Kinderrijk was live with Elari Cards within a working week

Stichting Kinderopvang Kinderrijk is the market leader in Amstelveen, with more than 45 locations spread across Amsterdam and Amstelveen, where 500 employees care for 3,500 children. Every day, Kinderrijk is committed to helping children discover the world and encouraging their development through play, based on strong pedagogical expertise. It is therefore crucial that Kinderrijk has a reliable payment method to, for example, organize activities. That’s why they now use Elari Cards.

In the past: cash discrepancies and lost receipts

Soufyan, a member of Kinderrijk’s board of directors, explains: “We used to work with traditional cash books, cash discrepancies, lost receipts, and paper archives. Employees had to request cash from their supervisor in order to make purchases. Sometimes, however, there simply wasn’t any cash available. Obviously, you want to avoid that. And if cash was available, you’d go out and then had to turn in the receipt and change after making the purchase. Fortunately, we quickly switched to a digital process. At the time, I wasn’t yet familiar with Elari’s smart payment cards, so we started with an alternative first.”

“Our experience with the previous payment card provider is similar to the features of Elari Cards,” says Soufyan. “Unfortunately, we encountered some challenges with the availability of their product, which led to a certain loss of trust on our part. Since our system is fully automated, even brief interruptions in its availability can bring our entire process to a standstill. This has a direct impact on funding activities for children, such as bus tickets, admission tickets, and lunch. So it’s crucial for us that the payment process is reliable. In our quest for certainty, we began looking for an alternative solution that better meets our needs.”

A lightning-fast and smooth implementation

Soufyan shares his experience: “By then, I was already familiar with Elari, so I quickly reached out to account manager Ivo to discuss the possibilities of Elari Cards. We had already seen that Elari offered various features that our previous provider did not.”

“The implementation was thorough, fast, and smooth. Not rushed, but definitely efficient.”

Soufyan, Member of the Board of Directors at Kinderrijk

Ivo adds: “Soufyan contacted me on Friday morning, and after a brief conversation, we immediately scheduled an intake meeting for Monday. That very same Friday afternoon, Kinderrijk already had an account set up to integrate Elari Cards, thanks to consultant Lisa. On Monday, I gave a demo to the administrative staff, and we were able to get started right away. Just four days later, on Thursday, Lisa had also set up Kinderrijk’s Elari environment, and the cards were ready for use. My compliments to everyone involved; it’s admirable how quickly we were able to get things up and running.”

Soufyan adds: “It was particularly appreciated that Ivo understood the urgency and acted quickly. Normally, more time is taken to draft agreements, but Elari was willing to take the risk to speed up this process for us. We received excellent support during the implementation. There was mutual trust from the very beginning. That’s exactly what I was looking for.”

Employees “simply” pay with the card

“The way Elari Cards work was the deciding factor in our switch,” Soufyan emphasizes. “The payment process is similar to that of our previous provider. So while we haven’t realized major time or cost savings, our confidence in the product and the partnership were decisive factors in our decision.”

“We’ve noticed a few nuances in the products. For example, the reports in the Elari web version may be slightly less intuitive for administrative purposes compared to our previous card management system. On the other hand, the Elari app offers a very pleasant user experience. This app works exceptionally well and is a valuable addition to the solution that is widely used at our locations.”

“Now that we’re using Elari Cards, educational professionals simply ask an assistant manager for a card,” Soufyan explains. “Then they walk right into the store, pick up the items they need, and return the card and receipt. That works very well for them. The assistant manager then uploads a photo of the receipt and accounts for the expense. The manager automatically receives a notification and reviews it with the push of a button.”

“The Elari app works exceptionally well and is a user-friendly and valuable addition to the solution that’s widely used at Kinderrijk locations.”

Soufyan, Member of the Board of Directors at Kinderrijk

The three biggest benefits of working with Elari Cards

Soufyan cites three reasons why Elari Cards work for Kinderrijk: reliability, scalability, and a good fit with childcare-specific processes.

1. A reliable payment card from a reliable provider

Soufyan explains: “Elari is reliable, and I also find our partnership with Elari to be very reliable. The organization is open to feedback, and it feels like they actually act on it, as if Elari is constantly improving.”

2. Elari is future-proof

“In addition, the software scales along with your organization. As a result, Kinderrijk is now agile, regardless of location or growth. We don’t suddenly need extra staff to keep up with our processes. It offers unprecedented possibilities in terms of numbers and volume. The solution works well for organizations of any size, regardless of industry.”

3. Elari tailors processes and makes them more efficient

“That said, Elari works particularly well for childcare-specific processes. You want to give the educational professionals enough autonomy and freedom to do their work well and enjoyably. They should be able to make their own choices about what they purchase, rather than having us centralize everything. Of course, the software also helps make processes more efficient.”

Another advantage over the previous vendor: optimization options related to notifications and threshold amounts. “We’re currently exploring those process improvement options in Elari,” Soufyan notes. “As a manager, for example, you don’t want to see every expense claim, but only those above a certain amount.”

Do Elari Cards work outside the childcare industry as well?

Ivo: “Absolutely! As Soufyan mentioned, we can customize the settings to suit a wide range of organizations. Take a look, for example, at our other Elari Cards success stories.” Of course, we’d love to demonstrate the power of Elari through a live demo. We look forward to hearing from you.