Customer story · Southern Illinois University
E-billing: good for the environment and students, and for SIU’s budget
Southern Illinois University Carbondale used FormFusion to move 26,000 tuition bills from paper to PDF, saving more than $88,000 a year and giving students 24/7 access to their bills.
Carbondale, Illinois
4-year public research institution
FormFusion
- $88,000 saved a yearE-billing saves the university more than $88,000 a year.
- 26,000 bills, a few clicksStaff send 26,000 bills with just a couple of clicks.
- Bills available 24/7Students can view and print their bills any time.
Southern Illinois University at a glance
1869
Founded
18,000+
Students
2,000+
Faculty and staff
100+
Undergraduate programs
75+
Graduate programs
01
The challenge
26,000 paper bills and boxes of returned mail
Paper billing has long been one of the chief headaches for college and university staff. For Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale, the billing situation was a consistently frustrating, expensive affair.
26,000 bills to print
An average of 26,000 tuition bills had to be processed, printed, and mailed.
Boxes of returned mail
Changed or mistyped addresses left returned envelopes piling up in the bursar’s office.
Every extra copy cost more
Copies for families or employers meant more staff hours, printing, and postage.
Those returned envelopes would amass, waiting for someone to have time, a limited resource in the bursar’s office, to deal with them. Many students also needed more than one copy of their bill: some for multiple family members sharing the cost of tuition, others to submit to their employers for reimbursement.
To cut back on those costs, and to support the university’s goal of moving towards a paperless campus, SIU was badly in need of a more efficient, cost-effective way to manage its billing processes.
02
The solution
Every bill a PDF, waiting in the student portal
FormFusion, the Document Enhancement & Distribution Solution from Evisions, made it easy for SIU to make its billing process entirely electronic.
Using FormFusion and the optional PL SQL Script Director Module, SIU produces a PDF of every bill, uploads it to the student’s account on SalukiNet, the university’s student portal, and sends notification emails to everyone just billed. Students have access to their bills 24/7, can print as many copies as they need, and can even grant access to authorized third-party users.
| Before | With FormFusion |
|---|---|
| Hundreds of thousands of paper bills every year | PDF bills uploaded to each student’s SalukiNet account |
| Printing, postage, and mailing delays | Notification emails to everyone billed |
| Returned envelopes piling up in the bursar’s office | No stack of returned mail to clear |
| Extra copies requested, processed, and mailed | Students print their own copies and can grant third-party access |
From plan to paperless in under a year
Implementing e-billing with FormFusion was a very straightforward process. SIU began planning for the switch in July 2010. After creating a bill template with FormFusion’s design tools, the team worked through Evisions’ e-Bill Integration Guide, available through the CO-OP User Community, to configure FormFusion to upload individual bills to students’ SalukiNet accounts.
By September the new system was being put through its paces, and by December of that year SIU was dual-billing with both paper and electronic bills. In May 2011, it moved strictly to e-bills.
“
In the first year after implementation, we saved over $88,000 in printing costs and postage alone, which made our school administration very happy. We saw reduced personnel time necessary to process our bills.
Jill Kirkpatrick · Bursar, Southern Illinois University
03
The results
$88,000 a year back in the budget
Switching to e-billing solved the frustrations of the old system, significantly reduced the staff’s workload, and saved the university more than $88,000 a year.
The bursar’s office saves that between staff hours and postage and printing costs, and SIU’s printing and shipping departments have also been able to cut back on staff as a result of the switch. Students no longer have to keep track of paper bills or request additional copies, and staff can send 26,000 bills with a couple of clicks of the mouse.
$88,000+ a year
Saved between staff hours, printing, and postage.
Mailing delays, gone
Printing, postage, and mailing delays are no longer a concern.
26,000 bills in a few clicks
Staff send the whole billing run with a couple of clicks.
Access for families
Students can grant authorized third parties access to their bills.
“
E-billing has helped me keep track of my statements by allowing me to view them 24/7 online. Even better, I can give my parents access to view them online too!
Ali Holfor
Student
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Put your documents on autopilot
Tell us which forms, letters, and bills your offices still print, stuff, or re-key. We will show you them generated and delivered automatically from your ERP.
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