College and University Case Studies
Albion College Dallas Baptist University Georgian College Gordon State College Middle Tennessee State University University of Central Missouri University of Georgia University of Notre Dame
Albion College Holding Out for the Best U.Commerce, PayPath Worth the Wait for Small Michigan College • Albion, Michigan • Private liberal arts college • Founded: 1835 • Enrollment: 1,700 • Featured TouchNet® technology: U.Commerce® (Payment Gateway, Bill+Payment, Cashiering), PayPath® Convenience Fee Service
T
he rest of the country may not be able to find Albion College on a map, and probably doesn’t know that it offers some of the best pre-med, pre-law and business management programs available. In the state of Michigan, however, the college of 1,700 students enjoys elite status. “We’re sort of considered Ivy League here in the Midwest,” said Tom Pitt, an Albion alum and the college’s current accounting manager. “Our students and parents demand the best.” After several years in the works, Albion has a campus commerce system worthy of the school’s lofty reputation.
lished in 2002, when Albion converted to an ERP system. “I was always impressed with TouchNet’s products and thought how great it would be to have them on our campus,” he said. Five years and three bosses later, Pitt finally had one that agreed. “He recognized we needed to deliver a better product to remain competitive. Until that point (2009), we had no mechanism for taking online payments.” It may have taken a while to pull the trigger, but Albion got TouchNet’s U.Commerce up and running in no time, and the benefits were immediate.
Persistence Pays
Albion introduced online bill payment in fall 2009. Thanks to a significant communications and education effort, adoption reached approximately 50 percent. The next semester marked the end of paper billing at Albion, adoption was 100 percent, and
Pitt came to the job in 1998 with visions of automating and streamlining the business office through technology. His prior superiors didn’t necessarily share that vision. Nonetheless, he kept alive a relationship with TouchNet he estab-
Open All the Time
| continued |
Albion College Authorized Users were on two out of three student accounts. “There was some pushback from a small minority, but most people said, ‘It’s about time,’” Pitt said. His staff probably thought the same thing. There were no more lines of students and backed-up phone lines to deal with twice per year. No more backlogging of normal work in order to work the payment windows. No more manual updating of student accounts. Payments are now made on the students’/parents’ time and processed immediately, and student accounts are updated in real time. “Bill+Payment eliminated the need for four staff members to devote a full day to sorting, folding and stuffing envelopes,” Pitt said. “Add to that the savings on printing and postage, which is about $60,000 per year.” Pitt anticipates even greater savings as more refund-eligible students enroll in eRefunds. Refunds go straight from the school’s account to the student’s designated bank account via ACH. Again, goodbye lines and hello improved customer service. Plus, Albion avoids the need for another vendor and maintains control of the money (and earns the interest) prior to disbursement.
Convenient Cost-Cutting Before implementing TouchNet PayPath Convenience Fee Service, Albion took as much as a quartermillion-dollar hit on credit card merchant fees in a year. It took less than one year to eliminate a majority of them. “Our board of trustees said in no uncertain terms that we could no longer incur that cost of doing business,” he said. “That’s when
we decided to go with PayPath, which saved more than $170,000 in the first year alone, and more than paid for our entire TouchNet investment by itself.” Naturally, credit card payments for tuition and fees trended downward, and the number of paper and electronic checks increased, including those for in-person transactions. Streamlining the check-handling process was the main reason Albion purchased TouchNet Cashiering in the first place, Pitt said, and the more paper checks it converts to ACH, the more it shines. “When we implemented Cashiering, we experienced something totally new: the ability to process all mailed checks the day we receive them,” Pitt said. “In the first semester alone, we processed $4 million in eChecks and cut our check-handling expenses by onethird. We also improved our cash flow and the ability to make cash predictions.”
Sanity and Security As many small-college business offices can relate, Albion doesn’t have dedicated staff for cashiering, PCI compliance and other specialized areas of focus. And like business offices throughout Higher Education, they’re asked to do more with less. “I’m at bare bones with staffing. I can’t get by with any fewer positions,” Pitt said. “TouchNet allows us to focus more on taking care of internal and external constituents and less on payment processing and compliance.” Because the software is hosted at the
TouchNet Certified DataCenter, there is also less need for IT support. “Another thing TouchNet simplified for us is data storage and security,” Pitt added. “There are still things we’re responsible for, but TouchNet mitigates the burden significantly.” As much as TouchNet has lightened the load on the business office, Pitt said the customer service gains are equally valuable. “I think a lot of small school financial officers believe they can’t afford a system like this. Some may think our students and parents don’t need or want it,” he said. “In fact, they have the same demands as students at big schools. For our customers, I want the best product out there. We have it in TouchNet.” l
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com
Dallas Baptist University Convenience and Control, Built Right In TouchNet Raises the Service, Efficiency Bar at DBU • Dallas, Texas • Private university • Founded: 1898 • Enrollment: 5,422 • Featured TouchNet technology: U.Commerce® (Payment Gateway, Bill+Payment, Cashiering, Marketplace, Mobile)
I
n an ever more complex and increasingly technical world, administrators and students appreciate simplicity and convenience more than ever. And few universities can claim to give the same level of attention to their students as Dallas Baptist University. Grey Hoff, assistant vice president for financial affairs at DBU, is committed to creating a campus commerce environment that takes care of its own, and that includes helping students and parents make the most of their financial investment at DBU. The commitment to student service took a huge step forward with a recent implementation of TouchNet U.Commerce. Among a host of benefits, the school’s new campus commerce management system enables students to take care of everyday business at their convenience, freeing up more staff and resources for one-on-one time with students with real issues. But there’s more to the story.
One Less Thing to Worry About Students have a lot on their minds – juggling curriculum with a new lifestyle, while also learning a new level of fiscal responsibility – and bills can sometimes fall through the cracks. “Students today have high expectations of what they can do financially online, and we needed to live up to those expectations,” says Hoff. With products such as Bill+Payment and U.Commerce Mobile, students have more convenience with a little less to think about. Hoff describes this combination of products as a “one-stop shop for all our students to manage their finances.” TouchNet’s technology allows students to not only check statements online and on the go, but also receive text message updates regarding payments. They can also arrange a payment schedule, keeping payments on time while saving the university money in paper and postage. | continued |
Dallas Baptist University After hearing the news, Hoff walked into his chief financial officer’s office and said, “I think we made the right decision.”
What the Future Holds
Doing More With Less With mounting growing pains in the IT and cashier’s departments, Hoff happily reports that the TouchNet system has had a positive effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of his own team and all departments connected to TouchNet services. “We couldn’t keep hiring staff,” he says, nor could the school’s cashiers continue devoting excessive time to paperwork and working in an old system they couldn’t get ahead of. Self-automation is built into every TouchNet product in use. For instance, students can set up their accounts to automatically pay bills as they come due, and notices and updates can be automatically emailed or sent via text message to keep them in the loop with their university financials. All of this happens real-time and is posted back to the account. “Now, instead of pushing papers, our staff can truly impact students’ lives,” he adds. “It’s definitely more fulfilling, and a much more effective use of their time.”
Punching the E-Commerce Ticket Another game-changer was the recent addition of TouchNet’s Marketplace product. Hoff says adding it has opened up a world of e-commerce
opportunities across all campus departments, as well as streamlining all types of processing. The initial use of Marketplace was to put in place an online ticket source that served the new stateof-the-art baseball stadium. DBU chose TouchNet Ready Partner University Tickets to administer the online ticket sales. Purchase options quickly expanded to basketball, and then to fine arts events, athletic camps, and even student activities. “Marketplace is just a terrific product all the way around,” Hoff says. “The best part is that it integrates directly with our ERP.”
“We want to save money in the long run, and we can do that with what’s happening at DBU,” says Hoff. Choosing to do business with TouchNet has allowed DBU to take a step back and better analyze its own processes and determine what it can do differently to be more effective and efficient. “It has really allowed us to investigate how and why we do business and to think through our business logic,” says Hoff. “These are exciting times for DBU,” says Hoff. “We absolutely feel that TouchNet has played, and will continue to play, a tremendous role in helping us stay cutting edge when it comes to providing our students with state-of-the-art business processes that simplify their lives and help them make the most of their financial investment in a DBU education.” l
A Good Deal Gets Better Specifically, Hoff is talking about Colleague by Ellucian. Shortly after DBU purchased its first TouchNet products, Ellucian and TouchNet announced the formation of a strategic partnership that brought about the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet, a scalable, deeply integrated and expandable solution that unifies campuswide payments.
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 USA 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com
Georgian College Georgian College, TouchNet Break New Ground in Canada CMS Consolidates Commerce, Establishes First Online Debit • Main Campus: Barrie, Ontario • Enrollment: 9,700 full-time, 28,000 part-time • Public university • Enrollment growth: 35 percent since 2002 • Featured TouchNet technology: U.Commerce® (Payment Gateway, Cashiering, Marketplace, Bill+Payment) • First college in Canada to accept debit card fee payment
O
n the campus commerce landscape, effecting real change and achieving real progress require a committed partnership, one in which both parties are willing to go “all in.” From the time Georgian College first engaged TouchNet, the two partners have made increasing investments in each other, with the promise of substantial returns. For Georgian College, the end goal was fulfilling a vision of one system to handle all payments; one that enhanced self-service capabilities for students, slashed the costs of doing business and simplified PCI compliance. For TouchNet, the college proved to be the ultimate laboratory for developing a complete payment solution customized for Canadian commerce. Here’s how they did it.
Campus Profile Georgian College was established in 1967 as a modest storefront operation in Barrie, Ontario. Today, it’s one of the leading colleges in Canada.
With seven campuses, nearly 10,000 full-time and 28,000 part-time students, Georgian is also one of the largest cooperative education colleges in the country. Enrollment growth continues to outpace the national average, especially at the Barrie campus. Georgian’s personality and progressiveness have redefined post-secondary education in Ontario, building an impressive legacy of teaching and learning excellence, innovation, and strategic partnerships.
Fewer and Better When Georgian’s Grant Strasser assumed the role of business systems manager, the college was in the process of reducing the number of network operating systems across all its campuses, from 13 down to two. In line with that initiative, Strasser wanted fewer but better partners in the campus commerce arena. “The savings in staff time has been incredible,” Strasser said. “We saw what streamlining our | continued |
Georgian College network could do and decided to apply the same ‘fewer and better’ mantra to the eCommerce side.”
Carrying the Banner Georgian, part of the Ontario Banner® Users Group, began running Payment Gateway, the first piece of the TouchNet Commerce Management System, in 2004. Reliable, real-time ERP integration was achieved, and it enabled full-time students to pay tuition online, via credit card, for the first time. Within one semester, self-service became the preferred payment method, delivering immediate relief to business office personnel, both at the cashier’s window and on the phone lines. A few semesters later, nearly 30,000 part-time students enjoyed the same capability, and the staff benefits and savings increased “exponentially,” Strasser said. “With Payment Gateway behind the scenes, payments just happened,” he added. “We just forgot about it. It was that reliable.”
Giving Credit to Debit Concurrent with a recent Banner upgrade, Strasser began looking for a cashiering system with the same reliability and integration Georgian had enjoyed with TouchNet. At the same time, the school sought a way to build in debit card functionality, given the reduced processing fees and students’ general preference for debit over credit. Nonetheless, no such solution existed yet in Canadian Higher Education. That’s when Georgian College and TouchNet realized the opportunity to break new ground by building successful integration with Interac, Canada’s
most common processor. Thus, Georgian became the first college in the country to offer debit card payment capability both online and in person. The success with the selfservice debit project proved to be a catalyst for a deeper relationship, as Georgian soon committed to not only the TouchNet Cashiering solution but the entire TouchNet Commerce Management System (CMS). The move centralized Georgian’s fragmented commerce operations into a single, streamlined and secure platform. For TouchNet, it was a chance to enhance CMS for Canada’s unique regulations, payment processors, taxation and tuition funding protocols. “I was amazed at how much development work TouchNet put into meeting the regulatory requirements for Canada, as well as delivering the functionality we wanted,” Strasser said. “Both parties were looking for ways to succeed, and communicating regularly to get it done.”
Progress Meets PCI The challenge of PCI compliance was another motivating factor in Georgian’s decision to go all in with TouchNet, to have one partner handling all payments. Though centralized commerce went hand in hand with PCI best practices, Strasser still expected the process to take two to three years. Instead, it took only slightly more than one year. “We’ve known for years that after July 1, 2010, we wouldn’t be able to
process debit or credit cards unless we could prove compliance,” Strasser said. “Every college and university in Canada has known that, but with TouchNet so key to our PCI initiative, Georgian was way ahead of the game.” In fact, in 2008, when the institution went to RFP for parking, bookstore, athletics and housing/ hospitality payment vendors, responding parties were required to have TouchNet and Banner partnerships, and winning bidders joined the TouchNet Ready Partner™ program.
Betting to Win In Georgian College’s quest for fewer but better partners, Strasser said they’ve found one in TouchNet. Students enjoy convenience and capabilities they never had before. The college saves time, money and staff. Payments just happen, regardless of term or time of year. And Georgian has the commerce infrastructure to meet additional, expected enrollment growth and PCI compliance mandates with ease. “In many ways, we made a bet on the other’s success. It’s been a big win for us and for them,” Strasser said. “We now have a full commerce solution with a single vendor, and TouchNet was able to build a model solution for Canadian Higher Education.” l
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com
Gordon State College Refunds Made Easy Gordon State College Achieves an 80-plus Percent Student Refund Direct Deposit Adoption Rate • Barnesville, Ga. • Public institution, University of Georgia System • Founded: 1852 • Enrollment: 4,000-plus • Featured TouchNet technology: U.Commerce® (Dashboard, Bill+Payment, eRefunds Direct™, SponsorPoint®), PayPath®
S
witching from an outsourced program for financial aid disbursements to an internally managed program with direct deposit and printing services was easy for Gordon State College. So easy, in fact, that the college nearly quadrupled its direct deposit adoption rate the first semester it used eRefunds Direct. TouchNet’s eRefunds Direct, combined with the newly available check printing services, provides a single-source solution for student-friendly disbursements, and there’s no need for a third-party vendor. It is a simple, secure and efficient process to streamline Title IV disbursements and refunds. “Since Gordon had purchased Bill+Payment for online payments and billing, we wanted to utilize the product and all its functionality,“ said Sharon Ellis, director of Business Services at Gordon State College. “Transitioning to eRefunds Direct provided a one-stop area for the student, eliminating multiple login points.”
Direct Deposits Made Simple “With our Student Account Center having multiple functions – payment, refunds, deposits, 1098-T, bills – all in one application, students can retrieve account details and set up payment methods. It makes communication much easier,” Ellis explained. TouchNet’s eRefunds Direct is fully integrated into the campus’ system for a continuous automated process. “With all electronic processing, we have reduced our costs by saving on paper, postage, envelopes, and possible overtime of staff. The retrieval of data for the student and the staff is far easier, too.” Since many students start school with an existing bank account, the best solution is to directly deposit money into their existing account. However, there are still students without bank accounts or who choose not to use direct deposit. With TouchNet, Gordon State College can accommodate these students as well. | continued |
Gordon State College
Checks Go Down and Out
More of a Good Thing
“The check printing service has allowed Gordon the opportunity to move away from physically printing and distributing checks on the campus itself, which allows
“The adoption rate of direct deposit eRefunds during the first semester of implementation was around 80 percent, far higher than in the past,” said Ellis.
“ The adoption rate of direct deposit eRefunds during the first semester of implementation was around 80 percent, far higher than in the past,” said Ellis. our Accounts Payable personnel to focus on the other payments and prevents excessive lines at the Business Office,“ said Ellis. “As an added bonus, when students realize the check will be mailed to the address within the system, they are more diligent in correcting the address.” “The quickness with which the checks are printed upon the delivery of the file has been outstanding,” said Ellis. Furthermore, the checks are cleared and settled through the school’s bank, limiting miscommunication and expanding protection against fraud.
Schools like Gordon State College promote eRefunds around campus to ensure the best adoption rate possible. For example, signs were put up on campus with QR codes that took students to the sign-up page for enrollment in direct deposit. “Our Business Office created brochures and answered students’ questions pertaining to the process. We had a banner located in one building on the campus promoting the vendor,” said Ellis.
In addition, each check printed is an opportunity to encourage students to switch to direct deposit. “Students are looking for the quickest and easiest way to receive their funds. TouchNet eRefunds Direct provides it.” said Ellis. l
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com
Middle Tennessee State University MTSU Makes it Mandatory, Simple and Successful Direct Deposit, Bill+Payment™ Deliver Sizable Refund Savings … and More • Murfreesboro, Tennessee • Enrollment: Approx. 25,000 • Public university, member Tennessee Board of Regents • Founded: 1911 • Featured TouchNet technology: Bill+Payment™
H
ere’s how thousands of students used to get their refunds at Middle Tennessee State University: Over four days, they would take turns gathering in the old student union, waiting in long lines behind makeshift stations set up and manned by half of the business office staff, with printers and boxes of paper at each station. What a difference a few years, a key decision and the right software can make. The university took a huge step forward in 2006 by mandating that students receive their refunds via direct deposit. The following year, when MTSU implemented TouchNet Bill+Payment, the move really started to pay off.
Almost Perfect The direct deposit mandate preceded a Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR)-wide ERP upgrade, which gave MTSU, six other TBR universities and 13 colleges a new student system. A year before the upgrade,
every refund-eligible student had to fill out a banking information form and provide the university with a voided paper check. Account and check routing data were then manually entered into the old finance system. The refund was deposited into the student’s designated account or, if necessary or preferred, issued in the form of a prepaid debit card. So, while MTSU virtually eliminated thousands of paper checks each year, they still had a lot of paper, along with the costs of processing, plus the challenge of storing it securely.
Banner Year The TBR-wide ERP system upgrade came the following year, as did systemwide implementation of Bill+Payment. “When we moved to the new ERP system, our old finance system couldn’t retrieve all the banking information we had collected the previous year,” | continued |
Middle Tennessee State University said Becky Bussell, MTSU’s bursar. “That’s when we went out on our own and purchased the eRefunds module.” MTSU didn’t have to manually collect and process student banking data all over again, or ever again. The self-service eRefunds solution enables students to enter their information directly, and maintain and update their personal banking information at any time. Naturally, there was some pushback from a vocal minority, but Bussell said the biggest challenge for the institution was simply spreading the word to refund-eligible students, which thanks to increasing enrollment, had jumped to nearly 18,000. “A few people didn’t get the emails or see any of our advertising across campus and had to contact us, asking where their direct deposits were,” Bussell said. “But they only had to wait an extra day or two.” For Middle Tennessee, it was a small price to pay for the more than $250,000 it saves with the new refund model. “We now have more than 24,000 students signed up for direct deposit, and no need to store that many paper files containing PII (personal identifiable information),” Bussell said. What’s more, the university doesn’t have to relinquish control of vast sums of money to a thirdparty “bank” twice a year. Best of all, the system is in place, delivering savings and security year after year.
Looking Back, Moving Forward “Two years into it, I think students are very satisfied, plus
we don’t have the lines anymore,” Bussell said. “We’ve definitely recouped the cost of our investment, probably in check stock and manpower alone.” Speaking of staff hours and workload, she summed up the improvements this way: “Our enrollment has grown about 5 percent just since 2008, but we have not felt any impact in the business office.” Bussell also pointed to more than $200,000 in new revenue generated through Bill+Payment’s Payment Plan Manager. And in February 2009, MTSU went live with Marketplace™, enabling and securing the growing number of eCommerce transactions through uPay sites and uStores. “We’re gradually moving every merchant that accepts credit cards into Marketplace if they don’t have their own cash receipt system,” Bussell said. “We
have a long waiting list, but it’s what we have to do from a PCI compliance standpoint. “That’s a big part of why we use TouchNet … to get us there.” Simply, securely and successfully. l
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com
University of Central Missouri At the Center of it All TouchNet Powers Progress, Personal Service, and New Possibilities • Warrensburg, Missouri • Public university • Founded: 1871 • Enrollment: 11,200 • Featured TouchNet® technology: U.Commerce® (Payment Gateway, Bill+Payment, Cashiering, Marketplace, U.Commerce Dashboard), PayPath® Convenience Fee Service, PIN & PINless Debit
W
hen the Princeton Review names you one of the best colleges in the Midwest four years running, you must be doing something right. In the University of Central Missouri’s case, it’s a lot of things. Student-faculty ratio, affordability and number of degree options are just a few. As Missouri’s lead institution for professional technology, UCM is committed to acquiring and utilizing technology to enhance the university’s comprehensive educational mission. TouchNet has been a central part of that commitment.
Gateway to Good Things Perhaps no one is more qualified to speak to the benefits of Central Missouri’s investment in commerce technology than Director of Student Accounts Donna Bodenhamer. She has worked at the university for the last quarter-century, on the finance side for all but two of those years.
She moved into her current position in 2002, the year UCM first offered electronic payment through its legacy student accounting system. TouchNet Payment Gateway was the engine that made it possible. Four years later, in conjunction with an ERP implementation, the university opted to complete its U.Commerce package and purchase Bill+Payment, Cashiering and Marketplace. “We had so much success with Payment Gateway, and we liked what we saw in the other products. We knew they could enable and enhance other processes,” Bodenhamer said. “Plus, TouchNet was already a partner with our ERP. It was easy to get off the ground because everything was already integrated.”
Paying the Bills Today, nearly 11,000 transactions and $8.5 million in tuition/fee revenue are moving through TouchNet Bill+Payment, rather than in person through the | continued |
University of Central Missouri business office. Students and parents can conduct their campus business anytime, day or night. “We don’t have the lines to make payments or pick up refunds anymore,” she said. “And you can actually get through to someone on the phone.” Why? Because 93 percent of students use the system, 37 percent have an Authorized User on file, and 75 percent have eRefund profiles established that enable refunds to be deposited directly into their chosen bank accounts. Bill+Payment also allowed UCM to offer students a convenient payment plan option, one that’s easily managed and an additional revenue source for the university.
Cashing In, Out Thanks to TouchNet Cashiering, UCM converts more than 11,000 paper checks to ACH these days, out of the 15,000 they receive. Bodenhamer says the school saves many thousands annually on check handling, while the reduced demand on cashiers has enabled her to reduce staff through attrition, redefine some job descriptions and even combine some duties with the financial aid office. “This has opened up a whole new customer service avenue for us,” she said. “Our cashiers have turned into first-line customer service reps, people who are trained in financial aid and understand the process from start to finish. They can’t award financial aid, but they can help students through the process. They can actually solve problems instead of process payments all day. Everyone is happier.”
Free of Fees
online bill presentation, UCM accumulated some hefty credit card processing fees, even when some of the transactions were debitbased. That all changed when it implemented TouchNet’s PayPath Convenience Fee Service. “We used to budget $300,000 to $400,000 for credit card expenses, and it was going up every year,” she said. “We no longer have those costs, and we’re able to put that money back into the general fund.” Credit card payments have been on a steady decline ever since, while the university has enabled three alternative and economical payment paths. Today, 90 percent of online payments are made via the low-cost ACH, and PIN and PINless debit payments are increasing year after year.
Mastering the Marketplace Bodenhamer said with more campus departments jumping on the eCommerce wagon, TouchNet Marketplace gives them a powerful but easy-to-use platform for setting up and conducting business online. Alumni, parking, housing, event registration … all are plugged into Marketplace uPay sites, securing and streamlining payment channels across campus. The university’s Harmon College of Business has even found a way to get students in on the action. Each semester, juniors in the required Integrated Business Experience class form mock companies to develop, produce, finance and market products they create. Student companies with names like “IB Mo Dry” sell items like UCM-
logoed beach towels. Whether it’s stadium seats, bobbleheads, posters or coolers, the products are now sold, shipped and inventoried through Marketplace uStores. All profits are donated to Warrensburgarea charities. “They have given more than $150,000 in just five years,” Bodenhamer said. “Sure, it’s another sales channel for the business students, but really it’s a valuable tool for them to learn how to handle online payments and how the credit card industry works.” For Bodenhamer and Central Missouri, whatever possibilities emerge in the marketplace of ideas, she feels like the institution is well-equipped to make the most of them. “When I travel to conferences now, I no longer need to visit all the vendor booths to see what they have,” Bodenhamer said. “With TouchNet, I have everything I need.” l
During the first few years of TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com
University of Georgia Bullish Marketplace Leads to Top Dawg eCommerce Small Merchants, Big Campus Equal Big-Time Revenue • Athens, Georgia • Public university • Founded: 1785 • Enrollment: 35,000 • Featured TouchNet technology: U.Commerce® (Payment Gateway, Bill+Payment, Marketplace), PayPath® Convenience Fee Service
I
t’s no surprise one of America’s oldest and largest universities supports such a robust eCommerce economy. You would expect a large number and variety of online merchants at the flagship institution in one of the country’s most technologically advanced university systems. The really impressive part? Most of them never need a programmer. To set up and securely do business in a growing marketplace, all they need is TouchNet.
Good for Business In 2005, as Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations loomed large on the horizon, the University of Georgia started looking for a payment solution for its homegrown electronic student billing system. A University System of Georgia policy of not storing, processing or transmitting payment card data on campus was the driving force. “We essentially had to get the campus out of the in-house credit card processing business,”
said Associate Bursar Therese Hodges. TouchNet’s Bill+Payment suite helped UGA accomplish that goal for student billing, as well as offer new payment and refund options. TouchNet PayPath Convenience Fee Service put an end to hundreds of thousands in credit card processing fees. And everything funneled through TouchNet’s Payment Gateway for streamlined, secure processing. However, more campus departments were jumping on the eCommerce wave seemingly every day. Some were already doing business online; many others needed to set up a store and start selling. No matter their situations, all needed a way to easily take electronic payments online, and process them in the same safe and efficient manner as student receivables. Problem was, few if any of the departments had the IT support to make it happen. “I couldn’t count how many times they would | continued |
University of Georgia complain to us or to the vice president of finance, asking why the bursar’s office didn’t have something they could all use,” Hodges recalled. “We simply didn’t have the resources in our budget … or so we thought, until we saw TouchNet Marketplace.”
Getting in the Game At a campus the size of UGA’s (34,000-plus enrollment in 16 schools and colleges), naturally there are numerous merchants running payment systems independently, with separate software, vendor and contractual arrangements. “It would be great if all departments were using the same platform, but due to the variations in operations across campus, the one-size-fitsall philosophy would not fit the university’s needs,” she said. Nevertheless, Hodges said, Marketplace is home to an increasing share of all campus merchants. Maybe not the campus hotel, nor ticket sales for Georgia Bulldog football games. However, nothing illustrates the benefits of Marketplace more than one of many football-related revenue streams: gameday parking. Many of the university’s parking decks and lots are made available to the public on football Saturdays. In years past, vehicles would have to show up hours before game time to secure a spot, or else wait in long lines prior to kickoff as people slowly paid and attendants let them through. When the lots filled, fans still in line would be left high and dry. Today, every single spot, for an entire season’s worth of games, sells online in a matter of minutes. All the revenue (in excess of
$300,000 annually) goes straight to the bank the same day, instead of over the course of several weeks, helping cash flow and budgeting. It’s just one of many revenue streams resulting from merchant activity in Marketplace uPay and uStores modules. Some other merchants include: • Gift-o-Grams (personalized gifts to students from parents/ others) • State Botanical Garden rentals • “ Dawg” Camps summer orientations • Veterinary school conferences and continuing education The University of Georgia has a staggering number of them – 120 and counting (approximately 70 uStores and 50 uPay sites), both permanent and temporary. The only thing growing faster than the number of campus merchants is the revenue they produce. Four years after implementation, Marketplace revenue approached $4 million, and from day one it’s been handled with the efficiency of direct settlement in the general campus account.
Dashing Success Hodges says Marketplace gives her campus constituents whatever they need to do business online (and even offline, in some cases), whether it’s a full-blown storefront with shopping cart functions and inventory control (uStores) or just a place to seamlessly move customers away from an established Web page to a payment site (uPay) and back again. And best of all, the uStores solution requires no programming, other vendors or more software,
while uPay requires minimal IT development and support to make eCommerce happen. One might think tracking, accounting and reconciling the daily business of 10 dozen campus merchants would be a nightmare for a budget-strapped business office. Not so, Hodges said. The U.Commerce Dashboard shows her and her staff exactly how and where the money moves each day, week and month of the year. “We can tweak the reports to give us exactly what we need or drill down however deep we want to go,” she said. And if there are ever any questions or issues that come up, whether from her own customers or from her support staff at TouchNet, help is always readily available. “TouchNet is always improving their products and service delivery,” Hodges said. “I like how they seek input from the schools, which helps us and them stay in a proactive position, as opposed to a reactive one.” l
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com
University of Notre Dame Notre Dame Marketplace Plays Like a Champion, Every Day Conversion to TouchNet Boosts Capacity, Performance and Compliance • Notre Dame, Indiana (South Bend) • Enrollment: 8,371 undergraduate, 3,362 graduate • National, private Catholic university • Featured TouchNet technology: Marketplace (23 uStores, 4 uPay sites) • Consistent Top 25 ranking, U.S. News & World Report, Princeton Review, TIME, Kiplinger’s and Kaplan/Newsweek
P
lay Like a Champion Today!” It’s the famous sign every Fighting Irish player touches before taking the field at legendary Notre Dame Stadium. While gamedays are a cherished tradition at Notre Dame, there are only a handful of them each fall. In the Notre Dame Marketplace, however, every day is gameday. Since bringing TouchNet into the program, Notre Dame has shaped its eCommerce system into championship form.
Success Stalled In 2005, the university was in year two of its wildly successful Notre Dame Marketplace, a burgeoning eCommerce site for students, faculty and alumni. Merchants were multiplying, as were services and new revenue streams. It became clear they would soon outgrow the system behind it. Then PCI mandates began to surface, and suddenly the system’s challenges were no longer limited to capacity. “Part of the issue was the way the application was
written, how it queried our database, and part of it was the hardware we were using,” said Jeff Simko, manager of ND Marketplace, who is also responsible for the university’s PCI compliance program. “We simply weren’t able to handle a significant number of users at once.” Simko said the limitations were infamously exposed in April that year, in the days leading up to Senior Week, another big tradition at Notre Dame. For the first time, 2,000-some seniors could secure their tickets on the ND Marketplace. And they seemingly all tried at once. System meltdown. Services sacrificed. Efficiencies lost. But again, capacity wasn’t the only driver to begin the search for a new solution. “Our system was highly customized and hosted here on campus, in our own data center,” Simko said. “We knew making it PCI compliant wasn’t going to be easy.” | continued |
University of Notre Dame The Search Is On Even before PCI came along, the university had a formalized store request and implementation process for Notre Dame Marketplace, whereby proposed e Commerce merchants and activities were vetted for potential risk. The security oversight process became even more complicated with looming PCI compliance deadlines. By 2007, Simko put together an RFP for a new commerce partner that could meet the capacity and compliance objectives. “Those two primary drivers kept TouchNet in the running from the start,” he said. “They were obviously taking PCI very seriously and were certified as a compliant provider. They also told us they could handle the high volumes we required, and showed us load-test data that supported those claims. Plus, several hundred schools were already supported by their data center with no problems.”
Marketplace2 By January 2008, ND Marketplace was running on the TouchNet Marketplace™ platform, with payments securely funneled through TouchNet Payment Gateway™. At the time of implementation, there were 13 merchants. Now there are 27; everyone from the Irish Shop to the Society of Hindu-Christian Studies. Most are uStores, TouchNet’s end-toend storefront solution; a handful of existing merchants simply employ the uPay module to handle payments. Simko said. “TouchNet gives us the ability to add merchants easily and without any incremental cost. Unlike our previous system, whether
we have two or 200 merchants, and whether they’re selling one or 1,000 items a month, we have the same hosting and licensing fees, and no transaction fees.” More revenue, greater system capacity and functionality, improved customer service and back-office efficiency, and simplified compliance – all have come to fruition since ND Marketplace met TouchNet Marketplace. After partnering with TouchNet, ND Marketplace’s total revenue climbed 48 percent in 2008, while order volume grew by 113 percent, when compared to 2007. “What was once available only to customers in South Bend is now available around the world,” Simko said. “Yes, that means more revenue, but equally important, it’s revenue that’s transacted securely. Not to mention that we used to manually process many check orders and create reports. Now TouchNet Marketplace does it automatically.” The security oversight process that each new merchant was subject to has also been streamlined. “It’s a quicker review process, with fewer things to dive into and think about as long as they’re running through TouchNet,” he said.” Credit card numbers are never touched or transmitted through Notre Dame servers.”
Community of Champions Simko said the conversion to TouchNet Marketplace has exceeded the objectives and criteria put forth in the RFP. He also said the benefits transcend capacity and compliance. “TouchNet’s familiarity with Higher Education has proved to be
a more significant benefit than I would’ve anticipated,” he said. Among several examples, Simko cited specialization as foremost. “There are thousands of shopping cart options out there, but very few that are developed specifically for Higher Education,” he said. “For instance, ours can link directly to our active directory, meaning we can authenticate users and thus create private stores only for people affiliated with the Notre Dame community. There is no way we could do that with other out-ofthe-box applications.” Other benefits came to light after implementation. “Since we already have Payment Gateway and Marketplace, there is the opportunity to expand to the rest of TouchNet’s product lines,” he added. “There are built-in economies of scale there, and more opportunities for improved efficiencies.” Finally, Notre Dame can leverage the investment by utilizing the legions of fellow TouchNet clients. “The community we’re now a part of is a tremendous asset. COMTEC and Straight Talks connect us to TouchNet experts and other universities that can help us, and we can help them.” In the community of Higher Education, that’s what champions do. l Visit marketplace.nd.edu.
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc. | 15520 College Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219 1.800.869.8329 | +1.913.599.6699 | touchnet.com