Northeastern Regional Information Center (NERIC) Taps eBizDocs’ BPO Service to Drive Mail Operations
The Northeastern Regional Information Center (NERIC) is one of 12 Regional Information Centers (RICs) working with the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) in New York State. NERIC coverage spans New York’s Capital Region to the Canadian border and serves more than 130 school districts — large, small, urban, suburban, and rural — in seven BOCES across 17 counties.
NERIC offers a wide range of innovative educational technology tools, support, and services that enhance multiple facets of school district operations. NERIC’s mission is to partner with its school communities to transform education through vision, leadership, and support in technology. This case study focuses on how eBizDocs and NERIC teamed up to improve NERIC’s Tax Billing Business Service.
The Challenge
Processing Tax Payments During Peak Demand
Annual tax payment receipts surge during a 6-week period starting in early fall. Historically, temporary staff process the large volume of inbound traditional “snail” mail payments. Finding, hiring, and training temporary help was always a less than perfect process, but it was good enough to get the job done. That is until 2021, when finding qualified help became impossible. COVID restrictions only worsened the situation. The clock was ticking. Every day, without proper staffing, resulted in piles of unprocessed mail quickly turning into to mountains. Making matters worse, this process is very time sensitive and hard deadlines were quickly approaching. Lack of staff was breaking the process and NERIC needed to find a fresh approach – YESTERDAY.
The Solution
Partner with a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Provider
Marlene Macfee, Managing Program Coordinator, NERIC, started thinking creatively and believed finding a partner with the right technology could help. That’s when she discovered eBizDocs offered a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service that looked very promising. BPO provides organizations with innovative technological resources that they might not otherwise have access. “As a BPO partner, eBizDocs constantly strives to improve its processes by coupling proven expertise with the most recent technologies and practices,” said Howard Gross, President, eBizDocs.
After fully understanding the issues, Marlene was trying to solve, eBizDocs offered a custom scanning service that included technology for text recognition and data extraction. Mail would be delivered to eBizDocs, then employees opened and scanned the envelope, remittance check, and payment form. The process included extracting and verifying data, which is then batched in the proper format so it can be directly imported into NERIC’s payment system. This provides highly consistent and accurate results. Many parts of the process are fully automated with very little, if any, human data entry. Occasional exceptions are also considered and get handled using a separate procedure. Thousands of tax payments were successfully processed before the deadline. “Businesses and government agencies are discovering its more affordable and efficient to outsource specific business processes,” said Jason Abare, Vice President, eBizDocs. “In many cases, necessity is the mother of invention, and that’s when most turn to BPO.”
The Result
Satisfying All Objectives and Expanding Scope for Future Processing
NERIC fulfilled all its promise to the school districts and taxpayers. NERIC was on a trajectory towards missing critical deadlines and eBizDocs offered exactly what they needed. eBizDocs showed how outsourcing a piece of the process dramatically improved NERIC’s overall capabilities for handling surges in Tax payments. With the immediate crises solved, NERIC plans on expanding its use of eBizDocs to further streamline and automate exception processing for future tax seasons. eBizDocs’ BPO services allows NERIC to save money, support more capabilities, while reducing errors and risks. eBizDocs BPO services also help organizations quickly scale without the headaches of needing to add overhead, associated expenses, and liabilities.
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About eBizDocs –eBizDocs is a premier digital transformation provider focused on helping you put INFORMATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. Offerings include paper and microfilm conversion, content capture and document management solutions, scanner sales and service, and process consultation. eBizDocs is SOC2 Type II certified and serves private and public-sector organizations. The company has been in business for over 20 years and is a preferred source contractor for NYS entities. To learn how eBizDocs can help transform your operation, visit eBizDocs.com
