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U.S. Department of Education

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Functional Statements > Federal Student Aid

## D. Office of Student Experience and Aid Delivery

The Office of Student Experience and Aid Delivery (SEAD) is responsible for ensuring that students, parents, and borrowers (“customers”) know about the availability of Federal financial aid and how to access this aid.  SEAD is also charged with providing borrowers with information, tools, and resources on loan repayment to help them manage their debt. SEAD shares information and engages with customers via multiple communication channels. In addition, SEAD is continuously improving the tools and resources available to customers based on customer feedback and market research.

SEAD is responsible for informing students about resources available to help them pursue a college education, delivering aid to students, and supporting borrowers as they repay their loans.

SEAD is responsible for identifying, measuring, and reporting customer expectations and satisfaction with the Federal financial aid services and products offered by Federal Student Aid. The unit is accountable for understanding the customers’ perceptions of service over their entire customer lifecycle and identifying ways to improve customer satisfaction. The unit serves as the “voice of the customer” and works as an advocate for customers--students, parents, and taxpayers.

The unit will lead the primary customer management function within FSA. The unit is charged with developing and strengthening trust-based relationships with key customer groups. These relationships will position FSA to be more proactive in identifying potential issues impacting customers. The unit will work closely with all FSA operational and mission support business units to ensure that customer needs and expectations are met. There are also two front office functions: one that performs ongoing transitional and transformational activities and another that deals with administrative staffing and budget activities.

The primary directorates within SEAD are:
                - Product Management, Design and Delivery
                - Delivery Systems and Extended Workforce Support
                - Vendor Oversight and Program Accountability Service

### Product Management, Design and Delivery Directorate

The Product Management, Design and Delivery Directorate is responsible for strategy, innovation, journey mapping, creating road maps, design support and requirements, feature definition, testing, and budget for customer-facing products. The group provides cross-functional product management leadership for SEAD and FSA, captures actionable feedback and ideas, communicates the product roadmap, and uses a customer-focused design approach to deliver student- and borrower-focused products and services across delivery channels and platforms.

The primary groups within the Product Management, Design and Delivery Directorate are:
                - Product Management Group
                - Product Design Group
                - Product Marketing and Delivery Group

#### Product Management Group

The Product Management Group is responsible for capability and product strategy, budget, design, development, testing, innovation, and general management.

#### Product Design Group

The Product Design Group is responsible for design and integration of student aid application and servicing products, and the creation of customer journey maps.

#### Product Marketing & Delivery Group

This group is responsible for managing all the customer communications channels along with content development for the communications. This includes the marketing of new products and resources for customers. The focus is on keeping customers informed and engaged throughout the financial aid lifecycle. The group will develop and implement the customer communications strategy.

##### Digital Delivery Division

This division is responsible for managing the Digital Platform (the single-front door for the customer), which includes FSA’s customer website, StudentAid.gov, and the myStudentAid mobile application, in addition to the Marketing & Communications Platform (MCP).

##### Customer Outreach Division

The Customer Outreach Division is responsible for management of the MCP content creation and management; in-person outreach efforts; and digital communications, along with engagement campaigns.

### Delivery Systems and Extended Workforce Support Directorate

The Delivery Systems and Extended Workforce Support Directorate is responsible for contractor onboarding, training and general enablement, oversight of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool used to track the workflows and progress. The directorate coordinates on approval to work on FSA’s contract for the extended workforce, which is responsible for delivering financial aid to students.

The primary groups within the Delivery Systems and Extended Workforce Support Directorate are:
                - Extended Workforce Onboarding Group
                - Extended Workforce Management & Training Group
                - Application and Borrower Systems Group

#### Extended Workforce Onboarding Group

This group is responsible for contracting personnel security systems clearances and contractor onboarding engagement to provide support to FSA’s extended workforce to ensure they are equipped to deliver the expected level of service to FSA’s customers.

#### Extended Workforce Management & Training Group

This group is responsible for management and training to provide support to FSA’s extended workforce to ensure they are equipped to deliver the expected level of service to FSA’s customers.

#### Application and Borrower Systems Group

##### Application Systems Division

This non-technical division is responsible for ensuring the applications are processed and implemented in a manner that maximizes the customer experience and improves customer outcomes. The group also supports the operational transitional team that support NextGen FSA and will be the future home of customer-facing Next Gen operational systems.

##### Customer Care Platform Division

The Customer Care Platform Division is responsible for the Command Center and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System. The Command Center consolidates and oversees FSA’s call centers and is responsible for work distribution of FSA’s Business Process Operations (BPO) extended workforce contractors. CRM is the single overlay product used by Federal Student Aid and the BPO extended workforce to create efficiency and improve customer outcomes.

##### Borrower Processing Division

This division is responsible for the final review and approval of certain actions that could release a customer from their financial obligation or introduce forced collections based on statutory and/or regularly requirements related to discharge, litigation, loan forgiveness, Treasury Offset, and Administrative Wage Garnishment.

##### Borrower Systems Division

This non-technical division is responsible for ensuring the borrower platforms are operationalized in a manner that maximizes the customer experience and improves customer outcomes.

### Vendor Oversight and Program Accountability Service Directorate

The Vendor Oversight and Program Accountability Service Directorate is responsible for oversight of the following functional areas:
                - Vendor and Program Oversight Group
                - Ombudsman Group
                - Customer Analytics Group

#### Vendor and Program Oversight Group

The Vendor and Program Oversight Group is responsible for the following functions:  contract enforcement, call and process monitoring, and embedded contracting and oversight support. The group provides direction to and direct communications with the contractors regarding administrative, funding, past performance and quality assurance matters.

#### Ombudsman Group

The Ombudsman Group is responsible for receiving, reviewing, and attempting to resolve complaints from customers, compiling, and analyzing data on complaints, making recommendations for improvements, and reporting regularly on the activities of the Ombudsman.

#### Customer Analytics Group

The Customer Analytics Group (CAG) gathers, analyzes and reports on FSA customer behavior, issues, and feedback. CAG develops various customer feedback across all systems to provide customers ways to provide information on the performance of FSA and its customer contact contractors. The CAG will provide management trend reports to FSA Executives to stimulate discussions on ways to improve the customer experience.

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