Berwick Academy Automates Processes, Increases Efficiency with Integrated Technology

Since becoming a Blackbaud customer in 1986, Berwick Academy has leveraged a wide range of products—for financial management, education management, and fundraising and CRM—to strengthen its operations, elevate the educational experience for students, and increase day-to-day convenience for parents.

In recent years, the school has transitioned to a connected system of Blackbaud’s more advanced tools, including Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT®, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, and Blackbaud’s suite of education management solutions.

A Refreshed Digital Experience for Tech-Savvy Families

According to Seth Hurd, controller and director of information systems for Berwick Academy, the move to digital and cloud-based solutions has been crucial to the school’s ability to best serve increasingly tech-savvy families. For today’s young learners and the adults supporting them, being able to access the school resources they need remotely and immediately is becoming more and more of an expectation and can greatly impact their school satisfaction.

“Just one of the significant benefits of Blackbaud’s suite of education management solutions is the seamless experience it provides for students and parents,” said Hurd, “along with the speed and efficiency at which we can leverage the platform when it comes to communication and dissemination of information.”

Before the cloud-based system of Blackbaud solutions that Berwick now has in place, parents used to have to navigate to one place to view their student’s grades, another place to view their bill, and still another to sign their contract or complete other similar tasks. None of the platforms looked or operated the same, which created a disjointed user experience.

When Berwick moved to Blackbaud’s Total School Solution, it revitalized the school’s digital operations. Parents now use a single sign-on to view grades, transcripts, bills, and more, all in one place. Hurd also shared that with the ability to check homework, submit assignments, and access school information from any device, students find it easier to stay organized and engaged. Simultaneously, parents appreciate being able to have on-demand access to their child’s assignments, report cards, and billing information, which makes it simpler to stay informed and involved in their child’s education.

Increasing Employee Productivity with Automations and From-Anywhere Access

For faculty and staff, Blackbaud’s education management solutions have digitized and automated tasks that used to be manual and tedious. One example of this is that instead of having to print out report cards, fold them up, and put them in the mail, grades can now simply be entered into Blackbaud Student Information System™, where parents can be granted instantaneous visibility of their child’s progress.

“There were two levels of success and improvement for faculty and staff when we moved to the cloud,” Hurd explained. “There was a time savings both in the back office for our registrars, who are managing grades and report cards, and also for the end users, the teachers, who are entering the grades into the system.”

The from-anywhere access Blackbaud’s solutions offer has also been a benefit to faculty and staff, who used to have to be on premises to connect to Berwick’s system.

“When everything was running locally on a server, you had to be on campus to do your work,” said Hurd. “Now, we have the ability to be wherever we are and do everything remotely. Having that data continuity is key. Even if the school’s servers go down, or we can’t get to campus, or the power goes out, or there’s a snowstorm, we can still get some work done. I think that element has been really welcomed by every constituent.”

An Early Exploration of New Technology

When it comes to their financial operations, Berwick Academy has leveraged Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT for a number of years to manage financial reporting, monitor and track program success, and ensure transparency and integrity for the school. Berwick’s skillful usage of the solution partnered with their enthusiasm for innovation made them a stellar candidate to participate in Blackbaud’s early adopter program for Payment Assistant™, a tool within Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT that digitizes and automates vendor payments. In fact, Hurd discovered that he was the very first customer to be invited to join the early adopter program, an opportunity that allowed him to trial the tool in its early stages and provide feedback directly to Blackbaud.

“Blackbaud engages clients in a way that, whoever I reach out to, I feel like the number one client,” shared Hurd. “Now, I know that’s not the case and Blackbaud has thousands and thousands of clients, but with the early adopter program, it’s like I got to see under the hood. It was a super experience.”

Prior to using Payment Assistant for automated payment approvals and automatic payment reconciliation, Hurd and his team used a separate automation platform to pay vendor bills. After doing a few initial tests of Payment Assistant, Hurd found that the tool being right within Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT put all of the information needed for vendor payments in one place so it was faster and easier to access information. A task like pulling a check for a vendor, which used to consume a good deal of time, could be completed in just a few clicks.

“We cut the other platform loose and went all in with Payment Assistant,” said Hurd. “Just by doing that switch, I cut my workload in half. Because Payment Assistant is in-product, I don’t have to export anything, I don’t have to run two sets of reports, I don’t have to reconcile. The same goes for the approval process for my CFO—since the tool is in-product, he’s already in there looking at the balance sheet and doesn’t have to log into another product. Everything is built right in, and not having all those additional steps anymore saves time. It’s absolutely been a huge time saver.”

Looking Toward the Future

It’s clear that Berwick Academy’s relationship with Blackbaud has a longstanding and strong foundation. Opportunities like the early adopter program make that bond even more robust by connecting the school with other members of the Blackbaud community and creating a consistent stream of communication between Berwick and Blackbaud. Hurd shared that those involved with the program for Payment Assistant now have a bi-weekly meeting for Blackbaud knowledge-sharing, and that he personally feels more confident using Payment Assistant knowing that he can reach out to Blackbaud at any time if he needs assistance with the product.

“You get a chance to have influence or a voice in product development with Blackbaud,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the case with some of the other vendors in the market out there.”

Looking ahead, Hurd sees Berwick Academy’s loyalty to Blackbaud continuing for many years to come, which he attributes to Blackbaud’s commitment to innovation and their customers’ ongoing success.

“There’s a synergy of moving forward and continuing that relationship,” he remarked. “Blackbaud is always trying to stay on the cutting-edge of technology and always trying to move forward.”