Member Article

School payment software company sent to new office

A Coventry company that provides online payment software for 3,000 schools across the UK has completed a major expansion with the opening of a new office in the city.

ParentPay is the market leader in cashless payment systems for schools and has opened a new software development office at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Business Innovation Centre in Binley.

The new site is where the software technology behind ParentPay’s web applications will continue to be developed alongside an existing support and operations centre at Baginton, Coventry and an administration office in Somerset.

The original idea came from a working Coventry parent and ex-school teacher in 2002, with the aim of making it easier for parents to make payments while also reducing administration burdens normally associated with cash collection in school offices.

Schools sign up to the service and have an account created online where parents can log-in and pay for everything from music lessons and school trips to dinner money and after-school clubs.

The first ParentPay customers were initially local schools and parents but word quickly spread and ParentPay is now being used by thousands of schools in every area of the UK.

ParentPay’s continuing growth has seen their software team grow rapidly over the past year and now they have opened a new development centre to sustain its success.

Clint Wilson is Chief Executive of ParentPay and believes the Business Innovation Centre will provide the perfect base for this new office.

He said: “The new office forms part of a major business expansion programme over the last six months.

“The Binley office will focus on software development and we have already grown our software team from seven to 18.

“In the past year we have taken on more than 20 new members of staff from the local area and hope to continue this.

“We chose Binley as it has a convenient location and Coventry has a great catchment area for hiring skilled software and technology workers.

“The centre has high-speed, resilient connectivity to the servers in our data centre combined with good building security. This met our needs for the continued development of our secure payment software.”

Penny Robb, centre manager at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Business Innovation Centre in Binley, is delighted to add another exciting business to its portfolio of tenants.

She said: “ParentPay are the latest company to join us having set up a great business off the back of an innovative idea and experienced tremendous success.

“We have a wealth of experience in helping such businesses to take the next step in their development and sustaining their success.

“Constant, reliable connection to the internet is also key in business today, particularly at our Business Innovation Centre with the number of software-based businesses we cater for, so we pride ourselves on our strength in this area.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Joe Hewison .