How Can Local Governments Benefit From Digital Payments?

Industry: Borough (County) Government
Location: Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
Number of Employees: 300
Population: 107,000
Tyler Client Since: 2004
Tyler solutions used: Cashiering, Enterprise Assessment & Tax, Enterprise Permitting & Licensing, New World ERP, Payments, Time & Attendance

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The Challenge

Located north of Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, faced the challenge of managing operations in four separate systems, causing inefficiency and complexity. To meet its challenges, the borough (a jurisdiction similar to a county) turned to Tyler Technologies and:

• Introduced Tyler’s Payments for mobile functionality and an online portal that offers ACH payment options and the ability to schedule payments
• Reduced monthly utility billing processing from several days to hours
• Streamlined payroll processes with Time & Attendance

The Payments solution has been particularly beneficial.

“Our borough assembly said we needed a modern payments solution that’s more mobile friendly and convenient,” says Leah Jones, borough IT director. “We needed a 21st century solution. Payments offered all of that, as well as integration with our financial system – Tyler’s New World ERP.”

Solution

Meeting Community Payments Needs

Previously, the borough only accepted online credit/debit card transactions with a percentage-based processing fee. These fees were adding up quickly. Both taxpayers and the Matanuska-Susitna Assembly wanted payment alternatives to credit card payments and the ability to schedule and set up recurring payments.

To achieve this, the borough launched Payments, Tyler’s trusted solution that manages all aspects of the payment process. In addition to credit/debit card payments, the borough now accepts electronic checks/ACH payments, which have flat fees of $1. The result for community members is the convenience of more online payment options and savings, and taxpayers can now schedule payments for future dates, access payment history, and enjoy an enhanced, user-friendly experience.

Making it easier for community members to make payments online has been especially valuable in the borough, a rural area roughly the size of West Virginia that includes part of Denali National Park.

“We might have people that would have to travel an hour or so to come into our local main office to make a tax payment via check,” says Jones. “And now offering that online, with just a $1 fee, really gave people opportunities not to have to come into the office. It was a great return on investment.”

Another benefit is the elimination of redundant data entry on the back end. “That was a huge impact to our internal organization workflows of not having double entry for information,” says Jones. “Before we implemented Payments, we needed to enter payment information into one system and then import it into another so that we could have it with our financials. Now, people make the payment online, and the payment information goes into the right buckets we have for our financials. It’s a huge time savings.”

Improving Utility Billing and Payroll

Tyler has also helped the borough with:

• Utility billing: The implementation of New World’s Utility Billing module reduced time spent on monthly billing operations from several days to less than half a day with increased accuracy. Launched with Payments, Utility Billing has resolved customer complaints and enhanced communication. The borough now takes auto-payments and has an electronic statement option, both of which were customer priorities.
• Payroll: The Time & Attendance solution consolidated the borough’s disparate systems into one unified solution with a single payroll group. Time & Attendance provided a centralized platform that improved tracking accuracy and simplified payroll management for all employee groups.

Results

The Impact of Modernization

“Payments has really taken a lot of time off of our finance and collections department to have to deal with dividing all of the payments out and figuring out who needs to look at this to reconcile it and who needs to do that,” says Jones.

Finally, the borough’s efforts are helping community members.

“From a citizen’s standpoint, I think the ease of not having to travel to make payments is a big deal,” says Jones. “For example, driving to a park trailhead and then realizing that I’ve forgotten to buy a trail pass and then be able to purchase that pass right on a phone is a huge deal. Having that ease of use is a huge convenience for our community.”