When the pandemic hit India, one of the most affected sectors was education. Almost overnight, schools and colleges had to adapt to the new normal and accelerate their digital adoption. But while video streaming apps allowed teachers and students to learn virtually in almost no time, educators had another hurdle to take care of – collecting school and college fees at mandated intervals from students and parents, many of whom had returned to their hometowns with uncertainty looming all around.
Fee Collection Pre Covid-19 –
Let’s first understand how educational organisations usually collect fees and why that became an issue when schools were locked down during the pandemic. Fees were usually paid either via bank visits, cash or a challan system. Reminders for payment were usually announced via circulars, emails and direct communication. An accounting team would then cross-check payments from the bank deposits.
The online infrastructure for most educational institutes was limited to specific database and logistics collection through their own enterprise systems. This usually meant another round of cross-checking payments and generating invoices. With regards to payout as well, institutes usually had direct meetings and agreements with vendors before Covid-19.
With everyone working from home, the glaring loopholes and inability to cross-check transactions became a real pain point for many. With no clear end in sight for the pandemic, institutes did not know where and how much to invest to upgrade their systems as well.
Paytm Payment Gateway Automates Online Fee Collection –
Around the same time, Paytm Payment Gateway had created a simple and easy way to integrate institutes’ ERP with its payment gateway even with minimal tech knowledge and very little documentation to solve the fees collection problem.Since school and college ERP systems are largely used to manage logistics and database, it was crucial to add a payment gateway to integrate the entire ecosystem. In fact, Paytm Payment Gateway made its payment gateway integration ready with 200-plus education ERPs throughout the course of the pandemic. It even had solutions for educators who did not have a website.
Since its launch, the impact of Paytm Payment Gateway’s fee collection has been significant, over 8000 merchants now use its payment gateway with over 20 million successful fee payments being recorded so far (and counting). Here’s how Paytm Payment Gateway pioneered online fee collection and sorted cashflow issues for educational institutes, in easy digestible pointers.
- Paytm provided a robust payments infrastructure with high success rates
- The same payments infrastructure behind India’s largest payments platform with 330M+ consumers was diverted towards uplifting educational institutes in times of need
- Because online payment loads increase significantly during fee payment cycles, the company increased scalability to 3000 transactions per second ensures up time even during peak load time
- The in-house banking infrastructure also prevents multiple hops and led to faster transactions with higher success rates
Prakash Chandra Bhatt, Sr. Manager – Accounts, Genesis Global School who has seen the system in action says, “Paytm has been our digital collection partner for a long time and still continues to be. They have a seamless process for collecting fees and reconciliation along with a great support team. I would recommend Paytm as one of the best PGs with great features. Most of our parents prefer paying fee via Paytm.”
- Schools generally use personalised enterprise or ERP systems to manage their logistics and data base, however most such systems do not have an built-in payment gateway
- Paytm took the lead and made its payment gateway integration ready with 200+ Education ERPs to aid the sector
- This also led to reduced manual time and effort for the accounts teams at these institutes as they could access a simple dashboard and get automated reports rather than manually reconciling accounts
- Paytm’s payment gateway also supported split settlements where fees are automatically split to bank accounts of various vendors and departments within the institute.
Most institutes that have digitised themselves now find themselves in a comfortable position compared to when the pandemic first broke out. As Archana Jain, Chief Finance & Accounts Officer, Jagran Lakecity University says, “We still remember the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and how we faced endless challenges and uncertainties. During such times, we realized the utmost importance of digitalized modes of payments and fortunately we were in a leading position with Paytm already set up. Paytm has become the one stop solution for the University and today we are happy to be an end-to-end cashless University.”
Adding to that, Aparna Magee, Head, Ramagya group of schools says,“ The parents are happy and satisfied with the app as it is quite user-friendly. The Accounts department in Ramagya group also feels that the app has made their work easier.”
It’s no wonder that educational institutes especially appreciate how the company was instrumental in supporting institutes in providing quality education to their students without worrying about payment woes.
- Paytm’s payment gateway not only helped the education section, it also provided parents and students with a delightful fee payment experience thanks to the one-click checkout options with Paytm Wallet and Paytm Postpaid
- Paytm’s system integrates with 350M+ saved instruments so parents did not have to re-enter card and account details time and again
- The system also facilitates easy fee reminders, helping them avoid late fees and ensuring education institutes received payments on time
- The gateway also made learning affordable, thanks to affordability options such as attractive EMI and cashbacks.
- The payment gateway also mitigated cashflow woes amidst fee cuts as schools came under pressure to pay teacher salaries and manage operations
- Perhaps its best feature was Paytm Payment gateway’s predictable and fast T+1 settlements with no exclusions, even on bank holidays
Vikram Ruia, Chief Administrative Officer, Mahadevi Birla World Academy believes that Paytm’s Payment Gateway is one of the best in the fintech industry. “We use Paytm for our fee collections. Their payment gateway features are state of the art with options like quick check out, high transaction success rate, strong dashboards, and above all, a quick solution-oriented approach.”
- The gateway also supported fee payments with Paytm app for less tech-savvy institutes without their own ERPs. With just an Excel spreadsheet, schools in T2, T3, T4 cities who don’t have a website/ERP could use the platform for convenient fee collection
- As Paytm app is used by millions of consumers every month, it’s a great way for institutes to get visible and grow their student base
- The payment gateway also recognised that innovative solutions were needed for ad-hoc fee collections for events/seminars and other special occasions
- With the payment gateway from Paytm, institutes could easily create and send payment links via email, SMS and WhatsApp to collect fees across all payment sources
For Paytm, helping thousands of students continue their education while reducing fee payment woes for parents and sustaining the education sector as a time when traditional methods of fee collection had taken a hit with its Payment Gateway was yet another feather in its cap. After all, everyone remembers Paytm successfully helping millions of Indians navigate the digital payments ecosystem after the announcement of demonetisation. Once again, the company’s role in keeping India’s education system afloat during challenging times is testament to its nimbleness and flexibility to bring every Indian into the digital payments ecosystem for everyone’s benefit.
You can learn more about Paytm PG for educational institutes on their payment gateway website.
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