Our Proposal
An AI copilot for the people who run nurseries.
Table of contents
Each section answers one of the questions from Guylain Marino's brief, in order. Click to jump, or scroll.
- 01The ProblemWhat Nursery Managers actually do all day, the five areas of friction, and why a single AI copilot beats five new tools.
- 02The SolutionSylvia as a manager-centric copilot, sitting on top of SherloQ, Hublot, Maglia, Nemborn, GLPI and SharePoint. Country-localised, NVIDIA-accelerated.
- 03The Live DemoA click-through of the five pillars. Most of it is already live. Open the live app and walk through it like a Nursery Manager would.
- 04From Demo to 1,000 CentresDiscovery in Q4 2026, pilot in one country from Feb 2027, wave rollout to the other four countries through early 2028. Integration dependencies and the success metrics CEOs can champion.
The Problem
One Manager. One centre.
13 systems standing between them and their team.
The Solution
Four layers
Stacked, top to bottom.
| Layer | What it does | Tech |
|---|---|---|
01 Manager surface | What the Nursery Manager actually uses. | Web · Mobile · 5 countries |
02 Reasoning | Drafts, classifies, retrieves, decides when to escalate. | Frontier LLMs + small models |
03 Country knowledge | 5 regulator corpora + Grandir's own KB. | UK · FR · DE · CA · US |
04 Connections | Plugs into the 10 systems Grandir already runs. | 10 systems · Read + Write |
| Stack | One codebase. Same shape across all five countries. | 4 layers |
Trust commitments
The rules Sylvia follows at every layer.
- Drafts everything. Sends nothing without human approval.
- Cites every answer with its source.
- Two-step confirmation on irreversible actions (booking a floater, sending a parent note, filing an incident).
- Five regulator handbooks. Not one translated.
How it connects
10 existing systems. One conversational layer. One surface for the Manager.
SharePoint
Microsoft 365
GLPIWhat Sylvia does, by category
The five categories from Section 01. Now with what Sylvia does in each.
SharePointMicrosoft 365Where Sylvia runs
Same Sylvia. Two deployment options. The rows below show the key building blocks. Not every brick in the stack.
Fastest to deploy. OpEx model. Microsoft-aligned, with native Outlook and SharePoint integration.
Every LLM call stays inside Grandir's premises. CapEx model. Best fit for centres or countries where data residency is non-negotiable.
Hardware sizing for ~1,000 centres is a real engineering question. We'd validate it during Phase 1 with a representative load profile, not in this proposal.
The Live Demo
Most of the live demo is already built. Click into it like Emma does at 07:15.
In New York, the CEOs see a one-take walkthrough of a real Nursery Manager's morning. Below: each pillar, the moment it produces, what the CEO actually sees on screen, and the live entry point.
"Emma needs to reorder nappies but can't find the approved-supplier policy. Sylvia surfaces it from SharePoint with the citation, and only pre-fills a GLPI ticket if Emma actually needs Procurement."
- One conversational entry, six topic shortcuts
- Plain-language answer with source citation from Hublot, Eureka, SharePoint
- GLPI ticket pre-filled only when Sylvia can't answer (today, 80% of Procurement tickets are illegitimate)
"Half-day closure tomorrow for boiler repair. Sylvia drafts the parent notice in each family's language, queues it for Emma's approval, and sends in one click."
- Parent messages drafted in each family's language
- Tone matched to centre style
- Approve & send from the same surface, no copy-paste into Outlook
"Sarah calls in sick at 07:14. Sylvia has already drafted next week's schedule overnight; now she surfaces a ratio-aware replacement in three clicks."
- Sylvia-drafted next-week schedule (no Generate button; it's just there)
- Absence alert leads to find replacement, then a two-step confirm with undo
- Absence-spike risk flagged 2 weeks ahead, before the floater shortage hits
- Country-specific staff ratios baked into every suggestion
"Inspection in 14 days. Sylvia hands Emma a prep checklist, a regulatory Q&A in plain language, and a non-conformity verification flow tied back to SherloQ audits."
- Country-localised regulator Q&A (UK Ofsted, FR PMI, DE Jugendamt, CA, US)
- 14-day inspection prep checklist with progress + 'why this plan?'
- Corrective action plans drafted from SherloQ protocols after each incident
- Non-conformity verification with photo and text evidence
"Emma's lead educator needs activities for the toddler room this week. Sylvia suggests age-appropriate ideas, tracks milestones per child, and drafts the end-of-term parent report."
- Activity suggestions matched to age and the country's pedagogical framework
- Milestone tracker per child
- Smart progress report draft for parents
What the September walkthrough actually looks like
- 107:15 · Home. Emma opens Sylvia. Today's three things, weather, ratios. We make 3 minutes of admin feel like a calm briefing.
- 207:18 · Sarah is sick. Click "find replacement." Ratio-safe floater pre-booked with undo. Schedule re-balances.
- 309:00 · A child falls. Log incident, then Sylvia drafts the report, the parent note in FR, and the corrective action. SherloQ + Chaperons & Vous lineage shown live.
- 411:00 · "Where's the approved-supplier list for cleaning products?" Plain-language answer with the SharePoint citation. If Sylvia can't answer, she pre-fills the GLPI ticket so Emma isn't stuck.
- 514:00 · Inspection in 14 days. Open the prep plan. "Why this plan?" modal shows the reasoning. Checkboxes drive progress.
- 616:00 · Parent report. Sylvia drafts the term progress report from observations. Manager edits two sentences and approves.
From Demo to 1,000 Centres
Discovery in Q4 2026. Pilot from Feb 2027. Five-country footprint by early 2028.
We don't believe in big-bang rollouts of AI products. The plan below is deliberately phased: ground-truth in the UK pre-September, run discovery workshops to lock down scope, pilot at small scale in one country, then wave-roll out to the other four. Pre-September is anchored in the brief. Everything after is our proposed shape — refined with country CEOs in New York.
Roadmap
The pre-September window is anchored in the brief and separately funded. Phases 1–4 are our proposed shape, refined with country CEOs in NY.
Ground-truth the diagnostic in the UK, build the demo, present to country CEOs in New York.
Scope: UK Nursery Manager interviews (June) · build the demo (July / Aug) · NY presentation 14–15 Sept. Funded by the separate September pre-sales engagement, not the post-September estimate.
- UK Nursery Manager, line manager, IT interviews complete
- Country-specific needs captured and folded into the demo
- Demo presented to country CEOs in New York
Turn the September go-ahead into a firm, scoped programme for the pilot and rollout.
Scope: Joint workshops with Grandir IT, Operations and country leads to lock down business rules, requirements and the data model.
- Business Rules Document signed off
- System Requirements Document + Entity Relationship Diagram delivered
- Clickable interactive prototype validated with Nursery Managers
- Firm scope for Phases 2 and 3 agreed with country CEOs
Ship a production build into ~50 centres in one pilot country.
Scope: Platform layer + priority features deployed in the pilot country. Real Nursery Managers, real data, real regulators. Pilot country mix finalised with country CEOs.
- Pilot country, cohort and DPA confirmed with country CEOs
- Production deployment across ~50 pilot centres · weekly manager satisfaction surveys
- End-of-pilot business case: hours saved, NC closure speed, parent NPS
Roll out the remaining functional scope to the other four countries.
Scope: Per-country variants — regulator corpus, HRIS connectors, pedagogy frameworks — sequenced from pilot learnings and country CEO appetite.
- Country-by-country rollout playbook validated
- Country regulator corpora certified (Ofsted · PMI · Jugendamt · provincial · state-by-state)
- Tier-1 support model with Grandir IT operating
- Year-end CEO review · 5-country adoption KPIs
Move from rollout to a steady-state operating partnership.
Scope: Continuous model improvement · new pillars from manager feedback · partner ecosystem integrations.
- Quarterly product council with country CEOs
- Open agent SDK for partner ecosystem (Chaperons & Vous, Hublot vendors)
- Year-on-year reduction in admin hours per centre
September is a milestone, not a finish line.
The New York live demo is built to be the first hour of a multi-year partnership, not a glossy one-off. Everything you've clicked through in this proposal extends straight into the pilot, then the rollout, then steady state. If the CEOs are sold, the team behind Sylvia is the same team that ships it.