In May of 2018, Student Financial Services went live with a new student payment platform, called UVAPay, to better serve the University’s ~24,000 students. The attraction of the new software, supported through a vendor named Flywire, was how easy it made self-service, its dynamic and intuitive interface, and its ability to flex to meet student needs.
Why is a software switch from over two years ago news today? Because it’s a reminder of three?important ideas that build our culture of continuous improvement:
1.) Meaningful change takes strong collaboration;
2.) Sometimes opportunities for improvement appear when you don’t expect it, cultivating an open mind and sense of readiness enables clarity to realize and act on opportunities; and
3.) Change isn’t a “one and done” event; it requires continuous improvement.
The SFS team had been investigating new platforms since 2017; they were looking for something to display clear account information, provide ease of payments, and on-demand statements and reports for students and parents, things their current vendor was lacking and slow to update. They found the comprehensive payment solution they were looking for in Flywire in early 2018, but only had a two-month window in which to do the work. Such an implementation would normally have required a minimum of six months.
“We couldn’t have met such a compressed implementation deadline without the buy-in from other teams at UVA, especially Cheyrl Elzey and her team in ITS,” says Isaiah Behnke of SFS. Internal collaboration to get the new software working with SIS and to iron out many more technical details guided the project through its first goal: go-live.
Once implemented, Flywire delivered all that SFS had wanted for students and families: it was easy to view and understand account activity, seamlessly submit payments including an integrated international payment experience, enroll into and modify payment plans according to changing needs, , and easily access and generate reports and tax documents. But the team didn’t stop with one success (large though it was) – they have continued to collaborate with the Flywire team to anticipate and accommodate evolving needs.
Since go-live, SFS has worked with Flywire to modify and expand the semester payment plan to include an international payment method (live for spring 2021 – UVA is one of two large publics to offer this option), deliver a separate and tailored Health Insurance payment plan, and enhance rebalancing capabilities; display pertinent finance holds and messaging; and provide electronic 1098-T tax forms to student and authorized users (previously mailed forms).
Last year, SFS rolled out the IRS 1098-T form using Flywire, which had previously been sent by mail. The team went from physically mailing 20,000 forms each year to mailing only 4 thousand and providing on-demand, electronic access to the tax forms. These improvements resulted in significant efficiencies for students and their authorized users, staff, and financial savings (~$20k).
This year, the system will be enhanced yet again by the inclusion of historical 1098-T forms from previous years.
These continued enhancements are a result of the SFS team working with its customers and suggesting to the software development team at Flywire additional ways to fill needs. Behnke says the SFS team continually suggests modifications based on customer feedback and needs, and those modifications not only help UVA students and families but also other schools who use the software.
In addition to working closely with the Flywire product development team, Behnke serves on their advisory board with representatives from 12 other schools that use the software. His work has helped UVA stay in tune with trends in student financial matters and has allowed him to advocate for additional functionality, including a 1098-T solution (now in production) and a solution for 529 payments.
“It’s exciting because we’re always evolving, and it’s benefitting everyone – our students and families, our team, and even other higher ed institutions,” Behnke says.
This is an especially timely reminder as we head into the Configuration & Prototype phase of FST with our University partners. Working closely together, we can build a financial system that allows us to flex and adjust to changing requirements and situations and keeps us thinking strategically about how to do things better.
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The switch to Flywire had great results for SFS and UVA students. Want to read more? Visit https://assets.flywire.com/resources/Flywire_UniversityofVirginia_CaseStudy.pdf
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