YORKTOWN, Va. — In an effort to expand its best-in-class digital banking platform, 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union here added Mobiliti's mobile banking, Popmoney's person-to-person payments and remote deposit capture.
"We discovered that Mobiliti, Popmoney and Mobile Source Capture provides cutting-edge technology that can grow with our membership, and that this technology fully integrates with our core processing platform, DataSafe from Fiserv," said 1st Advantage FCU President/CEO Paul W. Muse.
In mid-2014, Muse and his team initiated a discovery and due diligence process. The decision to move forward with Fiserv solutions was made in December 2014. Next, the conversion and implementation project kicked-off in late April 2015 and new solutions went live in September 2015.
"The discovery process for each credit union will vary based on their size, membership, charter and location," said Fiserv's President of Credit Union Solutions Mark Sievewright. "Analyst firms may provide insights into solutions as well, but if this avenue is cost prohibitive, relying on those you trust, such as other credit union leaders, can be a great starting point."
Sievewright said that more than 2,000 financial institutions are leveraging Mobiliti, more than 2,400 financial institutions are using Popmoney, and Fiserv has processed more than four billion checks through remote deposit capture.
"As consumers have become more comfortable completing transactions from mobile devices there has been a move to provide them with more robust capabilities within the mobile banking experience," he said.
Technology Perspective
While Muse noted that the conversion process was "very easy," he did point to several "standout items" of interest he encountered along the way. The biggest factor, he said, was timing and ensuring team members were task oriented. For example, during testing the CU had to have two servers running at the same time so that if something went wrong, there would be no down time.
"We had to help make some decisions and setup core tables for the conversion," said Muse. "We had to test—in a preproduction and then a production environment—functionality, different mobile devices and report any issues to Fiserv for correcting."
In total, 1st Advantage FCU supports 200 employees, nine of which comprise its IT department. This team was augmented by a Fiserv software analyst. "She was phenomenal," said Muse. "She did most of the leg work and worked very quickly to resolve our issues."
While each credit union has unique objectives and circumstances to consider when implementing new mobile solutions, Sievewright said a mobile banking solution that is integrated into the core platform can facilitate the process and allow a credit union to get up and running more quickly.
"From a foundational perspective, there should be a project roadmap and strong team in place to address the conversion process before, during and after the solutions are adopted," he said. "Training is also critical for the credit union, particularly for front-line staff that are needed to help promote the service to members."
Before the new solutions were launched, a number of 1st Advantage FCU employees were asked via email if they would test the mobile application and the remote deposit capture feature. From those respondents, a test group was chosen and provided a list of actions to perform within the application.
"This was supplemented with in-house videos that illustrated how to use mobile banking with Popmoney and remote deposit capture," said Muse. "Colleagues were then asked to provide feedback to the implementation team."
With 55,984 members, the $500 million 1st Advantage FCU has already experienced success with the platform. Since launching in September, more than 8,200 members are now using the new mobile application.
"We are at 70% of our previous users from the old application. We have had 1,603 checks deposited remotely," said Muse. "We see our new application growing rapidly and allowing members to more easily bank with us from their smartphones and tablets."
