Bridging the Gap: Innovations in Payment Solutions
Tyler Podcast Episode 86, Transcript
Our Tyler Technologies podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Each episode highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give the podcast a listen today and subscribe.
Episode Notes
In today's episode, we revisit a previous conversation with Sloane Wright, the senior vice president of Payments at Tyler Technologies. With over two decades of experience in delivering cutting-edge payment solutions for government agencies, Sloane provides valuable insights into the dynamic evolution of government payment systems. Discover how these innovations have not only streamlined processes but have significantly elevated the resident experience.
We also look ahead to Connect 2024, which will be in Indianapolis, Indiana from May 19th to May 22nd - early registration, which saves you $250, is now open at: www.tylertech.com/connect
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Transcript
Sloane Wright: So, when I look across the landscape of our government customers, I see that they have many disparate systems, many disparate data sources, even some legacy systems, numerous systems of record. And so those are some of the challenges is that our government customers, they have data associated with billers and invoices that they expect to receive payment on, but they're oftentimes spread across a lot of different places.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, it's The Tyler Tech Podcast. Your source for insightful conversations with leaders, addressing the pressing issues in our communities.
I'm Josh Henderson, and I'm on the corporate marketing team here at Tyler. Thanks for joining us.
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On today’s episode, we’re revisiting past conversations with Sloane Wright. Sloane is the senior vice president of Payments here at Tyler Technologies and has over two decades of experience delivering payments solutions helping to serve and shape all levels of government.
Sloane will cover the ways in which government payment solutions have evolved over time and how that evolution has helped to enhance the resident experience.
When it comes to payments and resident expectations, it's important for government agencies to consider technology that emphasizes accessibility, security and compliance, real-time processing, scalability with the cloud, and cost efficiency among other factors.
We'll cover all of that and more in today's episode. We hope you enjoy.
First up, Sloane is going to walk us through the definition of payments and how a resident might interact with various government payment channels.
Sloane Wright: Payments is a pretty broad term, but in its simplest form, we're describing the ability for a resident or a citizen or a business or really any person or entity to complete a government transaction whether they're in person, online, over the phone or from previous instructions such as like a scheduled payment or an autopay mechanism. Then, once they select their modality or the method in which they want to pay, then this payment is recorded in a financial system of record, which starts a long living life cycle of this specific transaction, which is important as a as a payment transaction is not immutable, and it may experience updates or changes based on activities such as charge backs or refunds, for example.
I think that sometimes, when solutioning for the ability to take payments, it's oftentimes easy to think of how the majority of people will conduct a payment, which is with a credit card or a debit card or maybe a check, whether it's processed in person or digitally. However, not all citizens or residents will have access to these highly accepted payment methods.
As a matter of fact, many people in the US may have difficulties in establishing a traditional bank account or opening a credit card, for instance.
And as a matter of fact, there was a study a few years ago, that was conducted by the FDIC, that indicated there are more than 30 million US households that are either unbanked or underbanked, meaning that they have no FDIC insured account, or that they may also obtain financial services from non-bank alternative providers, like a PayPal or a Venmo, for example. And this is a figure that that really took me by surprise and a barrier for many people as you can imagine, for a variety of reasons, to be able to remit funds to their government. You know, when transacting with government, there's usually only one authority to complete your transaction with. And so, it's likely that these individuals have traditionally had to maybe adjust their schedules or miss work or find transportation or some other challenge, to find their way to a brick-and-mortar location to conduct their business.
In in some cases, the individual may have to buy, literally have to pay for a prepaid debit card, so that they can conduct their transaction online. Or, they may have to buy a money order or some other instrument, as they do not have a bank account like we talked about, right? I think this is an area that we can do better in to make sure we're finding ways to meet our citizens and our residents where they are, and still find ways to provide them with conveniences in channels that may be more accessible to them.
Josh Henderson: With so many different factors at play and understanding the importance of closing the payments gap for unbanked and under banked communities, Sloane believes governments need to be committed to innovative, purpose-built capabilities for their residents. But, of course, there are specific challenges that go along with that.
The payment space is continuously evolving right now. And in my opinion, we're seeing some of the most movement with the ways that customers are wanting to make payments.
Sloane Weight
Senior Vice President of Payments
Sloane Wright: I think you know; the payment space is continuously evolving right now. And in my opinion, we're seeing some of the most movement with the ways that customers are wanting to make payments. And to expand on that a little bit, cash is very much alive and well, and this probably resonates with many of our listeners who may have oversight of branch offices that serve the public. I think this is probably an area that does cause our government offices to still have, you know, legacy cash practices where they've got so many stations set up with team members who have cash drawers, and they can take these customers in and those types of things. And, but this is one area where our government partners, they do have the ability to outsource some of the cash that typically would be flowing into their offices. But what if there was a way to leverage a larger network to take that cash in and the government still gets receipt of those funds just like they would if it was a credit card or any other method.
I think it goes without saying, but, you know, just through this discussion too, managing cash comes with its own set of challenges. You know, as I was kind of thinking through this and our focus on the government segment, four, kind of, main themes came to mind. And the first one of those is really around technology. So, when I look across the landscape of our government customers, I see that they have many disparate systems, many disparate data sources, even some legacy systems, numerous systems of record.
And so those are some of the challenges is that our government customers, they have data associated with billers and invoices that they expect to receive payment on, but they're oftentimes spread across a lot of different places. I also feel like some of the challenges are it's not just online, right?
Yes, you can take payment online potentially, but you also have in person payment acceptance challenges. And then I would even throw in IVR.
So, you know, that's the solution where you can essentially dial in via phone line, and you work with an automated solution to make your payment. As well as many of our government customers still support things like mail order type scenarios, where you may mail in your bill, you know, when it becomes due. So, those provide some technology challenges even though it's mail, right? And then the last thing I'm thinking about in technology as a challenge is the emerging payments space.
So, emerging payment methods and the constant flux with technology. So, you know, if you want to offer Apple Pay, there is work that has to be done to be able to present Apple Pay to your customers. Or if you want to offer PayPal, there's work that has to be done there. So, those feel like challenges in the tech space.
The next area that really strikes me, is presenting challenges is reconciliation.
Taking in the money is really only part of battle. You also need the ability to track the entire life cycle of a transaction and that often means that it is a living order until several months after that initial interaction with that customer.
And just to kind of level set with everybody, this is because there is the ability for a user to issue a chargeback. So, maybe they don't remember that they made this charge. Maybe somebody else in their household made the charge and the person receiving the, you know, the credit card statement doesn't recognize that. But the networks, the card networks, provide the ability for this chargeback process. And so, you have to allot for that, as well as maybe more typical scenarios would be refunds. You know, if a refund needs to be issued, that's still a living order, and the same thing, with returns.
So, reconciliation really felt like a challenge in the government space for me when it comes payments. And then the last kind of big bucket theme that struck me is, you know, needing some space on our podcast here, as a challenge, is around the PCI.
So, this is the payment card industry compliance standards that are set and put out by all of the card networks.
And PCI is everyone's concern. And sometimes that can be very scary, you know, especially for a government customer who, you know, who may not be, staffed to take on this big compliance and security burden.
Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more of The Tyler Tech Podcast.
Jade Champion: I hope you're enjoying listening to this episode of The Tyler Tech Podcast. Hey podcast listeners, my name is Jade Champion, and I'm here with Breanna Case to tell you about Tyler's annual user conference, Tyler Connect. Breanna, tell our listeners why they shouldn't miss Connect 2024.
Breanna Case: Well, Jade, Connect is back in the beautiful city of Indianapolis, Indiana, and we have so much planned. From product training and networking opportunities to influential speakers, this year's conference has it all.
Jade Champion: I heard there's an awesome keynote speaker as well. What can you tell us about that?
Breanna Case: Yes. We're excited to announce Lisa Bodell as this year's keynote speaker. Lisa is a best-selling author and the CEO of FutureThink, and she's all about eliminating complexity and boosting productivity and innovation in the workplace. Get ready to feel inspired, fuel your curiosity, unleash your creativity, and most importantly, do meaningful work.
Jade Champion: Be sure to mark your calendars for Tyler Connect 2024 from May 19th to May 22nd. And you can still take advantage of early bird pricing right now, which saves you $250 if you register before March 22nd at tylertech.com/connect or by clicking the link in our show notes.
We hope to see you in Indy as we continue transforming for tomorrow. Now let's get back to The Tyler Tech Podcast.
Josh Henderson: Expanding on that idea of security and compliance, Sloane dives into what risks are at play in the government payment space. And how modern solutions work to protect residents from becoming victims of fraud.
Sloane Wright: As many of our listeners likely know, government is not really considered a high-risk payments acceptance environment.
That said, we do see our share of pockets of bad actor activity.
This is why legacy technologies like address verification and card verification values, you know, a little CVV code.
This is why those are so critical. I called these legacy because these are really table stake values that help us combat fraud rather than cause friction to the user.
What if we were able to leverage the power of machine learning to help us model normal behavior and anomalies, as well as be able to make predictions about transactions that might need a second look by a member of the government agencies team prior to fulfilling an order, or perhaps even better, layer in some artificial intelligence that asks the user to further prove who they are before we allow the transaction to be complete.
Coupled with the power of the cloud, we have solidified a design partner from one of our largest state government partners, to help us understand exactly how they are currently identifying and mitigating fraud in their state by leveraging their workforce team members.
We hope to learn from this design partnership and implement you know, the foundational solutions to provide these capabilities to any of our clients and our listeners here who are seeing increased bad actor activity.
Josh Henderson: And that's it for today's episode. Many thanks to Sloane Wright for all the helpful insights.
Electronic cloud-based payment adoption makes it easier for public sector agencies to accept online and over the counter payments for bills, fees, tickets, fines, and much more.
For more recommendations on how to streamline payments and improve the user experience, check out the links in our show notes for some full resources.
Tyler Technologies creates solutions made for the public sector and has experts with government experience ready to support you on your journey.
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