KidsCount Fabric Implementation

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KidsCount partnered with Simple Analytics to kick-start their Microsoft Fabric journey, building a scalable data platform that automates reporting, centralises InfoCare data and creates a trusted foundation for analytics and AI.

a stack of stacked blue and white plates

Kids Count is a Kiwi-owned family of childcare centres established in 2009, with a focus on helping every child reach their potential.

With more than five ECE centres across New Zealand, Kids Count uses InfoCare as its student management system to manage enrolments, attendance and day-to-day centre operations. Alongside InfoCare, the organisation also uses separate systems for payroll and financial management.

Historically, reporting and analytics were managed through a combination of Excel and dashboards built in 1Place. Kids Count wanted to modernise this approach by bringing its data together into a unified analytics platform using Microsoft Fabric and Power BI.


Solution

The first stage of the project focused on establishing a Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse to centralise data from InfoCare and supporting SharePoint files.

Data from these source systems is landed into the Raw layer of the Lakehouse, creating a central location for operational and reporting data.

Working closely with Kids Count’s IT and Operations teams, we then defined the required business logic and applied data transformations within the Refined layer of the Lakehouse. This created a trusted and consistent dataset that could be used across reporting and analytics.

From the refined data layer, we developed a Power BI semantic model to provide a governed foundation for reporting and analysis.

Power BI reports and Fabric AI Agents were then connected to the semantic model, giving Kids Count a modern analytics platform that supports both traditional reporting and AI-driven insights.


Outcomes

Automated Reporting
Replaced manual and spreadsheet-based reporting processes with automated data pipelines and scheduled refreshes through Microsoft Fabric.

  • Dashboards for Centre Managers
    Provided centre managers with easy-to-use Power BI dashboards, giving them greater visibility of performance and operational metrics across their centres.

  • AI-Powered Insights
    Introduced Fabric AI Agents, allowing users to ask natural-language questions of their data and access insights without needing to navigate reports or build their own analysis.