What an era we live in! The transformative age brought boundless advances in how we communicate and socialize with one another—while supporting new ways of working with technology.
I've been thinking about how ELM uses technology to support our schools, lenders, and students—and it comes down to this...ease. We've built a system that makes it easy to learn, easy to access from anywhere, and easy to connect with other members of your team, including ELM.
Let's face it. Over a year ago, the world was turned upside down. Jobs that were never decentralized were suddenly forced to be in an instant.
During this time, ELM helped hundreds of new and existing schools become more automated and efficient while providing a supportive community. Here are some of the ways we've assisted schools in gaining efficiencies during the past 18 months:
1) We helped schools automate their certification and loan management processes. By taking a complex process that would require every lender and school to connect systemically to each other and then simplifying that into a single, shared process flow accessible from anywhere— our schools and lenders were able to concentrate on the students and borrowers rather than the system and data management.
2) We expedited schools migrating from paper checks to secure electronic processing. Historically, handling checks meant that someone had to be at the school to receive the mail, then go to the bank to process the check—no more need for this physically time-consuming and inefficient process. Schools were able to leverage ELM for EFT (electronic fund transfer) to automate deposits and review funds wherever their new offices were, with minimal disturbances.
3) We helped expedite refunds. By providing schools the ability to use ELMOne to process refunds electronically rather than sending a physical check, they were able to reduce refund time from 2-3 weeks to only one day. Plus, it provided the ability to display the history for audit purposes.
4) We launched time-saving tools based on collaboration and feedback. We added new features and functionality, like a certification shortcut 'Just Certify' and sharing templates, to further increase efficiencies in our system, which was all based on input and in partnership with existing users.
5) Plus, we can connect schools with lenders of their choice. We work with most lenders already, but if you use a lender not already with us, we will be happy to reach out to them and show them how easy it is to partner with ELM. Several new lenders were implemented over the last 18 months, creating greater efficiencies for our school customers when needed most.
Bonus: We're not stopping there! We constantly contact our school and lender customers to identify new ways to help and make your processing easier. We are hearing that many schools are experiencing high turnover and staffing shortages. If you or your team need training or assistance, you can count on us! Just give us a call at 866-524-8198.
Whatever your school's needs may be, ELM has a solution to help. It just takes an initial call to review and assess your current process to determine how ELM can help your school process at optimal levels.
Happy processing, Phillip Wade
President and Chief Executive Officer
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