Syracuse Implements HESC’s Overture

Joe Gorman

Call them trail blazers if you will, but since going live with the HESC Overture online award letter in May, Syracuse University has taken a bold step forward in providing top-notch customer service to its students and families.

Born out of a partnership with Overture Technologies that started in 2005, HESC’s Overture is transforming the relationship between colleges and students. By offering this new and free Web-based service to all HESC customers, HESC is bolstering its commitment to help colleges and students keep pace with industry advancements.

Overture and the Syracuse University Experience

Overture provides colleges with a Web-based service that can make the financial aid process “maze” easier to access and understand. It is a Web portal that links with a school’s existing Web site (transparent to the user), providing award letters, task lists, and debt management tools that can help a student stay on track. These strengths were attractive to Syracuse University.

"We recognized the need for a self-service module for our students and had actually started working on one within our Financial Aid Management System from PeopleSoft." said Kay DeVesty, Assistant Dean at Syracuse University (pictured at the left). However, after seeing an impressive Overture product demonstration while attending a conference, Kay helped open the door to HESC’s Overture. "My colleagues and I liked the way the Overture product looked and thought it was a quicker way to get a self-service module in place, without having to build it from the ground up," continued Kaye.

After comparing the Overture product with adding to the PeopleSoft system, Syracuse administrators decided Overture had the flexibility they needed and offered some additional features that tied in nicely with the university’s larger goals.

Best Practices Revealed

The implementation phase was not without challenges. The implementation teams from Syracuse and Overture scheduled weekly conference calls to discuss issues and progress. These discussions allowed the teams to clarify details and ensure that the project moved forward smoothly.

In addition to solid communications, Syracuse administrators recommend other schools keep their initial populations (groupings of students) small.

Keeping things simple at first makes it easier to accommodate changes and growth. Syracuse started with returning students, identifying by aid year that they were returning students, the career they were in, and that they were undergraduate, graduate, or law students.

By starting with this specific population, Syracuse administrators said they felt they had more control over the data they were putting into the system.

Smooth Student Adoption

Kaye said that the adoption of Overture by students was one of the quietest ever.

"The students were like ducks to water. They just started using it!" she said.

Syracuse had to change the way it did business. It realized it couldn’t publish an award online one day and issue an award letter a week later. The students would have already seen it. Now, everything is online in real time and the students love it.

"Like us, more schools are recognizing the need to offer self-service solutions on the Web," said Kaye. "Prior to Overture, we offered an online service called 'MyPlace.' Over the last year, the number of telephone calls about this service was on the rise. Students wanted to know why they couldn't see their financial aid and how could they get to it all online. The time was right for us to answer these needs and HESC’s Overture provided the means," Kaye said.

Looking Ahead

Going forward, Syracuse would like to adopt additional Overture capabilities. It is considering adding the self-contained Counselor Portal that provides internal e-mail-like access students can use to contact the financial aid office, as well as other features and reports for college administrators.

Additionally, Syracuse may offer Overture to its entering student population at the admission applicant level.

Syracuse administrators believe that, ideally, it would be great to provide financial aid access as soon as someone starts looking at the system.

Using the Overture system, an entering student could see his exact financial aid requirements early, providing him more time to make better decisions about the future.

All of this power is provided live and online for the “Gen Y” students who are so connected to the Internet.

HESC’s Overture is a true “win-win” for Syracuse University and its current and future students.