Modern Digital Payment Systems and Public Sector Stability
Tyler Tech Podcast Episode 116, Transcript
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Show Notes
In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, we explore how resilient payment and disbursement systems help governments maintain stability, serve residents more effectively, and adapt to disruption.
Morgan Jines, vice president of payments, and Brad Labrum, vice president of operations for disbursements at Tyler Technologies, join us to discuss how flexibility, accessibility, and cloud-based infrastructure are shaping the future of government financial operations. They explain how resilient systems support everything from utility payments and license renewals to vendor disbursements and emergency relief, ensuring critical transactions continue without interruption.
Throughout the conversation, Morgan and Brad share insights into how governments can reduce fraud risk, support residents living paycheck to paycheck, and modernize with confidence. They also highlight the role of data, predictive analytics, and digital payment methods in strengthening resilience across the financial landscape.
Tune in to learn how modern payment strategies are helping governments remain secure, efficient, and resident-focused, no matter what challenges arise.
This episode also highlights Tyler Connect 2025, our annual conference designed to bring public sector professionals together to empower, collaborate, and imagine. Join us in San Antonio, Texas, from May 11-14, 2025, for product training, networking, and inspiration to help drive your organization forward. Early registration is now open — visit tylertech.com/connect to secure your spot!
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Transcript
Brad Labrum: We feel like resiliency is allowing the government to reach the residents in the way they want to be reached. Resiliency also for us means being available when they need us available for the residents to be able to be confident that they’re always going to be able to receive their funds and spend their money as they need.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, this is the Tyler Tech Podcast, where we explore the trends, technologies, and people shaping the public sector. I’m your host, Josh Henderson. Thanks for joining us.
In this episode, we’re focusing on resilience in government financial operations, particularly when it comes to payments and disbursements.
From economic volatility to fraud prevention, we’ll unpack how scalable, secure systems help governments remain efficient and responsive no matter the disruption.
Joining me are Tyler’s vice president of payments, Morgan Jines, and Brad Labrum, Tyler’s vice president of operations for disbursements.
We’ve got lots to cover today, so let’s jump right into the conversation with Morgan and Brad. We hope you enjoy!
Morgan, welcome back to the podcast. And, Brad, thanks for joining in on the fun for today’s episode.
Brad Labrum: Thanks for having us, Josh.
Morgan Jines: Happy to be back. Thank you.
Josh Henderson: Of course. Let’s start with the big picture. When we talk about resilience in government financial operations, what does that really mean, and why is it such a critical focus moving forward?
Morgan Jines: I think from the acquiring side, you know, government, we really exist to serve residents, and so we have an obligation to provide options to our payers. And so, from a resiliency perspective, you know, this can translate to many things, like the ability to pay anytime, anywhere.
But also, accessibility and being able to pay potentially for other residents that they support, other household members, potentially parents or children. And so, these are things, you know, such as options for both them and other members they support, but also things like ADA compliance and being able to have that accessibility perhaps as a digital wallet or being able to have that self-service option within a portal.
Brad Labrum: I think those are all great. On the disbursement side of things, you know, choice is something that we feel like is really a benefit to the citizens, to the residents. It’s a benefit to them as residents to have options that are available to them.
And so, we pride ourselves in giving the residents several options to and ways to receive their money. So, if it’s something like they want a digital or a prepaid card or a virtual card or PayPal or Venmo, we feel like resiliency is allowing the government to reach the residents in the way they want to be reached. Resiliency also for us means being available when they need us available. And so, we pride ourselves in having redundant platforms and things that will help for the residents to be able to be confident that they’re always going to be able to receive their funds and spend their money as they need.
Josh Henderson: I think that’s a great way to queue up this conversation.
Now one major test of resilience is how governments navigate economic downturns while still ensuring essential services continue without disruption.
How do resilient payment and disbursement systems help governments maintain financial stability during those economic downturns?
Brad Labrum: We all understand those economic downturns. I think we’re living in a very volatile time for government in general right now as we are having this podcast.
It’s amazing to me the pressure that’s put on governments to be efficient and to operate in ways that are effective for the residents.
So, one of the things that we’ve pushed hard is to move away from paper checks, to get out of that paper check writing on the disbursement side and move it to a more digital robust environment that doesn’t have those costs associated with white paper checks. Lots of studies have shown it’s between seven and twenty dollars to cut a check by the time you do all the management of that. That can be done at fractions of that cost by using digital disbursement methods, including prepaid cards and other, you know, Venmo, PayPal, and other digital wallet solutions.
Morgan Jines: And I think from the acquiring side, it’s similar. It’s the ability to have options and not just options for them again, but also for others of the household they some support. And so being able to have multiple cards on file, maybe it’s a debit card, maybe it’s a credit card, but being able to have those multiple cards on file, even think about ACH, right, being able to set up recurring payments with different bank accounts.
And so perhaps they’re managing, and, you know, living paycheck to paycheck. And so, we’re able to set them up with multiple bank accounts and manage those profiles and change that. They have the ability to change that as well. So, giving them that flexibility as well as control of their funds and ways that they can pay to ensure that the lights stay on, such as, you know, utility bills and payments.
And so that that’s really important to us that we provide all of our payers with those options. And even things such as payment plans, we can support that as well. And those payment plans certainly are backed by different payment methods and being able to support that.
Brad Labrum: I think in addition to that, having the ability for the government to be efficient as we’ve already talked about, and Morgan highlighted the flexibility that’s given to individuals on the disbursement side. One thing that we definitely pride ourselves in on the digital disbursement is that the people that are living paycheck to paycheck, as Morgan highlighted, they’re getting their money faster. They’re not waiting 15 to 20 days or 30 days for a check. They can have their funds instantly, which is a big deal for the residents that are living in during these economic downturns.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. It’s really critical information there.
And now speaking of critical, payments are very crucial and critical for government operations. And there are it’s not hyperbole to say that there are millions of transactions happening each and every day. You know whether it’s government agencies collecting revenue for essential services or money paid directly to vendors, employees, or residents, what strategies or technologies help ensure that transactions like utility payments, motor vehicle licenses, and other essential services remain uninterrupted for residents, especially in times of financial uncertainty or things like cybersecurity threats?
Morgan Jines: I feel like there’s a lot to unpack in this one because, you know, there are many table stakes requirements for payment fraud prevention, and it’s different based on payment channel. You know, for online payments, there are different things that we can help support and recommend, in choosing strategic partner, and the same can be said for ACH and in person transactions. But just a few examples, you know, for online payments, it’s really important to work with the government agency to understand their average ticket size.
And that helps us set boundaries in terms of their minimum and maximum transactions that they allow. And, you know, fraudsters are getting smarter, and there’s more card testing. So, when I think about online payments, it’s really important to establish what those minimum, maximum transaction volumes are. There are also things such as turning on address verification services, recapture, network tokenization.
All of these things are implemented and configurable just to help, mitigate certain fraud types for online payments. And we see a rise in fraud for online payments, specifically with card testing to be very prevalent. And so, we really try to guide our governments to enable these different feature sets to mitigate this fraud, and we help support them in that. And then things such as in person payments, so there is a government that comes from PCI DSS council in terms of how we support in person payments, things such as ASV scanning with the recent PCI 4.0 mandate.
We've seen a rise in fraud for online payments — specifically with card testing — and it's become very prevalent. And so, we really try to guide our governments to enable these different feature sets to mitigate this fraud, and we help support them in that.
Morgan Jines
Vice President of Payments, Tyler Technologies
There are certain things that we can be responsible for and help guide, and then we also provide certain tools to help provide that compliance. But specifically, with in person transactions, it would be things such as having chain of custody control over those devices, that they are PCI-validated P2PE devices, meaning that we encrypt and decrypt every card that is inserted, dipped, or tapped. And so, all of these different things across different payment channels have different mechanisms to help mitigate fraud and protect our agencies and, of course, the obligation that they have to protect their payers.
And so, we ensure, you know, that every payment channel is covered, and we have the tools to help them be successful in doing so.
Brad Labrum: On the disbursement side, obviously, it’s very similar. We’re talking about payments that are going out to individuals using different types of mechanisms. And so, there’s a lot of similarities between what Morgan and her team are doing on the acquiring side and what we’re doing on the disbursement side.
Aside from those standard regulatory agencies that help audit PCI, you know, SOC, all those things that we’re certified by. We feel like it’s best for us to do transaction monitoring similar to what Morgan’s describing, where we’re we look at trends. We can use tools that can look at trends and say most people are spending x number of dollars. If we see things that are outside of that or we look at a person’s spending habits and say, this is abnormal.
How can we investigate that? Some of the bigger concerns that our agencies have when they’re when they’re using our disbursement suite is ensuring that they’re paying the right individual.
And so, it’s very important for us to be doing, you know, device recognition, to do validations, identity validation, and other types of validations. So, we partner with some of the best groups out there, that are that give us the right identity information.
One of the most critical things for government is the security of the information and the security of their payments. And we pride ourselves in always trying to be and always being proactive and looking for the best options to ensure that the person that we’re dispersing funds to is the right individual.
There are a lot of lot of opportunities and a lot of things out there, tools out there that we can use, and we try to employ the best, and disbursements to ensure that fraud is not happening and that the divide that the payments that are being made by government are secure and to the right individuals.
Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We’ll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Hey there, Tyler Tech Podcast listeners. Have you heard the buzz? Our annual user conference, Tyler Connect 2025, is officially on the horizon. And I’m here with my colleague, Jade Champion, with some exciting news to share.
Jade Champion: That’s right, registration is now open, and trust us, you don’t want to miss this. Mark your calendars for May 11 through May 14, 2025, because we’re heading back to sunny San Antonio, Texas.
Josh Henderson: I can picture it already. The unique charm of historic Market Square, the vibrant Riverwalk, and of course, the iconic Alamo. But let’s be honest. It’s not just the location that makes Tyler Connect a must attend event.
Jade Champion: Absolutely. Tyler Connect is one of the largest gatherings of public sector professionals. It’s your chance to collaborate with peers who are solving challenges with innovative solutions. It’s packed with product training, networking opportunities, and inspiration to help you and your team thrive.
Josh Henderson: Whether you’re a first timer or a Connect veteran, this conference always delivers. And let’s not forget, you’ll leave with new knowledge, practical tools, and meaningful connections to apply in your work and share with your teams.
Jade Champion: Head to tylertech.com/connect to register and secure your spot for an unforgettable time in San Antonio.
Josh Henderson: We can’t wait to see you at Tyler Connect 2025, a place to empower, collaborate, and imagine what’s possible for the public sector, all in the heart of Texas. Now let’s get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.
And now a key trend in resilience is cloud based financial infrastructure, which offers scalability, security, operational continuity.
And cloud technology has changed the game for payment systems as well. How does a cloud-first approach ensure that governments can continue to process payments even in times of disruption? And can you share any success stories that sort of outline this ease of adoption that cloud-based technology provides?
Brad Labrum: Cloud-based technology is not only the way of the future, it’s the way of now. We love cloud solutions. We love the partners that we have out there in the cloud.
Our opportunity for cloud is that we have the ability to easily have redundant systems. For years without the cloud, we had to try to get data centers all over the US and try to build our own redundancy.
In the cloud, there’s natural redundancy already built in. So, all of our transactions are recorded twice. So, we are able to get our we always have a backup that’s running in the background that if we were to happen to have downtime on the West Coast, we could immediately bounce over to cloud solutions on the East Coast. And our uptime, it’s significantly improved our uptime for our customers as they’re trying to use their prepaid debit card or to go on ACH money or to go and claim funds via instant transfer.
We can be confident that our systems are up all of the time. The added benefit that we have with cloud-based solutions is everyone is on the same, the same version. We don’t have to worry about version recognition that’s out there and say, what version are they on or what version are they on? We already know what version they’re on, and we could do updates consistently.
One of the biggest successes we’ve had is our downtime window when we were not cloud when we are on-prem. We had a Tuesday night downtime every week. We took do our updates and all those kinds of things where our system was truly down for you know, we tried to minimize it as much as we could, but it would be down for maybe an hour while we’re in the middle of the night. We pick the most the slowest transaction time and we do we do the updates.
Now we can do we can do daytime deployments. You don’t even fill it because of the deployments. We’ve moved over to our backup, and then we go back and then we go to our current system, and we’re able to move back and forth and navigate around while we do deployments, which is so a customer never knows. They know their system’s up to date.
They don’t have to worry about that, and they don’t feel it when we when we have to do our deployments.
Morgan Jines: Just to add on to that, very similar in terms of the uptime and redundancy, and I think we’re seeing trends in certainly all of our governments seeking that level of redundancy. We see modernization efforts. This is always a key part of it. So certainly, uptime just to emphasize what Brad said. But I think with that, something on the payment side that’s just as important is kind of the operational efficiency that is gained. And so anytime there is an outage, this creates so much pain for back office administration trying to support financial reconciliation.
And so, by not having downtime and then having challenges with your transactions that didn’t go through, having to issue refunds potentially, then having to look back at your books and your GL and understand what refunds you ultimately had to make, which batch did that live in. There is a lot of aftermaths that we’ve really heard, you know, testimonials from clients as a reason, that they were moving to the cloud and, you know, just some additional efficiencies there. I think also something to add on the payment side, there is constantly new payment methods coming out. There there’s new maybe it’s new, protocols in terms of governance that’s coming, and or maybe it’s just new digital wallets and just modernization as a whole in the within that space.
Anytime we add something to our payment platform as a part of some of these new technologies that are coming, you don’t have to wait for an update to receive that. And so, all of these new, payment methods, configurations, any new feature set that’s enabled, you receive that as part of being in the cloud rather than having to wait for an update. And so, it helps you in a modernized way to grow and scale with the solution.
In fact, we’re going through, an existing client implementation now, and that was one of the main drivers as a part of their, desire to move forward with shifting to the cloud with some of the pain that they had with their previous system and downtime, and then certainly the operational efficiency that they were gaining and the access to new payment methods as they were probably used. And so, I think it certainly there’s an outage component, but there’s a new feature set benefit as well, the governments and their payers experience by being in the cloud.
Josh Henderson: I think that’s a nice bridge to my last couple of questions here as we start to wrap up the conversation.
More in the best practices realm.
What would you say are some fraud prevention measures or trends that you’re seeing, that governments might want to consider prioritizing, when it comes to payments? And how do things like data-driven insights, predictive analytics, or AI help to strengthen and enhance resilience efforts in that regard?
Morgan Jines: Absolutely. I think it’s really understanding their business. And so, starting a little bit more at the kind of executive enterprise level, if they really understand their data, it helps them make better decisions.
It helps them predict their cash flow. It helps them enhance their operational efficiency. And so having that holistic view of their data to be able to do trend analysis for transaction types, being able to predict, certain times of the month when there’s seasonality for payments and that cash flow. And so having that holistic view of the data really gives them a better understanding of what to expect and what not to expect.
And then once I think you have an understanding of what your data looks like, you’re able to implement rules and scoring based upon those rules. And we really like to work with our governments to understand, okay, what is your average transaction type? You know that kind of ties into we help establish what’s your minimum and maximum threshold of transactions be. And all of this helps us to really understand when we should put rules in place to potentially to automatically decline a transaction.
Or, you know, we can even set up a rule that says instead of automatically declining the transaction because we deem this fraudulent, we set a score that says, if transactions are within this threshold of range or they’re within this time period, these have a review period, within the government before they’re approved. And so, we just take this holistic view of the data to really understand, across different departments is even different. A utility bill payment is going to be very different than perhaps a business license. And so, we like to look at the data holistically, but then also drill down into the departments, understand it, and then provide that guidance back to our governments of certain rules that they should establish, for identifying and ultimately making decisions on transactions if it’s they’re fraudulent or not.
Brad Labrum: I think on the disbursement side, we’re talking about the same things, like predictive analysis. The more that we can understand what a customer’s typical behavior is, the better we are armed to be able to protect against fraudulent activity. If somebody always does transactions in Utah and then all of a sudden, they’re doing transactions in Maine, if we don’t have predictive analysis in place, we don’t know that that’s fraudulent activity, that somebody’s gotten a hold of that that payment mechanism or that they’re using.
The other thing that I think government can do is to be up on the latest trends. They you know, by partnering with Tyler, we’re constantly looking at those, and we’re pushing hard to be the latest and greatest, from those solutions. The governments can work with us and be partnered with us on our on our cloud solutions to make sure that they’re getting the latest versions, that they’re not having their own on-prem solution that then is only supported by a cloud solution. They can work on updating their own systems to make sure that they’re matching what Tyler’s doing to be on the forefront.
You know, AI is something that’s everyone’s talking about.
The value of AI is it’s very, very good at predicting past behavior matching up with future behavior. And all of those things are very important when it comes to risk scoring as Morgan’s talked about. We can help empower government to make decisions that they wouldn’t be able to have made in the past because they wouldn’t have that that data and that information. That’s how all of these tools are helping government become better.
Morgan Jines: One more thing on that too. I think, Brad, you made a really good point is we look a lot of providers will look just at the payment data because that’s what they have access to. I think part of the value of Tyler is that we have access, you know, if you have our ERP systems or any of our software applications, we have access to all of the data about the resident plus their payment data. So, it’s that holistic data together with potential payer data, you know, beyond the card method that they’ve used that give us even better insights, into that predictive analysis that you’re speaking to.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. This has been such a great conversation. We’ve covered so much. But before we wrap up, I wanted to see if you had any final thoughts on what resilience means for government financial operations.
Brad Labrum: I think that my final thoughts are, you know, there’s been survey after survey done. I’ve seen them. Government is concerned about security and fraud on their side, and they’re very concerned about the resident engagement and the resident inter interaction with government.
And I feel like Tyler disbursements works very well in helping with government to be protected from security, to be efficient in their operations, to make sure that they’re utilizing their resources to the best that they can. Governments concerned about being efficient, and Tyler disbursements help them be helps them be very efficient in their operations and to reallocate resources in ways that they weren’t that they were using before to take care of their financial operations, that now they can do other things to help be more efficient and to be secure and to be protected. On the
resident side, residents are tired of getting of being forced into one way of receiving a disbursement. They don’t want to have to always receive it as a check. Sometimes they want a check, but many people are looking to new ways that they can receive their funds. Things like PayPal and Venmo and Zelle and instant transfers and all of the tools that are out there and available for people to get their funds faster is what government is focusing on.
They’re trying to improve that experience. The best way to improve the experience of residents is to give them what they want, to provide them the tools that they can receive their funds the way that they want to receive them.
Morgan Jines: That’s great, Brad. And very similar, I would just say, you know, seeing on the acquiring side, it would be choosing that future forward payments partner, software partner that is excelling in both. And so, you know, it’s one it’s one area of importance to have the payment side where there’s all this regulation and government, but then maybe the infrastructure that it’s behind, you know, is antiquated.
And so having someone that really looks at the government’s needs and is focused on that, both on the software side and payment side, you know, this helps us with those modernization efforts. We see modernization efforts within states, within our localities, and it’s a key focus. And it’s a key focus for IT staff, for networking, for, treasury, finance, and, you know, it really hits on all these functional areas to be able to have someone that’s future forward both on software side and the payment side. And when you bring those two worlds together, you do have, you know, improved resident experiences and back office staff experiences.
And so, it’s that, combination that I believe makes Tyler really successful in deploying these systems and protecting payments and then also giving that positive experience, you know, where you’re not having to worry. You’re not having to worry about the governance and you’re not having to worry about downtime.
And you can really focus on decisions that you need to make, because the technology and the infrastructure powering all your systems is secure and established for scalability.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. And I think it’s a great place to wrap things up. Morgan and Brad, thank you again so much for joining me today on the show, and, we’ll have you back on again soon.
Morgan Jines: Thank you.
Thanks for joining us for this conversation with Morgan Jines and Brad Labrum. As we heard today, resilience in government finance is about more than just stability. It’s about providing secure, flexible, and accessible options for both agencies and the residents they serve. By modernizing payment and disbursement systems, governments can improve efficiency, reduce risk, and enhance the resident experience, even during times of disruption.
At Tyler, we’re focused on delivering the tools and technologies that help governments strengthen their financial operations and build long term resilience. If you’d like to learn more about what we discussed today, be sure to check out the show notes for additional resources.
And we’d love to hear your feedback. Fill out the survey linked in the notes or reach out to us anytime at podcast@tylertech.com. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast so you won’t miss what’s next. For Tyler Technologies, I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for listening to the Tyler Tech Podcast.