The visoparents Foundation brings together key processes in human resources, care, planning, and fundraising on a single digital platform
What began in 1963 as a small parents’ association is now a foundation active throughout Switzerland that supports families with a child with a disability. The visoparents Foundation provides individualized support to children with complex multiple disabilities, chronic illnesses, or challenging behaviors throughout their preschool and school years. At the same time, it creates spaces where children with and without disabilities can grow up together, interact, and learn from one another.
To enable employees to focus on this challenging and valuable task, reliable, well-organized, and easy-to-use processes are needed behind the scenes. However, legacy systems and siloed data sets were increasingly complicating day-to-day work. Together with the Online Group, the foundation therefore developed a centralized solution based on Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and Power BI. It has been in productive use since June 1, 2026.
Starting Point: Many Tasks, Scattered Information
The visoparents Foundation’s previous system architecture consisted of an Access database and other standalone solutions. As a result, information on employees, managers, and HR; clients and parents; donors; volunteers; and other stakeholders was scattered across different systems and databases.
At the same time, key processes such as time tracking, staff scheduling, daily attendance tracking for the children in care, the management of clients and care agreements, and fundraising had to be reliably mapped out.
The challenge, therefore, was not simply to replace individual applications. What was needed was a common digital foundation that connects different departments, ensures consistent access to data, and supports employees in their day-to-day work.
A platform for core processes
The new solution is based on Microsoft Dataverse, Dynamics 365, Power Apps, and Power BI. It integrates key processes from human resources, client services, administration, and fundraising into a single database.
To this end, existing data from various systems was consolidated and transferred to the new environment. The migration included, among other things, companies, contacts, locations, groups, clients, service agreements, attendance records, projects, donations, employees, and employment contracts.
Roles and access rights ensure that employees, supervisors, HR, senior management, and IT can each access the information relevant to their tasks. Audit logs have also been set up for particularly sensitive areas to ensure that changes remain traceable.
Time Tracking and Staff Scheduling in One Place
A key component of the solution is the newly developed time management system. Employees record their working hours in a custom-built web application and, at the same time, gain insight into their scheduled shifts, absences, and their vacation and flex-time balances.
Staff scheduling is integrated with Microsoft Teams Shifts. Scheduled shifts are automatically synchronized with Dataverse and are therefore also available on the central platform.
In addition, the solution supports the management of various types of absences, carryovers to the next year, balance adjustments, and the monthly closing. After the monthly closing, the corresponding entries are locked and remain clearly documented.
As a result, the new solution does more than simply replace an existing time-tracking system. It consolidates scheduling, working hours, absences, and time accounts into a single, integrated process.
Track Attendance Easily and Completely
A dedicated Power App was developed for the daily attendance tracking of the children in our care. The care teams can view the contractually required attendance records in the app and record arrivals and absences directly.
The application takes into account location-specific care hours, reasons for absences, and additional care days. Missing entries from the past are automatically displayed and can be added in bulk.
The compact layout has been specifically optimized for use on existing workstations. Even with groups of up to 20 children, the relevant information remains clearly visible.
This results in a standardized and transparent process that enables care teams to quickly enter data as part of their daily work while also creating a reliable database for further analysis.
Keep Track of Occupancy and Capacity with Power BI
To supplement attendance tracking, an occupancy schedule was implemented in Power BI. Daily, weekly, and monthly views show how available seats and capacity are being utilized.
Occupancy factors, workload factors, and capacity utilization are calculated automatically. A traffic-light system shows at a glance whether utilization is in the green, orange, or red zone.
For operational use, an optimized print preview is also available, which concisely summarizes the most important information about locations, groups, and children.
This means that the foundation not only has up-to-date attendance data but also a transparent basis for planning and managing its care services.
Centrally Manage Clients and Care Agreements
Client master data and service agreements were also integrated into the new platform.
Among other things, the solution maps client relationships, contractual partners, locations, service agreements, and service locations. Automatic checks help prevent duplicate records. Business rules—such as those for calculating service and overhead factors—are directly supported by the system.
Parents, legal guardians, and payers can be clearly assigned to their respective contracts. As a result, key information is no longer stored in separate applications but is directly linked to the relevant individuals and services.
Fundraising as Part of the Overall Solution
Contrary to the original plan, fundraising was also implemented during the first productive phase.
The foundation can manage fundraising projects, fundraising goals, and donations received directly in Dynamics 365. The current donation total and the corresponding percentage of the goal achieved are calculated automatically.
Additional features support data quality and further processing: The system alerts users to potential duplicates, accounts for anonymous donations, and automatically flags contacts or companies as donors. Mailing histories and marketing lists have also been integrated into the shared platform.
This means that not only are the operational client support and human resources processes digitally integrated, but relationships with donors and other contacts are also managed using the same database.
Document BSV services in a transparent manner
Another module supports the tracking of services according to the defined BSV codes. Employees can record the corresponding hours and, if necessary, link them directly to a client.
For larger data sets, an Excel-based bulk import feature is available. At the same time, the solution ensures that stored data records cannot be altered retroactively without authorization and supports the required data retention.
This ensures that these administrative and regulatory processes are also integrated into the shared platform.
Developed step by step, tested together
The new solution was developed iteratively and continuously tested in collaboration with the visoparents Foundation. This allowed for early incorporation of feedback from the project and enabled the individual modules to be specifically tailored to actual day-to-day work.
In addition to time management and attendance tracking, the first production release also included scheduling, BSV time tracking, fundraising, client and contract management, the central address database, and the migration of existing data. Additional features will be added in the next phase. These include, among other things, an enhanced planning tool, grant and case planning, automated donation receipts and thank-you letters, as well as additional options for self-reporting absences.
The benefit: A better overview of your entire workday
With its new platform, the visoparents Foundation has brought together several previously separate areas of application on a common foundation.
Employees track their work hours and attendance using applications tailored to their specific tasks. Managers and HR gain greater transparency regarding assignments, time accounts, and absences. Care teams can view contractual attendance requirements and additional care days directly in the system. The administration department centrally manages clients, contracts, and BSV benefits. Fundraising projects, donations, and contacts are linked to the rest of the data.
This results in fewer data silos and duplicate data sets. Information is entered once and is available wherever it is needed. At the same time, Power BI and the centralized analytics provide a better foundation for planning and decision-making. The solution thus does more than just support individual administrative tasks. It connects key areas of the foundation and, behind the scenes, creates the conditions that allow employees to focus more on their core mission: providing individualized support to children and their families, alleviating their burdens, and opening up new perspectives for them.
