Xplor Education - Company of the Year - Computer Services

Company: Xplor Education, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Company Description: Australian company Xplor provides childcare management software which provides time-saving tools for childcare centre businesses and facilitates virtual access to early childhood education. Our ultimate mission is to enable childcare care centres to focus on what they do best - delivering essential early childhood education and care - while we automate and simplify the administrative burden.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Company of the Year - Computer Services - Medium-size

Nomination Title: Xplor Education

Australian company Xplor Education believes in the power of technology to solve big problems. Access to high quality early childhood education and care is a critical building block for children; helping them develop the skills they will need at school, into their teenage years and even their adult years. Xplor Education facilitates this access through enabling childcare care centres to focus on what they do best - delivering essential early childhood education and care - while we automate and simplify the administrative burden.

Frustrated by the outdated systems in childcare and not able to afford an app developer, founder Mark Woodland taught himself to code and over the next few years developed Xplor Education.

We have four products: Xplor Office manages administrative requirements for centres such as enrolments and payments. Similar to Airbnb for childcare centres and the first solution of its kind in Australia, Xplor Space lists childcare centres and their real-time availability. Parents can enrol directly through the platform. Xplor Playground makes it easier for educators to plan and program learning and manage children’s information. Xplor Home allows parents to communicate directly with educators, book sessions and make payments.

Virtual learning

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in Australia, we developed a live learning product which enabled the live streaming of classes directly into the home. This ensured consistency in education for children and also allowed centres to continue to charge parents for the service; maintaining their revenue and ensuring their viability. Many centres have continued to offer live learning as an alternative and flexible solution for families.

As an extension of live learning, we opened up the Xplor Education platform to educators and other subject matter experts such as doctors, to provide virtual classes, share advice and provide other content with the over two million families on the Xplor Education platform. This could include anything from a virtual music lesson through to a video on safe sleeping practices.

Xplor Space

The first solution of its kind in Australia, Xplor Space lists childcare centres and their real-time availability, so parents can enrol directly. Not only does this make it simpler for families to enrol in childcare it also enables centres to increase occupancy.

Growth & NOC

Xplor Education has grown dramatically in the last year. We now have 157 staff, more than double the 63 staff we had at the beginning of 2020. As demand for our service increased, we scaled up accordingly.

Our primary key performance metric is Number of Children (NOC). Currently our NOC is 1.5 million.

Virtual learning

While there will always be a need for physical educators in physical environments, the ability to access virtual classes from the very best educators anywhere in the world can lift the quality of early childhood education and care everywhere. The costs of bringing a specialist art teacher into a centre, for example, can be prohibitive.

Learning delivered virtually also creates digital occupancy, which gives centres additional growth opportunities. Centres could theoretically be operating at 500% occupancy while still complying with educator to child ratios for example.

Opening the platform to thought leaders also provides additional value to families while giving educators another opportunity to earn. A class may cost 99c for example, but when sold at a high volume it can be very lucrative for the educator. This helps solve another major challenge in the industry - the ability to attract and retain great talent. If educators have alternative revenue streams and can therefore be remunerated well, they are more likely to stay in the profession.

Xplor Space

While Space had been in development for two years before launching in March 2020, the timing was fortuitous as it helped centres improve occupancy during the pandemic when Centres’ very viability was under threat.

Growth & NOC

By focussing on Number of Children (NOC) it helps us remain focussed on our impact on education. We are on track to increase this to 2 million children by 2024. This will account for 20,000 services using our services globally.