University of Iowa Community Credit Union

BACKGROUND

As part of University of Iowa Community Credit Union’s (UICCU) overall vision to be one of the top 10 financial institutions in the US, they knew they needed to move to an electronic payment platform, rather than processing 100% of their payments through paper checks.

They had experienced some issues with their paper payment system, including checks getting lost in the mail. When this happened, staff resources had to be devoted to researching, tracking, stopping payment and reissuing lost checks. Maintaining check stocks and the time staff spent stuffing checks and invoices also added up.

In 2016, UICCU saw an opportunity when they were introduced to the nation’s leading financial services AP provider, BankTEL Systems. After the successful BankTEL implementation, BankTEL suggested an even more innovative approach to payment efficiency through Edenred Pay’s virtual card program.

BankTEL’s partnership with Edenred Pay began in early 2017, and their clients have continued to see success with the program. University of Iowa Community Credit Union was ready to get started. Their only concern was whether vendors would accept the new process.

SOLUTION

During the transition, one of the biggest selling points for UICCU was the vendor enrollment support provided by Edenred Pay. This support included vendor engagement to accompany the UICCU payments, which introduced the program and informed the vendor of enrollment steps. Edenred Pay also fielded all the outreach to vendors to secure enrollment.

Implementation was easy and didn’t take much of the UICCU team’s time. It included three initial calls between UICCU, BankTEL and Edenred Pay, to get things up and running. The BankTEL ASCEND AP module is integrated with Edenred Pay’s Payment Automation Platform, so the payment process is simple.

The institution processes payments as normal within BankTEL ASCEND, and the file is automatically sent to Edenred Pay for card distribution. “It really was a no-brainer for us, and the platform technology proved easy to navigate with reporting features that created smooth reconciliations,” said Jennifer Grecian, Accounting Specialist, UICCU.

Edenred Pay also assigned a relationship manager, and additional training was made available upon request to support a seamless integration.

RESULTS

Time

For the University of Iowa Community Credit Union, the biggest benefit of integration with Edenred Pay is the time saved. Now the staff is stuffing a lot less envelopes and mailing a lot less checks. Reconciliation time has also been drastically reduced, creating an overall time savings of approximately 4-5 hours per week.

Money
The rebate and potential revenue growth was another huge selling point for UICCU. As the company continues to grow and enroll more vendors, they are planning to discuss how they can reinvest the additional rebate revenues back into their organization and other community initiatives.

There was also cost savings due to eliminating postage and paper check stocks. This, combined with the rebate, created measurable additions to the organization’s bottom line.

“If it’s something that could work for your organization, then you really need to get onboard. It has been a great relationship and using Edenred Pay’s Payment Automation Platform as a part of our BankTEL Accounts Payable system has made us more efficient in every way.”