The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers represents a wide range of professionals, from electricians and utility workers to telecommunications and broadcast specialists. This story features an IBEW local representing sports broadcast professionals, a workforce that combines permanent staff with a large freelance contingent and operates across many employer relationships.

A broadcast local of this kind carries unusual operational complexity. Member billing varies by employment status, employer remittance arrangements are negotiated employer by employer, and the local needed a system that could handle both without coercing every member into one billing pattern. The legacy approach, built around on-premises hardware and manual processes, could not keep up.

To modernize, the local turned to eMembership for a cloud-based platform that automates union billing, supports custom remittance arrangements, and gives staff a single place to manage member and employer records.

Manual billing on aging on-premises hardware

Before adopting eMembership, this IBEW local faced three connected challenges that limited operational efficiency and frustrated members.

• Manual union billing and invoicing. The existing systems could not handle billing complexity well, so staff filled in the gaps with spreadsheets and hand calculations.
• Aging on-premises hardware. Reliability risk on aging infrastructure was a constant concern and a regular drain on IT attention.
• Slow vendor support. Vendor support response times did not match the pace of the local's operational needs.
• Mixed member types. Permanent staff and freelance members operate under different payment structures, which manual systems handled poorly.

The local needed a cloud-based platform that automated union billing across staff and freelance member arrangements, retired the on-premises infrastructure, and came with support responsive enough to address evolving operational needs.

Cloud platform built for union billing complexity

eMembership delivered a cloud-based union management platform configured for the local's billing complexity. The implementation centered on two modules that worked together to automate the remittance process with the local's largest employers, plus communications tools that supported routine outreach and payment reminders.

Employer Payments and Billing

The module handles custom remittance arrangements employer by employer, including the variations that exist with the local's largest employer. Dues calculations that used to be done by hand now run automatically, and the resulting invoices are produced from the same system that holds member data.

Data Import

The data import module pairs with employer payments to automate employer deduction processing. The pipeline supports the formats employers send and reconciles incoming data against member records, removing a manual reconciliation step that used to consume hours every cycle.

Configurable billing rules

eMembership's configurable architecture supports the billing variations between permanent staff and freelance members. Both run through the same system, with rules that reflect each member's arrangement rather than forcing all members into one pattern.

Integrated communications

The integrated email and text module supports internal communications, meeting announcements, and automated payment reminders to members at risk of suspension.

A platform that supports the whole local

Beyond billing automation, the local uses a range of integrated tools within eMembership:

• Automated payment reminders for members at risk of late status
• Bulk email and SMS union communications targeted by classification and status
• Union meetings and event management with attendance tracking
• Custom union administration reports for leadership and audit needs
• Union electronic signatures for membership applications and authorizations
• A modern, cloud-based architecture that scales with the local

Automated billing, modern infrastructure, real support

With eMembership, the local has automated the work that used to consume the most staff time, modernized its infrastructure, and gained a vendor relationship that responds at the pace operations actually require.

• Employer remittance automated. The data import and employer billing modules eliminated manual deduction processing, with substantial time and cost savings.
• Billing variation handled cleanly. Staff and freelance member arrangements run through the same system without forcing everyone into one pattern.
• Cloud architecture. The transition off on-premises hardware improved reliability and scalability, future-proofing operations.
• Responsive support. Vendor support now responds at the pace the local's operations require.
• Communications integrated. Payment reminders, meeting announcements, and internal updates all run from the same platform that holds member data.