Montgomery Municipal Court & Indian River County Circuit Court
Montgomery, AL & Indian River, FL
nCourt’s Seamless Integration with Leading CMS Systems Decreases Processing Time by 65%
Montgomery Municipal Court & Indian River County Circuit Court – Montgomery, AL & Indian River, FL
The Challenge:
Montgomery Municipal Court
Kenneth Nixon, court director for the City of Montgomery, Alabama, was looking for a new case management system (CMS) that would improve his court’s payment posting. “We’ve done credit card processing in the past, but we were waiting up to 24 hours to get payments and the customer service was slow,” said Nixon.
The Montgomery Municipal Court processes more than 50,000 traffic tickets, 45,000 parking citations and 7,000 criminal misdemeanors each year.
The court tried working with their payments vendor and the new CMS, but the combined capabilities weren’t able to resolve the issue of real-time posting. That’s when Nixon started to consider an integration of nCourt’s payment processing solution with Pioneer’s Benchmark CMS software. “The fact that these vendors already had a working relationship gave me a lot of confidence,“ Nixon said. “They were able to work out the technical aspects between themselves which allowed me to focus on the front end experience for citizens and our team..”
Indian River County Circuit Court
The Circuit Court of Indian River County, Florida was in a similar situation as the City of Montgomery. In an era of regular budget cuts, the court’s chief deputy clerk, Cindy Carlsward, was always looking for ways for her court to save money. Finding efficiencies that could lead to cost savings was a key driver in the Florida court’s 2013 search for a new CMS with an integrated payments processing system.
At that point, the court’s cashiers were still manually processing payments. And though each one took just a few minutes, the cumulative effect was hours of staff time and increased wait times and long lines when citizens came to the court to pay their fees. The court processes more than 4,000 receipts each month for everything from traffic tickets to child support payments.
“We needed a way to process credit cards over the phone and via the web,” Carlsward said.
The Solution:
A strategic alliance between nCourt and Pioneer Technology Group was the answer for both of these government agencies. nCourt’s online payment processing system seamlessly integrates with Benchmark, Pioneer’s sophisticated court CMS. nCourt’s ability to work with a leading CMS solution like Benchmark made the decision clear and easy.
The Results
Montgomery Municipal Court
After going live in 2012, the court staff in Montgomery saw near-immediate results. The platform gives clerks access to real-time case information including payments made just moments earlier. “Everything you need is right there…We’re more responsive and we’re faster” Nixon says. In addition to the online payment option, the court is benefiting from nCourt’s U.S.-based, bilingual call center, which serves citizens and answers questions they have about payments. Other specific results include:
- Reduced lines
- Reduced time per citizen at the counter from four minutes to one-and-a-half minutes
- 65% decrease in processing time
- Freed up court staff to focus on other high priority projects
Indian River County Circuit Court
The solution helped Indian River become more organized and productive than ever: “It helps keep traffic out of our office…and it’s easier and faster for our customers.” said Carlsward. Employees who were previously engage with processing payments could now focus their efforts on tasks that had long been neglected.
A note from Pioneer Technology
“Because of this partnership, courts using Benchmark reap the benefit of nCourt’s secure, reliable and easy-to-use payments system,” said Kevin Koon-Koon, Pioneer Technology Group Vice President of Operations. “Together we’re focused on helping courts improve efficiency while providing leading technology and best-in-class service.”
