration solutions, such as DayPoint, can streamline scheduling by allowing users to log on and check shared calendars. Many different calendars may be set up for different uses. For example, one calendar can help coordinate carpooling for volunteers and parents; calendars set up for each classroom can organize details for class activities and special events; and calendars just for teachers and parents can keep teachers and parents abreast of field trips, holidays, and other important dates. In addition to coordinating schedules and events, the calendaring function can also coordinate use of church facilities for child care program needs, such as the gym, fellowship hall or kitchen.
Document Management This function allows administrators, teachers and parents to save, share, access and update documents in a central location. In addition to maintaining the integrity and quality of files by keeping them in one location, this function reduces time searching for and e-mailing documents and making constant updates. With group and private folders, you can file updated curriculum and class lessons, memos, program policies and procedures and other important information while providing easy access to those who need it. This feature controls expenses by reducing the need for printing and mailing documents.
Project Management Planning field trips, coordinating holiday celebrations or managing special events are simple when you can collaborate online with staff, teachers and parents. Without scheduling the first meeting, you can assign tasks, set deadlines, make decisions and check progress of several projects.
Contact List Management With most team collaboration tools, you can share and maintain contact lists. This makes it easy to keep the most accurate list of children enrolled in your program, including age and parent contact information, child's allergies or special medical conditions, as well as teacher and substitute lists and e-mail lists.
E-mail Team collaboration solutions with a web-mail interface, such as DayPoint, make it possible for administrators, teachers and parents to send and receive e-mail messages, whether or not they have an email account. You can quickly send updates or schedule changes to staff and teachers or reminders to parents. Plus, teachers and parents can e-mail one another about children's progress, upcoming activities and class needs. This keeps everyone informed, involved and in touch.

Get Ready to Communicate, Organize, Prepare and Share
A first step for selecting a team collaboration solution that is right for your child care program is to try one out for a few weeks before buying. Most providers offer a free trial up to 30 days to give you and your child care staff a chance to log-on, explore its features and put it to the test. The technology is available as licensed software that your church purchases and hosts and as a hosted application that the provider hosts and maintains on its server. Depending on the size of your program, your budget and the functionality you will need to manage communications, you can select the software that meets your church's needs. Prices range from $6.95 per user, per month for a hosted application solution to an annual fee of $1,000 or more for licensed software.

When researching, look for features that are most important to your organization and its communications and collaboration needs. Is it easy to set up and administer? Will users be able to quickly learn how to use it? Is it affordable? Does it offer multiple calendars, project management, contact list management, email, discussion forums and other features? Is it secure to store confidential information about each child? Does the provider offer technical support? Answer these questions, put the software to the test and experience how this high-tech tool can:

Help child care program directors become better communicators and managers;
Help staff and teachers become more organized and effective;
Help parents become more informed and involved;
Help your church run a successful child care program for your community; and
Save time and money by eliminating copies, postage and lengthy meetings.

Art Young is TeamPoint's founder and President

This article published in Church Business magazine.

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