Do you have a thorough understanding of how credit cards and other payments are accepted across your university? Are you looking for guidance on implementing the latest, most convenient payments technology to better serve your students and their parents? Do you worry about ultra-high payment processing costs and vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach?
Universities and higher education institutions are treasure troves of knowledge. As large, sprawling, multi-unit campuses, they are also filled with a wealth of data. Much of this data is tied to financial transactions and payments that get processed across different departments on each campus. Unfortunately, this data is also usually stored within complex systems and databases that are siloed across campus.
While this information is collected by technology systems and stored behind the scenes, it is also the key to unlocking insights that can make payment processing run more efficiently — and securely — when accessed and analyzed as part of a discovery process.
Treasury as a Fearless Leader
For those that work within the treasury department at a university, you understand the expansive oversight required to keep all things financial services-related running smoothly. Understanding and improving payment card acceptance is just one piece of that puzzle, but it is a very big piece. Not only does treasury own responsibility for ensuring that credit card processing runs smoothly, but it must also ensure that each department (and campus, if applicable):
-
Implements sound financial practices
-
Remains PCI DSS-compliant
-
Maintains the highest level of security of customer data, often beyond the requirements of PCI DSS
Managing and overseeing payments for tuition, donations, bookstores, and any other business units with payment opportunities is resource-draining and time-consuming for finance staff. For universities without integrated systems, it can be a downright nightmare. The resulting workload includes manually entering receipt of payments into ERP systems, which increases security risks and the potential for human error. The ideal solution is to complete a campus-wide discovery process around payment acceptance and processing to streamline and simplify these operations across the entire institution.
Discovery 101: Unifying the Disparate
There are many things that will be uncovered during the discovery process, though several things should be prioritized. In general, you’ll need to account for how different business units on campus:
-
Accept and record electronic payments
-
Maintain PCI compliance and data security
-
Integrate payment data with ERP systems
-
Enable analytics and insights from payments data
-
Allow students to access billing and payment information
At the end of the day, the discovery process is meant to document discrepancies and shortfalls in current processes and to identify areas for improvement. With payment applications widespread over campus, identifying solutions that allow for consolidation is ideal. Solutions that can automate payments across campus are valued as well.
Close the Gap
Great news: we have your back. Arrow Payments specializes in guiding higher education institutions through a thorough discovery process to identify gaps in security, uncover new opportunities for efficiency, and to lower overall costs. We’d love to be the trusted partner that keeps you future-proof. Contact us today to schedule your free consultation.
