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"We needed them to be our experts, to guide us and to give us good and affordable services; and everything they did, and still do, helps that."
Raewyn Van Lingen, HR and Communications Manager of CMKA
CMKA - Relationship
Raewyn Van Lingen started with the Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association (CMKA) as a head teacher in 1996. She is now the HR and Communications Manager, in charge of supporting the CMKA's large workforce in 29 separate locations, ensuring staff and children have what they need to succeed every day.
About the Organisation
Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association (CMKA) is an educational organisation that puts children at the heart of everything they do. For more than 60 years they have been providing affordable and quality early childhood education to children, coast to coast from Tuakau in the south to Manukau in the north.
Head office is located in Takanini, and from there they provide 250 staff and 2000 children at 29 sites with the tools and care they need to be best equipped for life
Technology plays an important role in ensuring that isolated sites are connected and safe, and it needs to operate at a high level to support their technology platform that sees children using video, animation, photography and coding to learn and interact meaningfully with their parents and families.
The Situation
In 2011, CMKA had 70 employees and were on a fast growth trajectory.
Raewyn joined the management team to help support the organisation as it expanded from a small not-for-profit with no plan and poor technology, to a commercially sustainable enterprise.
This meant finding a business partner they could trust to set them up for their future state, while also being patient and working within budgets and with existing hardware and software.
“We didn’t have this great big bottomless pit of money. We needed a partner who could work with what we had until we could afford to change things.”
The organisation put out an RFP to get a solid network built that would support their future platform needs, and Foundation Partners was awarded the contract.
The Solution
Together, CMKA and Foundation Partners built a network and IT capability that has allowed the organisation to smoothly grow from 70 people with various IT functionality, to 250 people with their own devices.
All this is powered by a sophisticated IT platform that supports digitally enhanced learning and communication across their 26 kindergartens and 3 early learning centres, and delivers right-sized, reliable tools that help grow the business.
The organisation has a clear IT roadmap that aligns with their business goals and ensures that service is robust, costs are contained and everything that is invested in, makes a noticeable difference.
“We were amateurs in the world of IT, and they really supported us through that. I know that there wasn’t any advantage taken of the fact that there was no one in our organization who’s an IT expert. We needed them to be our experts, to guide us and to give us good and affordable services; and everything they did, and still do, helps that.”
The Relationship Today
“I remember them explaining why they are called, “Foundation Partners”. They see themselves in partnership with whomever they were working with, and they want to be the foundation that everything else is built from."
"And that’s just what they do. Nothing around what they say they will do and what they then deliver has changed.”
Raewyn cites the closely held values and ethics of the two organisations with the success of the partnership.
“It’s really important to us that our relationships with people are transparent and that we work with people who believe in what we’re doing.”
By partnering closely through mutual respect and openness, Foundation Partners and CMKA have built a trusted business relationship where they have a great understanding of each other and communication flows easily.
“They are always polite and respectful, and understanding of the fact that they are dealing with 250 people, many who have no interest in or knowledge of IT. You’re not handed off to different people, and you’re not having to repeat your story."
"It’s like dealing with the guy next door, really. They’re all interested, inquiring, helpful.”