Sylvan Learning Summit Speaker Series: CTO Monica Nicolau Explains How Sylvan’s COVID-19 Pivot To Technology Sets Franchisees Up for Future Success

Sylvan Learning’s Chief Technology Officer Monica Nicolau thought that 2020 was going to be an easy year. Obviously, she was in for a surprise, but by 2021, she and her team had conquered the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic and emerged with new digital products that present a huge value add for customers and franchisees alike.

Sylvan Learning, an industry leader in supplemental and enrichment technology with more than 40 years in the business and 750 points of presence across North America, was unexpectedly hit by the pandemic like everyone else. But because of the brand’s years of investment in technology, Nicolau and her team easily and quickly made it work.

“I thought that this was going to be the easy year of my career at Sylvan because we had just gone through an entire technology project to replace an old system with the new one,” Nicolau told 1851 Publisher Nick Powills at Sylvan Learning’s online franchise summit. “I thought it was going to be easy-peasy maintenance. Then March hit, and within the span of a week or two, we had to go from all in-center tutoring to remote tutoring delivery.”

By turning on a dime, Nicolau and her team enabled all the system’s franchisees to keep earning even when schools themselves shut down. With kids out of school and the world living in fear of exposure to the virus, Sylvan’s quick work allowed some sense of normalcy in the early pandemic.

“I’m very proud of the fact we could do that right away with the technology we had in place, but I’m even prouder of my team and everyone at Sylvan for the fact that we were able to not just use what we have but actually build on top of that a brand new platform for delivering tutoring to remote students essentially overnight,” she said.

Of course, there’s always a better mousetrap. Nicolau and her team started immediately working on the next platform after succeeding at building a stopgap measure to keep business rolling.

“In early May, I think we had the first version of the SylvanSync Connect platform,” she said. “As of a couple of months ago, we released the latest student portal to enable the higher student-teacher ratios we used in our centers and to enable students to work independently remotely yet interact with our tutors as well.”

While Nicolau and her team worked their hearts out during the pandemic, much of their success is owed to Sylvan's leadership and their forward-thinking approach. Decades of investment in technology allowed Nicolau to hit the ground running during the pandemic in a way that saved the corporate team and franchisees alike.

“Because of all the investments we made over the years in technology, not just building technology but infrastructure that would enable us to adjust to conditions, and this is the mother of all changes,” she said. “It was a bad year and it was a great year.”

When the whole world of brick-and-mortar commerce came crashing down in March, Sylvan’s decades of investments in technology meant that its franchisees were protected. A smaller tutoring business, or any business without the corporate muscle and foresight of Sylvan wouldn’t have faired so well.

When the pandemic hit, Sylvan’s franchisees “could lock their centers, go home and figure out tutor schedules online, essentially overnight,” said Nicolau. “That’s what technology is for. To help us in our day-to-day tasks.”

Sylvan’s technology is working to allow franchisees to continue delivering the same quality education they provide in-person online. Nicolau was proud to keep Sylvan’s “proven approach with pen and paper” and make it accessible online.

Now that the concept of online tutoring at Sylvan has succeeded with flying colors, Nicolau says this is just the beginning of using technology to make franchisee’s lives easier.

According to Nicolau, Sylvan is soon going to become even more automated and even more accessible online. Sylvan already handles the marketing and websites of individual centers, and now with improved online booking, Sylvan’s franchisees can kick back and focus on delivering the best possible education to their communities.

“Our next areas of focus are going to be related to customer self-service and customer engagement,” she said. “We already have systems in place that track progress for their students and to book a subset of our services, but not a full set of services. We’re looking forward to having direct tutor session booking and app booking and requesting or rescheduling a session online instead of having to call the center. These are all things that will help customers and help franchisees be more efficient and spend less time on administrative tasks and more on customer service and student success.”

With the need for education services in the U.S. peaking as COVID-19 continues to disrupt school years, and with Sylvan’s operating model becoming more streamlined than ever thanks to sound corporate leadership, there has never been a better time to invest in the education brand.