Modernizing Payments with Canberra Institute of Technology

Karl Caig, director of corporate services at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), joined the FOCUS podcast to share his experience with the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet. At CIT, Caig is responsible for maintaining key systems and processes that support operations and student management. His next goal is to reposition the institution by focusing on flexible education and training delivery, and to completely overhaul current student systems and interfaces.

This is why Caig turned to Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet, which has provided tremendous improvement in processes, staff experience and student experience since implementation. Read along to learn more about CIT’s journey with the Ellucian Payment Center and Caig’s advice for other institutions.

Why the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet was the perfect fit

The Canberra Institute of Technology is a dual sector institute—serving students across technical trades, community college programs, apprenticeships, and bachelor programs. Each of the programs CIT offers is regulated by a different level of the Australian government, with different students making their payments to and receiving concessions from different entities. Previous payment systems were overly complicated and untimely because funding came from different buckets and communication between different government levels could be inefficient. As a result, payments had to be handled and calculated manually.

Caig knew that this was not a sustainable system, especially with a new strategic plan to expand into the online environment, and the need for a fully digital enrollment process. The institution was already using the Ellucian Banner for student information management, and any new solution they implemented needed to work with existing systems and fit with their strategic plan for the institution.

“We really had to make sure that as a government entity that the government was happy with our requirements, that whatever solution we had was a secure solution that obviously worked well with the Australian payment environment,” said Caig.

Luckily, the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet was the perfect fit to help CIT modernize their payment system and get the institution ready for its online future. This solution integrated seamlessly with the existing Ellucian Banner and opened up opportunities for new efficiencies on campus.

How CIT has benefited from TouchNet

Since implementation, the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet has modernized CIT’s payment system, improving both staff and student experiences. Tracking student payments is now easier, and Caig is able to see in real time who has and has not paid on time. His team can then direct them to a payment portal digitally, rather than spending weeks getting students up to date on payments. This has drastically reduced the institution’s credit risk and increased the amount of students who pay their bill on time.

Delivery of student refunds has been improved from a week’s long process to an almost instantaneous refund under this solution. Students no longer have to wait to receive refunds from a government banking system and are now issued them directly through the Ellucian Payment Center.

Automated payments have also freed up staff, who can now devote time to customer service and help students navigate payment options. CIT is now able to offer more flexible payment options for interested students.

During the pandemic, CIT was able to fully transition their learning and enrollment processes online, which Caig believes wouldn’t have been possible without the implementation of TouchNet’s solution. Also, the pandemic gave CIT a needed nudge to make these modern solutions the norm, because there was no other option.

TouchNet’s solutions also empowered CIT to stay on top of cybersecurity and PCI compliance with high confidence. TouchNet handles all of CIT’s payments and card data in accordance with PCI standards, which saves the institution time from the tedious process of managing it themselves.

Advice for other institutions

As campuses begin to look towards modernizing payments, Caig advises them to model their online payment systems after what students are already using in the marketplace. Students want the ability to make seamless and painless payments that they can manage anytime, anywhere. It has to be quick, easy, and straightforward. Look to the future state and see what’s out there that people already use, because there are solutions that exist that can do that for institutions, like what TouchNet has to offer.

Special Guest: Karl Caig.