Little Bank Takes on Big Online Tech Project, with Help

  • Community Bank of Pasadena California operates in the shadows of some of the nation's biggest banks, and in the case of Wells Fargo, one of the most technologically innovative. To compete, the $2.7 billion bank needed an e-banking platform that could serve the bank's business clientele as well, if not better, than the big banks, says David Malone, president and CEO. After an exhaustive examination of available technology he settled on a multi-channel solution from Q2 Software that he describes as "the most important initiative in my 12 years at the bank."

    February 1

Even in the world of community banks, Modern Woodmen Bank is relatively small — the eight-year-old bank has about $250 million in assets and little physical presence. Since most customers see only the bank's website, it realized that it had to build and maintain something more than what its two tech staffers could handle alone.

The resources-challenged bank outsourced its Web design to T8 Webware, and in just a couple of months, its site visits rose by 45% and bounce rates fell to less than 10%.

“We want to take away any obstacle to doing business with us, and the website is the first step toward doing that,” says Lisa Ball, a spokeswoman for Modern Woodmen Bank.

Despite being a direct bank, Modern Woodmen made few changes over the years to the website. The Rock Island, Ill., bank's original site buried its actual banking functionality.

“The site was a static page, an information site," says Ball. "And in order for customers to go to online banking, they had to click a sign on a page."

T8 Webware's content management system, Freedom8, updates Modern Woodmen's website to present promotions and offer current, centralized information on products and services. The bank also outsources the management of online banking technology to Fidelity National Information Services Inc., which hosts Modern Woodmen’s core banking platform.

Modern Woodmen was formed in 2003 to serve the 750,000 members of the Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal benefit society that offers life insurance, annuity, investment and banking products. It also offers services to non-members through referrals.

The stress of competing against much larger banks, which are rapidly adopting digital services, led Modern Woodmen, which is one of about 50 direct banks in the U.S., to embark on this initiative to modernize its services and delivery.

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