Which one is better for your childcare center - Lil Triangle App vs Illumine App?
Table of Contents
Introduction:
In the dynamic landscape of childcare center management software, choosing the right solution can make all the difference in running an efficient and successful center.
Today, we’ll explore two leading contenders: Illumine and Lil Triangle. As a forward-thinking childcare center owner, you need a solution that offers robust features and empowers you to have complete control over your center’s operations.
Here are the 5 things we are evaluating the software for –
- Management Control
- Teacher App Users
- Parent App Users
- Admission Management
- Support, Training & Accountability
- Data & Privacy
- Reviews & Ratings from Users
Let’s delve into the key features that set Illumine apart as the perfect fit for your childcare center.
1. Lil Triangle’s Center Management: How much control do you have over your center?
1(a) Multicenter Dashboards
Lil Triangle was originally designed for standalone centers and does not provide unified dashboards for a preschool chain with multiple centers. This limitation can hinder your ability to have a holistic view of your entire childcare network, potentially impacting data-driven decision-making.
Moreover, we spoke to one of the former customers of Lil Triangle, and this is what they had to say about their Multi-Center Management.
“Changing from one center to another takes quite some time. The more branches I add to the app, the slower the load time gets. The experience is not very smooth, often frustrating.”
Group Admin Head of an enterprise childcare chain, in India
With Illumine, you have the ability to view multi-center dashboards – allowing you to get an overview of all your operations across all your branches in one place. You can also view center wise dashboard by simply clicking on the center whose reports you want to access.
1(b) Admission Management
A typical early years center has an admission process split into stages – from an admission inquiry to an open house/ school tour, some document collection stage, and then admission confirmation, etc. At each of these stages, various details are collected from parents (even documents too) – and this happens over the course of a few weeks.
The Lil Triangle app does not provide the option to create forms for different stages of the admission process; it merely allows you to collect student information from parents at the start. There’s no concept of information collection and continuous profile development for potential admissions.
Compared to Lil Triangle, Illumine has the concept of setting your own admission process with various stages – wherein different kinds of information collection forms, documents, digital contract signatures, etc can be collected against a potential lead.
This feature simplifies the parent onboarding experience where they don’t feel as if they are constantly answering the same questions ensuring a smooth transition into the childcare center.
1(c) Parent & Staff App Installation & Usage
Lil Triangle falls short when it comes to providing an essential feature – an overview of app installation and usage by parents and teachers. Without this crucial insight, childcare owners lack the ability to track the reach and effectiveness of their communications. Understanding who has installed the app is vital for maintaining a strong and engaged community.
Illumine enables administrators to monitor app installations for both parents of a child, providing valuable insights into engagement. You can send app download invitations to parents from a single window.
Furthermore, this monitoring capability extends to teachers, enabling administrators to oversee installation and usage activity. With these functionalities, Illumine optimizes communication and operational efficiency for childcare centers, ensuring smooth interactions and informed engagement.
1(d) Fee Management
Billing and fee management is an important function – something the management team always keeps a close eye on. The degree of complexity increases when it comes to managing billing across multiple centers.
Some key things to evaluate are:
- Different fee template setup
- Automated invoice generation
- Payment Reminders
- Auto late-fee addition
- Offline & online payment collection (inc in-app options)
- Credit-note, debit-note, and deposits
- Post-payment receipts
- Other expenses management (petty cash, etc)
- Comprehensive Billing reports
- Integrations with Accounting software (like Tally, Quickbooks,etc)
Lil Triangle’s fee management system offers a basic overview of expenses, falling short of providing a comprehensive financial picture for childcare centers. The absence of automation for payment-related activities can lead to a lot of manual processes which could be time and labor-consuming.
Illumine’s fee management module lets you handle your fee-related operations end-to-end. From creating and setting up automated invoices, sending payment reminders to parents, and setting up due dates against invoices generated – you can do it all. You can also keep track of all your expenses by documenting them in the app. This information is reflected on the dashboard and it gives you a comprehensive understanding of your finances.
1(e) Role-based Permission Control
Every center has both teaching and non-teaching staff members at various designations. All of them should not have the same level of access to student information and center business data.
Role-based Permission Control thus becomes crucial as it enables administrators to control access and actions based on users’ roles.
While Lil Triangle has the concept of assigning Roles, it does not have the linkage of these roles to ‘permissions’. Each staff member’s permission needs to be individually assigned – which is both cumbersome and a potential security risk.
In contrast, Illumine administrators have granular control over user access, defining roles and permissions with ease. This ensures that staff members, parents, and other stakeholders only have access to the information and functionalities relevant to their roles.
1(f) Staff Management: Leaves & Communication
In any communication, information exchange happens. And you don’t want student information being exchanged on personal channels like WhatsApp – i.e. channels where you have little to no control over data. This is why Internal Staff Communication needs a dedicated channel.
Lil Triangle does not support staff communication or leave management. Illumine in contrast supports both staff communication and staff leave management – and both these are linked together with other features like staff schedule too!
On Illumine, admins can create groups for both teaching and non-teaching staff, facilitating efficient internal communication akin to WhatsApp. This fosters coordination, idea sharing, and timely updates while ensuring all work-related discussions remain secure. Additionally, Illumine simplifies leave application, enabling staff to request leaves with a few taps. Super admins can approve or deny requests, enhancing transparency, accountability, and optimized staffing.
Take Control Over Your Center’s Operations With Illumine’s All-In-One Management Tool
Illumine offers an all-in-one management tool that enables center administrators to take control of their operations with ease. The platform streamlines scheduling, resource allocation, communication, and performance tracking, providing real-time data analytics for informed decision-making.
2. Lil Triangle App’s Teacher Modules
2(a) Lesson Plans
Lil Triangle only allows users to add curriculums to the system, but what good is it if parents don’t have a view on what their child is learning on a day to day or weekly basis? It reduces the curriculum to only a document.
On the other hand, Illumine’s lesson planning feature enables teachers to create and share comprehensive weekly lesson plans effortlessly. This ensures that parents stay informed about their child’s educational journey, fostering better engagement and collaboration between teachers and families – making the curriculum truly effective.
2(b) Student Assessments
The first four-five years are crucial development years for a child. And early years assessments help in finding and addressing any developmental issues a child may have.
While Lil Triangle offers an “exam” module, it focuses on adding a passing percentage, which is not relevant in a preschool or early years setup.
Illumine’s student assessment tool provides a holistic view of each student’s learning journey, capturing their individual strengths and areas of growth. Teachers have the ability to add milestones to track the gradual progress of the child. This data-driven approach enhances the educational journey of young learners, fostering a supportive environment for their overall development. And, all of these happens within the sphere of the curriculum the childcare center follows.
2(c) Staff Schedule
Lil Triangle lacks the functionality of creating staff schedules, potentially leading to planning conflicts and miscommunication among staff members.
Illumine’s staff schedule feature allows center head to get an overview of what each staff has on their plate on a day to day basis, which allows for an even distribution of workload amongst the staff members. With Illumine, center owners can efficiently manage their staff’s schedules, leading to improved staff satisfaction.
More importantly, the Staff Schedule also links with the Lesson Plan module – much like school teachers have staff timetables that show the lessons being covered week on week.
The Perfect Sidekick For Teachers: Illumine’s Teacher App
From creating and sharing lesson plans to conducting comprehensive student assessments, Illumine’s Teacher App streamlines every aspect of the teaching journey. The app’s user-friendly interface allows teachers to manage their tasks seamlessly, fostering better communication with parents and ensuring a collaborative learning environment.
Ready to empower your teachers?
3. Lil Triangle App’s Parent Communication Module: Why It is Not Efficient
3(a) Parent Messaging
Communication is a two-way street.
Lil Triangle’s limitation lies in its one-way communication approach, where parents can’t send messages to teachers, resulting in potential communication gaps and missed opportunities for parent-teacher engagement.
In contrast, Illumine’s parent communication feature facilitates two-way messaging, enabling parents to reach out to teachers effortlessly. This seamless communication channel fosters better engagement, collaboration, and transparency between parents and teachers.
3(c) Student Leaves
Parents cant send leave requests for their kids on the Lil Triangle app. This feature is simply not there.
In contrast, Illumine shallowing parents to submit leave requests directly through the platform which goes as a request to the admin to approve or deny.. This promotesclear communication, and ensuring appropriate arrangements for the child’s absence.
3(d) Parent Concerns
Parent concerns play a vital role in nurturing a supportive learning environment. This functionality is simply not there.
With Illumine’s seamless concern management, parents can raise concerns easily, and administrators or teachers can address them promptly by resolving them or adding comments, ensuring a transparent and responsive approach to parent concerns.
3(e) Parent Notes
Communication between parents and administrators/teachers is crucial for understanding and addressing individual child needs. Lil Triangle’s absence of a parent notes feature limits this interaction.
Illumine, on the other hand, enables parents to send notes conveniently, ensuring administrators/teachers can respond appropriately and take necessary actions (eg – say a child needs to be given medicine after a meal), fostering a collaborative and caring environment for the child’s growth and development.
3(f) ID card generator for parents
Lil Triangle does not let you create ID cards for students and staff. With Illumine, you have access to the ID card generator feature, which also links directly with the attendance module. These ID cards streamline attendance tracking and bolster security measures within the center.
3(g) Authorized pick-up along with the QR code
Often parents are not always available for dropping and pickig up their child from the center – a grandparent, uncle/aunt or driver too comes to their aid.
And without a way to manage and authorize pickup/drop, the center may face security risks and potential confusion during dismissal times.
Lil Triangle simply does not cater to this need.
With Illumine’s parents can designate authorized individuals for pick-up their child, ensuring only approved personnel can collect the child. The added advantage of QR codes enables swift and secure check-in and check-out procedures for these authorized pickup/drop.
3(h) Newsletters
Newsletter is not something that is supported on the Lil Triangle app. On the other hand, Illumine offers ready to use templates as well as a drag and drop editor, Sending newsletters to parents is effortless, resulting in improved parent involvement and a stronger sense of community.
Transparency Made Easy with Illumine’s Parent Communication Tool
Illumine’s Parent Communication Tool enables providers to share updates and engage parents effortlessly. It creates a collaborative learning environment by facilitating real-time communication, fostering trust between educators and parents.
4. Little Triangle’s Admission Management Module: What Does it Not Cover
4(a)Lead Capturing
Keeping an eye on all the channels where your leads could be coming from is essential to drive your conversion rates. Lil Triangle does not have this functionality.
On the other hand, Illumine lets you easily capture leads from diverse channels such as WhatsApp, Social Media, Website, Emails, and offline avenues (manually) like brochures with customised admission forms. These forms can be integrated in the school’s website or can be used as independent pages (much like Google forms). This means, every lead or inquiry coming for your center gets documented in one place, enabling you to manage them better.
4(b) Admission Team Productivity
Lil Triangle’s Lead Management tool falls short when it comes to tracking follow-up tasks, creating potential drawbacks for childcare centers. Without the ability to track tasks related to each lead, staff members may face challenges in managing their follow-up activities efficiently.
Illumine’s Lead Management allows center owners to create tasks against each lead, assign them to staff members, and set reminders with a simple click of a button, ensuring no lead goes unnoticed.
4(c) Lead Email Templates
As part of the admission enquiry process, parents expect prospectus/brochures and other information. Besides you too want to send information about your school and its admission process.
Lil Triangle lacks the functionality to create email templates within the tool, hindering the ability to send standardized follow-up emails to leads and maintain consistency in communications. This drawback can make it challenging for childcare centers to efficiently pursue leads through email interactions.
On Illumine you can use available templates as well as create your own with a drag-and-drop builder. Once created, the same can be setup for automated sending at various stages of the enrollment process.
4(d) Channel Dashboards
Since Lil Triangle does not let you capture leads from different sources, channel dashboards are not even a possibility.
Illumine lets you gain insights into the performance of each admission channel through dedicated dashboards, allowing you to refine strategies and optimize your approach for better results.
4(d) Lead Distribution
When you are a multiple-branche chain, you typically get enquiries from parents keen on a particular center while your marketing efforts are more central. That’s where lead distribution at the branch level becomes a need.
While Lil Triangle does not let you distribute your leads center-wise, Illumine’s CRM platform gathers your leads from various sources and allocates them to the respective centers.
Gather and Conquer All Your Leads With Illumine’s CRM Platform
With Illumine’s robust CRM platform, childcare centers can effortlessly gather leads from various sources, including their website, WhatsApp, and Facebook, and centralize them in one place. This streamlined approach ensures that no lead is overlooked, maximizing the chances of successful conversions. Illumine’s task tracking feature allows centers to easily follow up on tasks related to each lead, ensuring no interaction falls through the cracks. Center owners and staff can stay on top of every lead, set reminders, and personalize follow-up communications with ease.
5. Data & Privacy
Ensuring robust data protection and privacy measures in childcare centers is paramount. Safeguarding sensitive information ensureslegal compliance and fosters trust among parents
When we tried looking up Lil Triangle’s privacy policy and data compliance, we did not find anything – which is alarming to say at the very least. This finding is concerning as it raises potential uncertainties regarding the software’s commitment to data protection. Further, their extremely low-pricing makes us doubt on data security measures (data security is not cheap, and costs do get carried-forward in the pricing).
Whereas, at Illumine we place our utmost importance on data and privacy policies to ensure a secure environment for childcare centers. It is GDPR compliant and operates on the Google Cloud Platform. Rigorous application security testing by Synopsys validates its security.
The platform’s compliance has been audited and approved by major corporations like Goldman Sachs, Genpact, and Wipro, establishing its credibility in ensuring data integrity and privacy. So if you run a Corporate childcare center, you sure need a software that meets their level of data security.
6. Updates, Support and Accountability
6(a) Training
Little Triangle’s support in training is limited, which may leave childcare centers feeling unprepared and unsupported during the onboarding process. The lack of extensive training resources can hinder staff members from fully utilizing the platform’s features and functionalities.
In contrast, Illumine goes above and beyond in providing end-to-end training for childcare centers. With comprehensive training sessions, video tutorials, and personalized assistance, Illumine ensures that center staff are well-equipped to make the most of the platform’s capabilities.The team also provides trainings when new features are launched. Features & updates are launched every 3 weeks, and bug fixes happen in 5 days typically.
6(b) Onboarding
Little Triangle’s onboarding support also falls short, leading to potential difficulties in transitioning to the platform smoothly. Limited onboarding assistance may leave center owners and staff feeling overwhelmed and unsure about integrating the platform into their daily operations.
Illumine streamlines onboarding with bulk setup across all centers, providing ready-to-use accounts. The swift process takes as little as 10 days from sign-up to full deployment for all centers combined.
6(c) Post-Sales Support
Little Triangle’s post-sales support may lack the comprehensiveness needed to address ongoing questions and concerns. Insufficient post-sales support may leave centers feeling isolated and struggling to troubleshoot issues effectively.
On the other hand, Illumine excels in providing end-to-end post-sales support. A dedicated Whatsapp group is created to provide real-time support at all times. With a responsive customer support team and continuous assistance, centers can rely on Illumine for prompt resolutions to their queries and ongoing guidance.
Illumine’s Support: Hear Feedback From Our Customers
7. Latest Reviews and Ratings: Lil Triangle’s Credibility
Why dont you check it for yourself?
Illumine’s Latest Ratings and Reviews
8. Pricing
Lil Triangle offers a cost range between Rs 150 to Rs. 350 per student per year.
Illumine’s pricing is based on different models based on different sizes of an organization.
To Summarise:
| Center Management | Lil Triangle | Illumine |
Multicenter Dashboards | No | Yes |
Admission Management (Leads) | No | Yes |
Parent & Staff App Installation & Usage | No | Yes |
Role-based Permission Control | No | Yes |
Staff Leaves and Communication | No | Yes |
Teacher App | ||
Lil Triangle | Illumine | |
Lesson Plans | No | Yes |
Student Assessments | Somewhat | Yes |
Staff Schedule | No | Yes |
Lesson Plans | No | Yes |
| Parent Communication | Lil Triangle | Illumine |
Parent Messaging | No | Yes |
Newsletters | No | Yes |
Student Leaves | No | Yes |
Lesson Plans | No | Yes |
Parent Concern | No | Yes |
Parent Notes | No | Yes |
ID card generator for parents | No | Yes |
Authorize pick up along with QR code | No | Yes |
| Lil Triangle | Illumine | |||
Training | No | Yes | |||
Onboarding | No | Yes | |||
Post-Sales Support | No | Yes | |||
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