Imaging, Document Management and the Future Nick Zinser Northeastern University Jim Slattery The College Board MASFAA Conference 2002

Financial Aid Office Challenges w Improve service to students and families Reduce burden on families through streamlined process Deploy staff to provide excellent customer service w Support institution’s enrollment efforts Send timely, competitive, and accurate financial aid awards Develop policies and processes with eye to retention w Maintain or reduce staffing levels “Do more with less” Ensure compliance with regulations w Cost savings Cost awareness

Verification Requirements w Federal government requires verification of key income data for selected applicants w Many institutions do more 100% verification of income data for recipients of institutional need-based aid All applicants or only first-time applicants Careful review of tax schedules and W-2’s w Manual, paper-based process at most institutions Some key enter data from tax forms to automate verification

Response - Documentation Service Advantages of Service Correction process can be automated by institution Institutions have access to same documentation Family submits forms once Institution Saves Storage Space Staff Time Mailing Costs

Possible Expanded Services w Employ imaging technology for all processes w Paperless processing can be more than just scanning w Obtain “document” directly from source w Outsourcing of paper-based “back office” processes Vendor collects all admission and financial aid documents High school or community college transcripts Letters of recommendation Student applications and essays

Other Questions w Document storage Web-based system? Archiving documents w Technology w Hardware w Follow up processes w Who pays?

One Story How Northeastern University Implemented The College Board’s Imaging and Documentation Service

Northeastern University w 24,000 Student Enrollment w 5 Year Undergraduate Program w Graduate Programs w School of Law w University College (Evening Programs) w More than 50% of Total Population Receives Aid

Northeastern University w Processed 4,000 Federal Verifications in w Wanted to increase response time, and decrease award changes w Decided to use IDOC for only the Undergraduate Day population and all admitted students

Northeastern University Moving to a Paperless Office w Began processing with The College Board’s IDOC process at the start of the processing season w Decided to evaluate first year of operations before reassigning staff or changing office roles w Continued with paper follow up to students missing information

Moving to a Paperless Office w Required a change in business procedure Verification for returning students would occur prior to awarding Need to communicate message to both students and families Need to retrain staff on new procedure for verification and document processing

Which Groups of Students? w Admitted Students w Matriculated Students w Returning Students w Undergraduate Full-Time Students w IDOC provides flexibility to register a variety of different students depending upon your institutional needs

Northeastern Student Notification w Incoming Students would be notified via Missing Information letters about IDOC through verification-specific messages w Returning Students were sent a letter in December announcing the change in verification procedure and reminding students of Financial Aid deadlines

Northeastern Student Notification w Once the notification record from IDOC arrives, we send a follow-up letter to the student w Includes our NU-specific verification worksheet w Serves as a reminder to the student to complete the packet!

Communicating IDOC to Students w Communication with students is important. w Messages included references to IDOC if student selected for verification: VERIFICATION WORKSHEET: You have been selected for a federal process called verification. It is a requirement that you complete and return a Verification Worksheet, as well as the related federal tax documents, to: College Board IDOC, P.O. Box 4017, Mt. Vernon, IL You must submit these documents along with the "Cover Sheet" that is being provided to you by the College Board. Your information can not be processed without this sheet. Financial aid funds that are awarded to you are tentative and will not be disbursed to your student account until the verification process is complete.

Northeastern’s IDOC Process w Student registration files generated on a weekly basis and files sent to College Board w Notification to students sent from IDOC to families within 2-3 days w Northeastern sends follow up letter including verification worksheet to family w Once packet of tax data returned to IDOC, data available within 3-4 days

Rethinking Verification w Using the Verification sheet introduced in PowerFAIDS this spring allowed Northeastern to adapt to the new process quickly Data storage is electronic – currently at IDOC website, but will come to Northeastern on CD at the end of the cycle. We created a verification worksheet which collects asset information from FM and IM. Selection sets assigned by counselor name can be run to allow counselors to view how many pending verifications they have.

Rethinking Verification w Traditional paper-based verification no longer exists for most students How do we keep track of the data? How will we verify asset information? With no paper file to pull from a cabinet, how can we alert counselors to verifications which need to be completed?

IDOC Processing w IDOC Processing allowed Northeastern to focus human resources on student contact rather than data entry. w Nearly 91% of our verification documents came via IDOC. w Students still had the option to submit documents to the Student Financial Services office.

IDOC Benefits w Efficient use of staff resources Reduction in paper handling No more lost files Ability to automate document tracking and data corrections w Level playing field -- other IDOC schools have access to same information for common applicants

Northeastern & IDOC – A New Process w Required rethinking our business process from initial student contact through packaging w Staff training reinforced in weekly counselor meetings w Time savings for counselors and space savings for files have helped Northeastern serve our students better

IDOC w New process easily integrated into PowerFAIDS w College Board representatives are very responsive to suggestions from users w New procedures can help any institution – not just PROFILE schools!

Looking Ahead to Next Year w IDOC reminder to students if packet is not returned after thirty days – eliminates a follow up mailing from our office w Ability to scan “stray” documents submitted directly to our office and upload them to the student’s IDOC record

Looking Ahead to Next Year w Placement of verification worksheet at IDOC website which eliminates costly paper follow up letter from our office w Additional elements will be key entered including medical/dental expenses from Schedule A w Many of these changes were suggested by users during the last processing year!

Contact Us With Questions! Nick Zinser Jim Slattery