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The Road to Electronic Billing and Payment. Not always a straight path…. UNIVERSITY of RICHMOND. Annemarie Weitzel Bursar Troy Boroughs Director of Systems & Networks Andrea Stadler Student Account Representative/Perkins Specialist. The Long and Winding Road. OVERVIEW. Invoice Process
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The Road to Electronic Billing and Payment Not always a straight path….
UNIVERSITY of RICHMOND Annemarie Weitzel Bursar Troy Boroughs Director of Systems & Networks Andrea Stadler Student Account Representative/Perkins Specialist
OVERVIEW • Invoice Process • Why E-bills and E-payment? • PCI • Why Nelnet/QuikPAY™? • Timeline • Marketing • Surprises • One Year Later
PRIOR INVOICING PROCESS • 40,000 paper invoices sent out each year • Printed, folded, sealed, postage • Paper/folder jams • Cut/paste international student invoices for emails • Address issues • Returned mail
Prior Payment Collection Methods • Bank lockbox – can take 10-14 business days • CheckFree™ – telephone/web credit card payments with a flat service fee of $50 for every $2,000 (limited to $2,000 a day) • Wires from international students • Snail mail
Why E-bills and E-payment? • 24/7 real time access • Third party access (parent, employer, guardian) • Going green • Constituency demands online services • E-checks with no fees • Immediate receipt of invoice and payment • Outsource credit card payments with percentage service fee to constituents • PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance
Why is PCI DSS Compliance Important? Consider this scenario… • Your institution uses a payment system (regardless of whether it is hosted on campus or by a third-party vendor) • The payment system is breached and cardholder data is compromised • If your institution or your vendor is found not to be PCI DSS compliant, you may be liable for any or all of the following: • Fines imposed by acquiring bank and/or payment brand • Costs to notify cardholders • Credit card replacement and remediation services for impacted cardholders • Repayment of fraudulent charges that result from data breach • Onsite forensics audit by a PCI-Qualified Data Security Company • Level 1 merchant certification by a PCI-Qualified Data Security Company • A Forrester report details the cost per breached record from $90 to $305. A breach that exposes data for 10,000 cardholders could cost $900,000 to $3 million. • A “small” breach could cost your institution millions of dollars not to mention bad publicity, loss of reputation/trust…and your job!!!
Challenges of E-commerce • Many groups, organizations and departments want to offer online credit card and check payments to their customers, yet their needs, resources, and business and system maturity sometimes differ greatly. • E-commerce is complex and requires the cooperation of many different groups, but it’s not always easy deciding who is “in charge”. • Credit card and banking industry security requirements require stricter controls and can result in large costs for merchants (e.g., universities). • We are held accountable for the security practices of our third-party vendors and many legacy payment vendors have difficulty keeping their software “up to code”. • Manual/paper payment processes are difficult to ferret out and control. • Centralized policies, education, management support and communication are required to get everyone singing the same tune.
Why Nelnet/QuikPAY™ • No additional hard dollar costs • Customized invoice • PCI, FERPA, NACHA, GLB compliant • Ease of implementation • Integrated SunGard partner • Immediate confirmation of real time payment • 2 yrs. payment and16 mos. invoice history • Comprehensive reporting • Developed in collaboration with Higher Ed institutions • Security-firewalls,encryption,intrusion detection
TIMELINE • Spring 2006 – vendors come to campus • June – reference calls to Rollins, VA Tech, Wake Forest and Univ. Illinois • August – proposal/cost analysis • September – approval for Nelnet/QuikPAY™ • January 2007 – begin implementation • February – design new invoice • April thru October– go LIVE /paper and E-bills • November – E-bills only
MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING! • Mailing to parents and students • Met with all schools within UR • Spiderbytes • Mass emails • “Making the Most” – admission information • Updated bursar webpage • Flyers in mailboxes prior to end of term • Graduation hold emails w/ info. • Targeted students with no authorized payer • FAQ/Brochures “UR Ready for E-bills”
MORE MARKETING • “Orientation Express” • Prizes • Signs blanketing the campus • Flyers on beds and in campus mailboxes • Brochures and emails to campus departments • Article in Collegian • Table set up in Commons and D-Hall • Postcards to parents – “UR Finished with Paper Billing”
EVEN MORE MARKETING • Crawl on UR TV channel • Message on all bursar email signature lines • Added the change to E-bills on our voice mail • Insert in all admission packets • Collegian advertisement • Link to Nelnet on BannerWeb
IF ALL ELSE FAILS… • Posted flyers to bathroom stalls for “Your Reading Pleasure”
Authorized Payer Tracking • Oct. 15, 2007 1281 Authorized payers • Nov. 9, 2007 2522 Authorized payers • Dec. 18, 2007 2776 Authorized payers • March 9, 2008 2938 Authorized payers
SURPRISES • 3 students paid before we were LIVE • Parent outcry • Parent delight • Complexities of creating a new invoice • Easy to learn and teach
MORE… • Student apathy towards marketing efforts • Yes – you can still mail your payment • Once paperless – the MONEY came in – WHEW! • No opt out offered for a paper invoice – little resistance
I YEAR LATER • November 2007 forward – no paper invoices • $1.3M ahead in Dec. 2007 collection efforts compared to Dec. 2006 • Parents and students realize benefits • Parents recommending our invoices to other institutions • No excuses to not pay and no more “Check is in the Mail”
MORE… • Email is the official communication to students across campus • Paper invoices are not an option • Staff can spend more time on collections • Payments received within minutes of the E-bill being sent each month • Lockbox payments have dwindled • 24/7 automatic removal of financial holds – students LOVE this feature. • Cash Management Office finds QuikPAY™ easy to reconcile to the bank
THANK YOU! Annemarie Weitzel Bursar aweitzel@richmond.edu Troy Boroughs Director of Systems and Networks tborough@richmond.edu Andrea Stadler Student Account Representative/Perkins Specialist astadler@richmond.edu