Delivering a More Secure Payment Experience

Organization Profile

• Industry: Municipal
• Location: Madison, Wisconsin
• Number of Employees: 3,000
• Population: 270,000
• Tyler Client Since: 2010
• Tyler Products/Solutions: Enterprise ERP, Payments, Cashiering, Enterprise Asset Management
• Tyler Excellence Award Winner: Operational Efficiency

---

A Need For a Significant Security Upgrade

The city of Madison’s legacy payment processor had become a critical liability — both in terms of operational efficiency and PCI compliance. Disconnected third‑party systems for property tax, personal property tax, and utility billing created manual work, reconciliation challenges, and friction for both staff and residents.

The city set out to replace aging, siloed tools with a unified, secure, resident‑friendly payment experience. Their goals centered on:

• Achieving full PCI compliance to protect residents and avoid costly penalties
• Streamlining financial workflows through tight integration with Enterprise ERP
• Reducing manual, in‑person, and mail‑based payment processing
• Offering a modern, secure online payment portal that reflects resident expectations

“We wanted to make sure we were providing our customers and residents with a secure way to make payments to the city,” says Jeff Dempsey, financial systems analyst for Madison’s finance department.

ERP Integration Creates Efficiency Foundation

To achieve its modernization target, Madison deployed Tyler’s Payments platform fully integrated with Enterprise ERP, bringing multiple billing and tax processes into one consistent payment and reporting ecosystem.

With Payments and Enterprise ERP working together, financial data flowed together, reducing errors, minimizing staff burden, and increasing confidence in every transaction.

The deployment included transitioning all property, personal property, and real estate taxes, as well as utility billing, into a unified payment and reporting environment.

Tyler’s Payments platform provides secure, convenient portals for both team members and community members through Resident Access for property tax and utility payments, and Utility Access for utility billing.

“Tyler’s Payments really opened the door for us and created a great opportunity to stand up an online payment portal,” says Dempsey.

Madison gained:

• Unified online experiences through Resident Access and Utility Access portals
• Self‑service tools empowering residents to manage accounts, enroll in autopay, and monitor water usage through Smart Meters
• Automated bank reconciliation and service‑fee management
• Flexible fee structures tailored across payment types and billing categories
• A strengthened security posture, ensuring safe, compliant payment acceptance

“We feel confident that Payments provides our customers a very secure way to remit money to the city of Madison,” says Dempsey.

Adoption that Delivered Results and Surpassed Expectations

Madison’s move to a modern, digital-first payment platform natively embedded with its ERP solution delivered rapid, measurable outcomes.

After adoption of Payments:

• 50%+ of the city’s 80,000 utility customers now pay automatically through Utility Access
• An additional 10% make monthly utility payments online
• The city now averages 44,000 online utility payments per month; more than double prior participation
• Automation saves the finance team hundreds of labor hours annually, allowing staff to redirect time to higher‑value work
• Faster reconciliation and cash flow, with funds reaching city accounts days sooner
• Lower delinquency rates driven by autopay adoption and simplified resident experiences
• Transparent, equitable service‑fee structures managed automatically

Increased transparency, faster access to funds, and a modern, secure resident experience have further strengthened Madison’s reputation for responsive, technologically advanced public service.

“The adoption has been phenomenal,” says Dempsey. “The numbers really speak to the support from our customer base.”