Northwest Missouri State

About Northwest Missouri State

Northwest Missouri State is a public university that welcomes approximately 9,000 students – 400 of them international - every year. Founded in 1905, in offers graduate, undergraduate and online programs.

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Challenges

The Northwest team wanted a new option for their international students to make payments through their TouchNet platform. Previously, they had only one, that wasn’t fully integrated with their system.

“At the time we integrated with TransferMate, we only had one international payment method, and it caused some challenges,” said Ashley Henggeler, Director, Student Account Services, Northwest Missouri State University. “Because it wasn’t embedded into TouchNet like TransferMate, it led to a disconnected process for both us and the student.”

The biggest practical problem was that, when payments were made, there was the potential for it come in without the right identifying information. It was sometimes difficult to tell who had paid what. For the finance team, they would have to pull data from one system, manually match each payment to each student, and then upload it to their TouchNet platform so they had all the data in one place.

“It was a lot of manual work,” continued Ashley. “Besides the difficulties in actually matching a payment to a student, there was a lot of administrative work in collating all the data into TouchNet. When all payments are coming in at once, the work quickly adds up.”

It also meant more inquiries coming from students who wanted to know if their payment had been accepted.

“The students would come in wanting to know why they have finance charges on their account, indicating that they had made a payment, and wanting to know why it wasn't posted. And so, we would then have to go back to the bank account and try to figure out. We’d have to ask, "Okay, how much did you send and when?" and trying to align those up.”

The older method had user experience issues too. The students would be redirected to a 3rd party website, creating a lack of trust in the process. The banks they were paying through would also sometimes raise concerns and block the payment.

“When you’re sending such a large amount of money internationally, it can be worrying for the student when they’re asked to leave the platform and go to an external website. I think that experience created some trust issues for everyone – including some banks who didn’t allow students to make the payment because of it.”

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Solution

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Northwest added TransferMate as an international payment option to their TouchNet platform in 2019. TransferMate is fully embedded within the TouchNet Platform.

For students, that means that all the payment process happens within their own university’s branded TouchNet portal with no redirects to 3rd party websites, and the payment status is updated live in their student profile page. For the university finance team, it means all payments made using TransferMate are automatically uploaded in TouchNet, eliminated all administrative work.

“It’s totally integrated. We don't have to manually post anything. We don't have to go look up reports,” Ashley said. “For our accounts receivable coordinator, she sees the live update every day. She doesn't have to go manually post anything to the student's account. It's saved us a lot of time as far as the manual process.”

The issues of matching students to payments does not occur when TransferMate is the payment method.

“It’s streamlined the entire process. There’s no matching needed with TransferMate payments – the data all gets updated in real-time in TouchNet. Confirmation goes directly to the student account, so they know the payment has been made and received, and we never have to go searching for payments.”

The user experience is also significantly improved. From simple enhancements like student information being pre-populated when they make the payment, to the entire process being integrated within Northwest’s TouchNet portal.

“Everything happens in the portal under the Northwest branding. And everything is automatically updated in their student profile in real-time. Just having it integrated in one place, where they don't have to click on something that takes them out to another website - I think the students appreciate that.”

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Results

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When an international student uses TransferMate as their payment option, it results in an easier process for everybody. The students pay within a single portal, with everything updated live in their student profile, resulting in less inquiries to the Northwest team.

“Our international students have benefited because it has just streamlined the payment process for them. They don't have to go to another website to initiate a payment. It pre-populates their information - their name, their student ID, the information that we need. I like that they can't overpay on their account as well. That's been really, really helpful.”

For Northwest, it’s eliminated the manual work associated with international payments.

“Because it is integrated, I feel like there's not a lot of work on our end. From a time-saving standpoint it’s just kind of like out of sight, out of mind. You know it's working, which is great, and it's not something you have to worry about.”

Northwest also use the TransferMate Platform itself to process refunds.

“We can refund back through TransferMate even if they didn't pay through TransferMate. We’ve found it more cost-effective than going through our bank. Plus, it’s really user friendly and the student gets notifications throughout the refund process too. That has been really helpful to us.”

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The Final Word

“Adding TransferMate as a payment option in TouchNet means we don’t have to manually match students to payments anymore. It’s all automatic, and we don’t have to think about it.”

- Ashley Henggeler, Director, Student Account Services, Northwest Missouri State University

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To get in touch about the TransferMate integration with TouchNet, go to the TouchNet Partner Directory.

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